Middle Orient

China has pulled out of a meeting to discuss new sanctions on Iran, European diplomats said on Friday, highlighting the obstacles western powers, specially the US, face in their quest to increase pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana would table a report on Iran’s attitude to engagement in nuclear talks whether or not there will be a new meeting with Iran’s nuclear envoy, his spokeswoman said on Friday.

Pakistan freed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto from house arrest shortly before a top U.S. diplomat began a visit on Friday aimed at persuading President Pervez Musharraf to end emergency rule.

One posed for a photo as she scrubbed a Palestinian corpse. Another stripped a man to his underwear and then beat him. A third helped cover up the abuse of a young boy.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday urged the people of Gaza to oust his Islamist rivals who seized control of the territory in June, as he seeks a lasting peace with Israel.

 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will announce a freeze in West Bank settlement expansion as a gesture towards the Palestinians at a US peace meeting this month, a senior official said Thursday.

US forces said they had killed 25 suspected insurgents in operations targeting Al Qaeda fighters near the capital, but Sunni Arab tribal leaders accused them on Thursday of pro-US fighters.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called on Lebanese leaders to hold a presidential election on time next week and said the successor to the pro-Syrian incumbent should enjoy broad support.

A Somali Islamist commander, thought to be Al Qaeda’s man in Mogadishu, has ordered his fighters to attack African Union (AU) peacekeepers in rare taped comments intended to bolster an anti-government insurgency.

Lebanon’s powerful Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir has been thrust to the forefront of a bitter struggle between pro- and anti-Syrian political camps as a line for a presidential election looms.