Middle Orient

The incoming ambassador of Ukraine to Tehran reiterated that Ukraine calls for the expansion of ties with Iran in all the various fields.

MA’SUM GHAR, Afghanistan — One of Afghanistan’s top field commanders wants Canada to provide his troops with better weapons to fight the Taliban. For the past year, Lt.-Col. Shereen Shah Kohbandi’s 2nd Kandak (battalion) has been roaring into battle in Ford Ranger pickup trucks while their Canadian brothers-in-arms ride in …

KABUL: Sitting and eating quietly on his father’s lap, the 18-month-old boy was oblivious to the infection running through his veins. But his father, a burly farmer, now a widower and father of four, knew only too well. It was the same one that killed his wife, the boy’s mother, …

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – The Taliban said on Sunday they had handed a kidnapped Italian journalist to tribal leaders, but added they would recapture him unless all their ransom demands were met by the Afghan government. confessed to spying for British troops, on Saturday extended a deadline to kill him …

India’s Essar Group is in talks with Iran to develop the giant Azadegan oilfield, where a deal with a Japanese firm ended last year, to ensure fuel for a planned refinery and steel plant in the Islamic nation.

A suicide bomber targeting a Canadian military convoy killed a child and wounded a NATO soldier and three other people Saturday in southern Afghanistan, officials said. The bomber rammed his explosives-packed vehicle into a passing military convoy on the main highway linking the southern city of Kandahar with Herat in …

WASHINGTON – US President George W. Bush on Saturday threatened to veto emergency money for Iraq and Afghanistan if it includes measures aimed at forcing a US withdrawal or unrelated domestic spending. “Congress needs to approve emergency funding for our troops, without strings and without delay. If they send me …

Lebanese troops on Saturday set up checkpoints and searched cars going in and out of a Palestinian refugee camp near the northern city of Tripoli where a militant group blamed for last month’s deadly bus bombings is based, camp residents and military officials said.

Masked gunmen fired on a UN convoy yesterday on Gaza’s main north-south highway after trying to kidnap a high ranking official from one of the vehicles.

In Iran 300 has triggered bewilderment and anger. Just off Tehran’s central Haft-e Tir Square, customers cram into a shop selling bootleg DVDs to flip through pirated action and art-house films while an employee keeps a lookout on the street for approaching police.