Middle Orient

TIKRIT, Iraq (AFP) — Four US soldiers accused of killing three Iraqi prisoners refused to give evidence on Thursday as a military hearing heard that one of the captives’ brains were blown out as he lay injured. The troops followed the lead of several of their superior officers, invoking their …

Hizbollah fighters fought fierce battles with Israeli troops across a broad front in Lebanon’s south Tuesday, hours after the government in Israel ordered its army to punch all the way to the Litani River and hold the ground until an international peacekeeping force comes ashore.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Not wanting to end its three-week blitz on Lebanon empty-handed, Israel scrambled to clear Hizbollah fighters from a large strip of the south Tuesday before a ceasefire is announced.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Bombings and shootings killed at least 70 people Tuesday — including a US and a British soldier — in a surge of violence as US troops prepare to take back Baghdad’s streets from the gunmen. The dead included 20 Iraqi troops killed in a bus attack in …

DUBAI — Pentagon auditors peering into US reconstruction programmes in Iraq found an accountant’s nightmare of mistakes, cloaked expenses and financial juggling that hid costs and delays, according to US reports released over the past week.

PARIS — France’s idea of involving Iran directly in talks to end the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah is a risky venture but may well prove inevitable, French analysts said Tuesday.

BEIRUT — Faced with the worst Israeli military onslaught in more than two decades, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has a near-impossible job as the leader of Lebanon.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) — UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called together major powers on Tuesday in an effort to promote unity on the Middle East crisis and rescheduled a meeting of potential troop contributors for an international force.

SRIFA — They use three-digit numbers as code names, live off canned tuna, and tape over their jewelry so an accidental twinkle doesn’t give away their position to Israeli war planes.

Arab papers splashed gory pictures of Lebanese children killed in Israel’s strike on Qana on their front pages Monday and warned that what some branded “a new Holocaust” could mark a turning point in the region.  “The tragedies in Qana suggest to the Lebanese that the Israelis, who are