Middle Orient

The United States has taken another step in restoring normal diplomatic relations with Libya, as President George W. Bush nominated a US ambassador to the once-outcast nation.

Syria has signalled to the UN’s Middle East envoy a willingness to change its relationship with Iran, Hizbollah and Hamas if progress were made towards a peace deal with Israel.

A thick blanket of smoke covered a Palestinian refugee camp Thursday as the army unleashed one of its heaviest bombardments against Al Qaeda-inspired gunmen holed up inside.

US President George W. Bush said Thursday he was sending his diplomatic and defence chiefs to the Middle East next month to shore up support for Iraq’s besieged government.

US President George W. Bush acknowledged on Thursday his Iraq strategy had made only limited progress but put off considering a change of course in the unpopular war until a crucial September report.

King Abdullah on Thursday said the West should realise that in the absence of a just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the world is headed towards decades of more violence and extremism.

The Lebanese army has continued shelling Fatah al-Islam positions in a refugee camp near Triopli as Katyusha rockets were fired at villages nearby.

Thousands have protested across Pakistan against a government raid on Islamabad’s Red Mosque that left more than 100 dead.  

Islamist militants fired Katyusha rockets at Lebanese villages on Friday, escalating their 8-week-old battle with the army at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

London-based HSBC Holdings Plc, which owns a 70 percent stake in Dar Es Salaam bank, said on Wednesday that less than $1 million in cash was stolen in a raid on a Dar Es Salaam branch in Baghdad.