Middle Orient

ISTANBUL – Turkish police have detained more than 40 suspected members of the outlawed Turkish Islamist militant group Hezbollah, state news agency Anatolian said on Friday.

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey – The death toll from a bomb explosion in southeast Turkey’s largest city has risen to five, including three children, and the number of injured stands at 110, security sources said on Friday.

GAZA – Israeli troops killed two Palestinian Hamas gunmen and wounded three others in the Gaza Strip on Friday, the Islamist faction and hospital officials said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Negotiations are expected to begin later this month between Iran and Iraq over the cleaning up of the strategic Arvand Roud waterway, an adviser to the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said yesterday.

RAMALLAH – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged Hamas Islamists on Monday to agree to early elections and to open a “new page” by ceding control of the Gaza Strip and holding reconciliation talks with his Fatah faction.

GAZA – Hamas and Fatah fighters waged gun battles in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday that raised to seven the number of people killed in the deadliest clashes between the rival Palestinian factions in months.

ISMAILIA, Egypt – Israel has agreed to allow 550 Palestinians who have been stranded in Egypt for roughly four months to cross into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday via the Jewish state, Egyptian security and border sources said.

KARACHI – Pakistan’s share market tumbled for a second straight day on Tuesday as investors waited for a clearer picture to emerge of the country’s political crisis.

WASHINGTON – The United States expressed concern on Monday about any indefinite postponement of elections in Pakistan after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and encouraged Islamabad to go ahead with the vote.

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has barred new construction work, building planning and occupancy tenders at West Bank settlements without his approval, documents show.