Middle Orient

TEHRAN (FNA)- Nigeria is keeping its options open on output quotas when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets next week in the wake of falling oil prices, the country’s oil minister said on Thursday.

The leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon has acknowledged that his group was responsible for the shooting down last week of a Lebanese army helicopter.

The United Nations has launched an initiative to have the marshlands of southern Iraq listed as a world heritage site.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Oil prices closed modestly lower Wednesday as the market focused on demand amid a slowing global economy and signs that OPEC is under pressure to cut supply.

Israeli police beef up presence for Ramadan prayers in occupied Arab Jerusalem.

NABLUS, West Bank: Two investment conferences will be held later this year to try to boost the Palestinian economy and US-backed peace talks, Palestinian and Western officials involved in the preparations said yesterday.

BEIT IBA, West Bank (AP) Tony Blair toured a Palestinian aluminum factory Thursday and was told it runs at one-third capacity because of Israeli import restrictions. He promised he’ll take it up with Israeli authorities.

RAMALLAH/GAZA CITY: A senior Palestinian official yesterday rejected a proposal by Israeli Defense Minster Ehud Barak to give the Palestinians some neighborhoods in East Jerusalem to be the capital of the Palestinian state.

GAZA, Islamic Hamas movement on Tuesday accused Israel of resorting to media war after exhausting all means of pressure to force the captors in Gaza to soften their demands to free an Israeli soldier.

Secretary General of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) Nayef Hawatmeh will discuss here Tuesday with Egyptian officials ways to end the Palestinian division.