Middle Orient

US and Iraqi troops raided a prominent Baghdad Sunni mosque complex and detained 18 suspects on Saturday, while a bomb aboard a minibus in the capital killed five people.

New Palestinian parliamentary and presidential elections could be organised in less than 90 days but may not be possible any time soon without Hamas’ consent, officials involved in election planning said Saturday.

King Abdullah will meet US President George W. Bush at White House on Tuesday for talks on a new US push to revive the Middle East peace process.

According to sources from Ingushetia, in previous evening in the capital of Magas, a motorcade with President Zyazikov came under fire. The convoy was attacked from machine-guns and grenade launchers.

The administration of the President of CRI has distributed the decree of the head of Chechen state, Dokka Umarov on appointing of the Military Amir of CRI Armed Forces and also three of his deputies.

Egyptian police opened fire on a group of African migrants trying to sneak across the border into Israel on Sunday, killing one woman and wounding four including a child, security sources said.

The UN’s Mideast envoy said Wednesday that after recent contacts with Syrian officials, he believes Damascus is interested in restarting peace talks with Israel.

Bulgaria on Thursday officially requested the transfer from Libya of six medical workers whose death sentences for infecting children with HIV have been commuted to life imprisonment.

Ahead of general elections on Sunday, the leader of Turkey’s hardline nationalists flung a hangman’s noose from a podium to make a point during a political rally: the prime minister is soft on terrorism and should hang the imprisoned leader of Kurdish rebels.

Children raced to help parents collect food from UN aid distribution centres in the Gaza Strip as women sat in the shade near trucks, waiting for their names to be called to receive their food rations.