Middle Orient

DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Syrian officials attended the funeral on Sunday of a senior security officer whose killing has shaken the tightly controlled country.

RAMALLAH (Reuters) – Israel freed a former Hamas minister from prison on Sunday, an official from the Islamist group said.

(Reuters) – Following are security developments in Iraq at 1330 GMT on Sunday. * denotes a new or updated item.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish troops have killed eight Kurdish guerrillas in a fire fight in southeast Turkey, bringing the total death toll in a two-day clash to 13, military headquarters said on Sunday.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – A senior Syrian officer was shot dead in mysterious circumstances in northern Syria last week, Arab media reports said on Sunday.

GAZA (Reuters) – About 30 pro-Fatah Palestinians who fled to Israel after fierce clashes in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip were sent back to the coastal enclave on Sunday and were immediately detained by the Islamist group’s security forces.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A car bomb killed eight people and wounded 14 others in a Sunni Arab area of Baghdad on Sunday, Iraqi police said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Central Bank Governor Tahmasb Mazaheri to take quick measures to solve the recent problems preventing state-owned banks from granting loans to the public.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The falling value of the dollar is to blame for around a third of the rise in the price of oil, Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told his visiting Syrian counterpart on Saturday that although Iran welcomes talks on its nuclear program, it will not give up even an iota of its legitimate right to access civilian nuclear technology.