Middle Orient

The bloody takeover of Gaza by Hamas was a “coup against legitimacy”, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Saturday, two days before he hosts a regional summit seen as an attempt to isolate the Islamist group.

Iraqi officials say a US-backed draft oil law will soon be returned to the Cabinet for approval after Kurds agreed to a compromise revenue-sharing measure. But they said many key sticking points remain unresolved — and not even addressed — in the watered-down legislation.

A dispute over compensation is holding up a deal in the case of six foreign medics sentenced to death in Libya for infecting children with the AIDS virus, the children’s families said Friday.

The Iraqi high tribunal is set to give its verdict on Sunday on six former aides of Saddam Hussein accused of slaughtering 182,000 Kurdish villagers during a 1988 military campaign in northern Iraq.

Roadside bombs killed seven American troops in Iraq on Saturday, including four in a single strike outside Baghdad, the military said, as US and Iraqi troops captured two senior Al Qaeda gunmen in northern Iraq.

The failure of the latest Arab League mission to get Lebanon’s Western-backed government and the Iran- and Syria-supported opposition to talk together shows that outsiders control the country’s destiny, analysts said on Saturday.

Three Lebanese soldiers were killed on Saturday when a booby trap set by Fateh Islam gunmen exploded in the Nahr Bared Palestinian refugee camp, an army spokesman said.

HAMAS LEADER ISMAIL Haniyeh, prime minister of the Palestinian government dismissed by President Mahmoud Abbas, called for power-sharing talks on Saturday with Fateh rivals routed from the Gaza Strip.

Egypt moved forcefully Thursday to isolate Hamas, calling a regional summit next week including the Israelis and Palestinians — and shunning contacts with the militant group after its takeover of Gaza.

CAIRO (Reuters) – The bloody takeover of Gaza by Hamas was a “coup against legitimacy,” Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Saturday, two days before he hosts a regional summit seen as an attempt to isolate the Islamist group.