Middle Orient

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – In five years of war, Iraq has been hostage to a parade of grim statistics: car bombs, corpses, cholera and refugees fleeing rampant bloodshed.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has issued a decree to set up diplomatic ties with Lebanon and open an embassy.

The summit between Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been heralded by some observers as ushering in a new era for Syria and Lebanon.

British troops are no longer needed to maintain security in southern Iraq as the situation has changed, the country’s prime minister has said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Prominent Reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s comment on the Holocaust has cost Iran an arm and a leg.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A car bomb killed nine people and wounded 13 in the Bayaa district of southern Baghdad on Sunday, police said.The bomb exploded in a car parked on a busy commercial street in Bayaa, a mainly Shi’ite area, police said, adding the death toll could rise.

Hundreds of Iraqi Christians have reportedly fled the northern Iraqi city of Mosul over the past week, following a wave of killings aimed against them.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Turkey’s Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said Friday negotiations to finalize a contract for the purchase of Iran’s natural gas still continue, adding that he would “visit Tehran to sign the agreement as soon as it is finalized”.

The blast struck a market in Abu Dshir, a mainly Shia enclave in the predominantly Sunni district of Dora, in the south of the Iraqi capital. Several shops were reported to have been destroyed by the explosion and vehicles set on fire.

Turkish jets have bombed suspected Kurdish insurgents in northern Iraq, the army says. The raid, which also involved artillery attacks, comes just days after Turkey’s parliament voted to extend cross-border raids into Iraq for another year.