Middle Orient

(Reuters) – Lebanese leaders agreed on a unity government on Friday that gave Hezbollah and its allies a blocking minority as agreed under a deal that ended a paralyzing political conflict in the country. Here is a chronology of Lebanon in the last 20 months.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon formed on Friday a unity government that gave Hezbollah and its allies effective veto power as agreed under a deal that ended a political crisis in the country.

(Reuters) – A U.S. soldier was killed on Wednesday after his vehicle was struck by a grenade in Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S. military reported on Thursday. Another U.S. soldier was killed on July 8 in Baghdad when his patrol was struck by an improvised …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan pledged on Thursday to boost ties with Iraq and urged the region to do more to help the Baghdad government rebuild after years of war. Erdogan is the first Turkish leader to visit Iraq in nearly 20 years. His visit came on …

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas arrested three Palestinians who fired rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, a militant faction said, in the first such detentions since the Islamist group and Israel agreed a truce last month.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Ministry of Defence has agreed to pay nearly three million pounds ($6 million) in compensation to a group of Iraqi civilians beaten and tortured by British troops in southern Iraq in 2003.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Police detained four suspects and patrolled the high-walled perimeter of the U.S. consulate in Istanbul on Thursday after 3 policemen and 3 gunmen were killed in what a minister said was a suicide attack.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Kurdish rebels say they will not release three German tourists kidnapped in eastern Turkey until Germany renounces policies against their group, a news agency close to the guerrillas said on Thursday.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s president met with the former head of the armed forces on Thursday amid efforts to ease political tensions over an alleged military coup plot. Turkey was rocked last week by the arrests of two senior retired generals, leading businessmen and journalists — all critical of the …

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas arrested two militants who fired cross-border rockets into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, in the first such detentions since the Islamists and Israel agreed a truce last month, militants said.