Middle Orient

RAMALLAH — Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters battled it out for over 45 minutes in Ramallah yesterday evening, when a large contingent of Israeli soldiers entered the West Bank city in what the Israeli army said was an “arrest operation”.

BEIRUT (AP) — Heavy clashes between the army and Al Qaeda-linked gunmen broke a weeklong truce Tuesday as Lebanon’s government stressed its determination to defeat the group but said it was willing to give mediation a chance to end the fighting at a Palestinian refugee camp.

38 dead in blast, 5 Britons seized BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Gunmen in police uniforms kidnapped five Britons in Baghdad on Tuesday and the deaths of 10 US soldiers were announced, making May the deadliest month for the US military in more than two years.

AMMAN/DAMASCUS (AFP & Petra) — King Abdullah on Tuesday telephoned Syrian President Bashar Assad to congratulate him for winning a second seven-year mandate, officials announced on Tuesday.

The slander trial against five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor ended on Sunday (May 27th) with a Libyan court dismissing the charges against the medics, who already face death sentences for allegedly infecting 426 Libyan children with the virus that causes AIDS.

SANAA — Lunchtime in Sanaa. Offices begin to close, the crowds disappear from the ancient souqs, restaurants hurry their last customers out: The qat is here.

TEL AVIV (AFP) — Israel’s Labour was voting for a new leader Monday in a poll expected to affect Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s coalition, with ex-premier Ehud Barak in a tight race with a former security chief.

ANKARA (AFP) — Lawmakers from Turkey’s main ruling and opposition parties traded blows Monday during a stormy national debate on constitutional changes that would see the president elected by popular vote.

BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide car bomber struck a busy Baghdad commercial district Monday, killing at least 21 people, setting cars on fire and damaging a nearby Sunni shrine, police and hospital officials said.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — The United States and Iran traded accusations over the bloodshed in Iraq on Monday during the first high-level direct official talks between the archfoes in 27 years.