Middle Orient

Egypt has urged Israel to stop making threats against Lebanon, its foreign minister said on a visit to Beirut.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian and Turkish education ministers met here in Tehran on Wednesday in a bid to improve ties and enhance mutual cooperation in the field of culture and education.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized Israel for not pursuing peaceful dialogue to resolve regional disputes and said it only understands the language of gun.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Turkish energy minister’s trip to Iran to firm up energy deals between the two countries is expected to be delayed by two weeks until mid-September, an energy ministry source said on Thursday.

China’s state-owned oil firm CNPC has agreed a $3bn (£1.63bn) oil services contract with the government of Iraq.

Police in Israel have arrested an Israeli citizen who entered Gaza with a group of pro-Palestinian activists.

At least one immigrant domestic worker dies each week in Lebanon, by suicide or by accident during a bid to escape, a human rights group reports.

Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank has nearly doubled since last year, the Israeli campaign group Peace Now has said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – U.S. forces arrested the deputy head of a committee that purged Iraq’s government of members of Saddam Hussein’s party, an ally said, but the U.S. military said he was a wanted militia leader behind a deadly Baghdad bombing.

TEHRAN (FNA)- A Lebanese court has issued an arrest warrant for the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi over the abduction of a senior Shiite leader 30 years ago.