Middle Orient

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 …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Gunmen kidnapped eight Iraqis from their homes on Saturday and held them through the day in 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.

Two boats that set off from Cyprus packed with Palestinian activists; emergency supplies; and the sister-in-law of Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair have landed in the Gaza strip.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) Secretary General Abdulrahman bin Hamad al-Attiyah praised the visit to Iran by Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and his talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Turkish energy minister Hilmi Guler met with the Iranian ambassador to Ankara Thursday evening to iron out serious problems that have developed over the long-mooted wide-ranging gas deal between the two countries, a Turkish official said.