Middle Orient

King Abdullah on Wednesday urged greater efforts by France and the EU to help revive the Middle East peace process, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

BBC correspondent Alan Johnston was released early Wednesday after being held for 114 days, ending the longest-ever captivity of a journalist kidnapped in Gaza.

Egyptian border guards shot a Sudanese refugee and arrested two others early Wednesday as they tried to cross from Egypt into Israel, a police official said.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Tuesday that Damascus is ready to resume unconditional peace talks with Israel, at a press conference with his Danish counterpart Per Stig Moeller.

The death toll for private contractors in the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has topped 1,000, a stark reminder of the risks run by civilians working with the military in roles previously held by soldiers.

Security forces in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan, the heartland of the Kurdish minority long tormented by Saddam Hussein, routinely torture detainees with beatings and electric shocks and hold hundreds of prisoners for long periods without charge, a human rights group said Tuesday.

Iraq’s Cabinet on Tuesday approved an amended draft oil law — a key plank to help unite the country’s warring communities — and forwarded the bill to the parliament.

Yemen’s president said on Tuesday that security authorities knew Al Qaeda was plotting attacks in the impoverished country, after a suicide car bomber killed seven Spanish tourists and two local drivers.

Israel and the Palestinian government of President Mahmoud Abbas have resumed security talks after a long break, both sides said Tuesday, a new sign of cooperation between Israel and Palestinian moderates after the Islamic Hamas took over Gaza.

King Abdullah will travel today to France for talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy on Middle East issues and bilateral ties, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.