Middle Orient

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran Liquefied Natural Gas Company, in which state-owned National Iranian Oil Company has a 49 percent stake, will produce the country’s first LNG in December 2010, Managing Director Ali Kheirandish said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Russia’s gas export monopoly Gazprom said on Tuesday it had increased gas supplies to Turkey after it asked for more gas following a stoppage of flows from Iran.

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed 14 police recruits and two policemen in northern Iraq on Thursday, police and military sources said. An attacker wearing a military uniform detonated an explosive vest near a police recruiting centre where about 200 applicants queued at Sinjar, near Mosul, police said.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on the international community on Thursday to cancel the country’s debt and end sanctions imposed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sunni-led Arab states need to offer more support to the Shi’ite-led Iraqi government to give reconstruction efforts a chance to succeed, Sweden’s foreign minister said on Wednesday ahead of a conference on Iraq.

GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli air strike on Wednesday killed two Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical workers said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s main Sunni Arab political bloc said on Wednesday it had suspended talks to rejoin the Shi’ite-led government after a disagreement with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki over a cabinet post.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed at least six members of a U.S.-backed neighborhood patrol and wounded 18 others on Monday, police said.

(Reuters) – Following are security developments in Iraq at 9:30 a.m. EDT on Monday: *denotes new or updated item * BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb wounded five people on the airport highway, in western Baghdad, police said. * BAGHDAD – A bomb blast wounded two people in Shaab district, northern …

CAIRO (Reuters) – The governments of the Middle East, from Iran to Israel and beyond, are increasingly ignoring the wishes of a U.S. administration which has only eight months left in office, going their own way in regional diplomacy.