Middle Orient

CAIRO (Reuters) – Libya has agreed to postpone the execution of an Egyptian man who was due to die on Sunday, after Egypt asked Tripoli to allow more time in that and nine other cases, the Egyptian state news agency MENA said on Saturday.

Consiliul de Securitate al ONU va vota miercuri un proiect de rezoluţie care instituie tribunalul internaţional pentru judecarea presupuşilor asasini ai fostului premier libanez anti-sirian Rafik al-Hariri.

The idea of launching a military operation into northern Iraq, where thousands of members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have found a safe haven, has taken center stage in recent debates over how to eliminate the terrorist threat, the worst manifestations of which the Turkish public has dealt …

US air force planes have delivered military equipment to the Lebanese army, a Western diplomat and security officials have said.  The Lebanese government had requested more military aid from Washington after the eruption of fighting between the army and the Fatah al-Islam group in a Palestinian refugee camp in the …

ANKARA, Turkey — Speaking to reporters Thursday (May 24th), Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed government support for the military if it decides to launch a cross-border operation against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. Erdogan said he is confident that Parliament would back it as well, …

Maliki nominates 6 new ministers BAGHDAD  (AFP) —  Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri  Al Maliki on Thursday nominated ministers for six Cabinet seats that  loyalists of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr vacated six weeks  ago. The move is widely viewed as a way of recasting the national government along more …

ANKARA — The suicide bomber behind a deadly attack here was a former far-left militant believed to have joined the Kurdish separatist movement fighting a violent 22-year campaign, newspapers said on Thursday.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — The US military confirmed on Thursday that a body found floating in the Euphrates was one of three American soldiers snatched by Al Qaeda 12 days earlier, as a bomb attack hit civilian mourners at a funeral in western Iraq. Lieutenant Colonel Josslyn Aberle of US command …

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) — Iran is probably three to eight years away from producing a nuclear bomb if it so chooses, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog warned on Thursday.

DUBAI (AP) — US sanctions against Iran have caused damage to the country’s economy, Iranian business leaders and analysts say, even as the UN Security Council prepares to consider additional measures to force Iran to curb its nuclear programme.