Middle Orient

Syria denied a published report that it is building up its troops along the Israeli border.Israeli Radio reported that Syrian Parliament member Mohammed Habash told Al Arabiya television that the country has not changed its troops along the border, denying a report from the Haaretz news service.

MP Mikhail Margelov, the chairman of the Federation Council (upper house of the Russian parliament) International Affairs Committee, met with the Iranian chairman of the Iran-Russia Parliamentary Friendship Group, MP Kazem Jalali, here on Tuesday.

Labor leadership candidate Ophir Paz-Pines launched his campaign on Wednesday by accusing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of being corrupt, Defense Minister Amir Peretz of causing damage and his party of being “addicted to power.”

Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, is getting his wish to serve in Iraq.The Ministry of Defence ended speculation that had been swirling for about a week by announcing Thursday the 22-year-old prince will be sent to Iraq with his Blues and Royals regiment in May or …

Close to half of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza suffer from malnutrition, according to a UN report that’s expected to come out soon,

Egyptian security forces arrested one of the two suspected Palestinian terrorists believed to be plotting suicide attacks on tourist sites in Sinai, Al-Arabiya television network reported on Thursday evening.

As Iran yesterday defied the United Nations deadline for freezing its nuclear programme, its ambassador in London said that it had no intention of budging from its position. “For sure, we are going to stress our inalienable right . . . within the bounds of the NPT [Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty] …

It is an admission of defeat. Iraq is turning into one of the world’s bloodiest battlefields in which nobody is safe. Blind to this reality, Tony Blair said yesterday that Britain could safely cut its forces in Iraq because the apparatus of the Iraqi government is growing stronger.

Iran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of a UN Security Council ultimatum, a nuclear watchdog said today. In a report to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors, UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei said:

Four Iraqi soldiers have been accused of raping a 50-year-old Sunni woman and the attempted rape of her two daughters. It is the second allegation of sexual assault levelled against Iraqi forces this week.