Middle Orient

A suicide truck bomber ripped through a busy commercial district in Kirkuk on Monday afternoon, leaving a large crater surrounded by dozens of mutilated bodies, police and military officials said.

An Egyptian official has cast doubt on the authenticity of a recently-released Fatah video showing Hamas members planning the assassination of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas via a tunnel bomb, Israel Radio reported on Monday morning.

Egypt’s powerful chief of intelligence, who acts as a key diplomatic link with the United States and Israel, flew to Washington on Sunday for talks with administration officials on bilateral ties and Mideast issues, officials said.

The families of 438 children infected with HIV have reached an agreement with the Libyan government on compensation, potentially opening the way for the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who has been granted Bulgarian citizenship.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said Saturday that the Iraqi army and police are capable of keeping security in the country when American troops leave “any time they want”, though he acknowledged the forces need further weapons and training.

 Western backing for the legally disputed emergency government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has demolished any lingering Arab belief that US President George W. Bush’s “freedom agenda” is going anywhere.

A Palestinian woman who fled her north Lebanon refugee camp two days ago says there was so little food there that she was prepared to eat cats to survive.

Turkey’s army has boosted troop levels in the restive southeast to more than 200,000, most of them stationed along the border with Iraq, security sources told Reuters on Friday.

Hamas yesterday rejected as “unconstitutional” the government sworn in by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Friday. The Islamist movement wants to convene parliament to vote on the government, but Abbas’ Fateh faction has already said it will not attend any such session.

Rival Lebanese politicians met at a state-owned chateau near Paris on Saturday in a French-sponsored attempt to discuss ways of ending the eight-month-old political crisis gripping their country.