Middle Orient

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Mazen returned home in Baghdad last week to a bare living room. He had sold his furniture to pay for life in Syria, where he fled in 2003 after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Suspected al Qaeda militants killed 12 civilians and abducted 35 in an attack on Shi’ite Muslim village north of Baghdad early on Saturday, police said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The number of civilians killed in violence throughout Iraq fell this month to the lowest level in nearly two years, according to government statistics obtained by Reuters on Friday.

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi clerics are not doing enough to discourage militancy among Saudi youth, including those who want to fight in Iraq, Interior Minister Prince Nayef said in comments published on Saturday.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul has approved the sackings of seven military personnel suspected of Islamist leanings, the military General Staff said, in a move that may help ease secularist reservations about him.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States withdrew on Friday a draft U.N. resolution endorsing action agreed at this week’s Annapolis Middle East peace conference, a document Israeli officials said they felt was inappropriate.

GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli missile strike killed five Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian hospital officials and Hamas said.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Tehran’s Provisional Friday Prayers leader Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani called on western countries to avoid use force and threats against the Islamic Republic, warning that such an option would deteriorate conditions for the West.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian Industries and Mines Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian left Tehran Friday morning for Egypt to attend an inauguration ceremony marking the official launch of operation of the assembly line of Iranian Peugeot Pars passenger car in the African country.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said late on Thursday nothing would deflect the Islamic Republic from its pursuit of nuclear technology.