Middle Orient

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) Iran believes in the need for talks with the US over Iraq in principle, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini said, assuring that Tehran and Washington would attend a fourth round of talks on Iraq’s security at ambassadorial level.

BAGHDAD – The death toll in a suicide bombing on the northern outskirts of Baghdad on Monday reached 11, including five children and six neighborhood patrol volunteers, an Interior Ministry source said.

ISMAILIA, Egypt – Stranded Palestinian haj pilgrims protesting at Egypt’s refusal to allow them to return to Gaza through a Hamas-controlled crossing, smashed furniture and windows at a shelter on Monday, a security source said.

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has suffered colossal losses in rioting that erupted when opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated with damage of about $200 million to the railways alone, the government said on Monday.

GAZA – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction will limit its anniversary celebrations in Hamas-run Gaza to candles and fireworks this week for fear a rally — banned by the Islamist group — will spark violence.

DAMASCUS – A score of young Iraqi women in tight, shimmering gowns shuffle across the nightclub dance floor under the hungry eyes of Gulf Arabs at nearby tables.

ANKARA – Turkish police have foiled a plot to murder a priest, in a case that recalls other attacks this year against Christians in Muslim but secular Turkey, newspapers reported on Monday.

BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest killed four Iraqi neighborhood patrol volunteers at a checkpoint on Baghdad’s northern outskirts on Monday, police said.

JERUSALEM – The number of people killed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dropped sharply in 2007, but human rights abuses in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank increased, an Israeli human rights watchdog said on Monday.

NEW DELHI – India has ended its high alert for forces along the Pakistan border and restored some transport links, officials said on Monday, following disruption in the wake of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.