Middle Orient

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed at least 46 people and wounded around 100 on Thursday in a crowded restaurant near Iraq’s ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, shattering the calm during a major Muslim holiday, police said.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel postponed the release of 230 Palestinian prisoners until December 15, nearly a week later than planned, Israeli and Palestinian officials said Monday. The prisoners make up only a fraction of the 11,000 Palestinians held by Israel. The release, described by Israel as a goodwill gesture to …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Private security guards in Iraq, whose armored convoys once barreled through the streets with impunity, could face being thrown into crowded and violent Iraqi jails once their era of legal immunity ends on January 1. Under a security pact signed with the United States, foreign contractors, including …

HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) – Jewish settlers torched a rooftop enclosure of a Palestinian man’s home in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday, a Palestinian police spokesman said. The United Nations as well as Palestinian and Israeli officials have condemned violence by settlers since tensions rose on Thursday …

GAZA CITY,Israeli warships on Monday prevented a Libyan cargo vessel from reaching the Gaza Strip, the impoverished Palestinian territory under a crippling Israeli blockade. The ship, laden with 3,000 tonnes of goods, was stopped several kilometres (miles) off Gaza’s shores and ordered to return to the Egyptian port of El-Arish, …

NABLUS, West Bank – Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday, the Israeli army said.

The UK-based aid agency Oxfam has warned of catastrophe for Gaza and nearby areas of Israel if a truce agreed last June is not maintained. Oxfam called on world leaders to do everything they could to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza and urged Israel to resume supplies without delay. Israel …

The UN has no more food to distribute in the Gaza Strip, the head of relief efforts in the area has warned.

A civilian cargo aircraft has crashed south of Falluja in central Iraq, almost certainly killing all seven people on board, officials have said.

Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has urged the EU to accelerate Turkey’s membership bid and pledged to help Ankara gain accession.