Middle Orient

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia will face increased Western pressure on Wednesday when a senior British official flies to Ukraine to build a coalition to counter Russia’s conflict with ex-Soviet Georgia.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The United States asked Iraq for permission to maintain a troop presence there to 2015, but U.S. and Iraqi negotiators agreed to limit their authorization to 2011, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Gunmen kidnapped eight Iraqis from their homes on Saturday in a raid in the country’s volatile Diyala province, where al Qaeda militants continue to roam despite a crackdown by Iraqi security forces, police said.

KIRKUK (Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed at least five people and wounded eight more on Saturday in Iraq’s northern city of Kirkuk, police said.The bomber detonated a suicide vest in a car market in southern Kirkuk, said Major-General Torhan Abdul-Rahman, a senior police official in the city.

QARAH TAPPAH, Iraq (Reuters) – A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of police recruits in northern Iraq on Tuesday killing 28 people, in an attack that showed that parts of Iraq have yet to see the security gains felt elsewhere.

SHAQRA, Lebanon (Reuters) – French soldiers take off their body armor but keep their FAMAS rifles slung over their backs before moving off on a leisurely foot patrol through this pro-Hezbollah Shi’ite Muslim village in south Lebanon.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – An Iraqi clan overwhelmed by shock and grief buried its dead on Monday after a suicide bomber killed 25 people at a celebratory banquet in west Baghdad.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States said on Monday there was no final security pact with Baghdad despite Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s statement that a deal was reached to end foreign military presence by the end of 2011.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq and the United States have agreed that all U.S. troops will leave by the end of 2011, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday, but Washington said no final deal had been reached.

Hours before the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due to arrive, Israel freed dozens of Palestinian prisoners in a gesture aimed at boosting Middle East peace. The group of 198 included the longest-serving prisonner held by Israel. Said al-Atabeh was arrested in 1977 and jailed for life for …