Middle Orient

SAMARRA — The heavy wooden doors of the Golden Mosque open on to an ethereal hall clad in thousands of intricately arranged blue and silver tiles decorated with flowing Arabic script.

SOUTHERN SHUNEH (AP) — The bloodshed in Gaza threatens to keep badly needed economic aid from the Palestinians who already suffer from rising unemployment and a lack of basic services, a UN official aiding Palestinians warned Saturday.

SOUTHERN SHUNEH (AP) — Iran plans to lecture the United States during an upcoming meeting in Baghdad on what it said were mistakes that Washington made in its war on Iraq, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Saturday.

BASRA (Reuters) — Britain’s Tony Blair, on his last visit to Iraq as prime minister, said on Saturday he had no regrets about his part in the US-led invasion that removed Saddam Hussein.

GAZA CITY (AFP) — Rival Palestinian factions clinched a new ceasefire deal on Saturday to end a week of violence that has left more than 50 dead as Israel continued to pound targets across Gaza, killing one Palestinian.

DEAD SEA — King Abdullah on Saturday opened the Lower Middle-Income Countries Summit (G-11), calling for a partnership with the   G-8 most industrialised nations and assistance to reduce the debt of developing states.

The US House of Representatives has adopted a measure aimed at weaving closer US and zionist regime’s defenses against ballistic missiles of the type that could be fired by Iran. The measure, part of a 4 billion defense spending bill passed on Thursday, would redirect 5m in defense department funds …

Hosni Mubarak arrived on Tuesday in Tripoli for talks on the situation in Sudan’s war-torn western region of Darfur, an AFP correspondent reported.

Associated Press Writer CAIRO, Egypt (AP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni held talks Thursday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the first high-level discussion between Israel and the Arab world on an Arab initiative calling for an exchange of land for peace.

The recent international conference on Iraq held in Sharm el-Sheikh was the biggest and most inclusive diplomatic push to end that nation’s security crisis since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.  During an unannounced visit to Baghdad earlier this week, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney says he pressed Iraqi …