Middle Orient

Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel said that the world of Islam today is a serious critique of the western civilization.

Major powers failed to settle all their differences over a second UN sanctions resolution against Iran for its nuclear work but remain committed to passing one soon, the United States said.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday blamed Bush administration failings in Iraq.

Visiting chancellor of Havana University and chairman of the Iranian parliament’s Training and Research Commission in a meeting here in Tehran on Sunday explored avenues for cooperation between the two countries’ scientific and research centers.

Mud roads crisscross green hills between palm groves. Snowcapped mountains rise in the distance across the Iranian border. Donkeys stroll along footpaths, carrying the region’s harvest – land mines.

By Lyse Doucet ‘Karzai is often blamed for making poor choices’ In December 2001, a new future for Afghanistan was mapped out at an international conference in Bonn, beginning with an interim government to replace the Taleban. This week we look at how much has changed since then. Five years …

US troops kill Afghan civilians Local people accused the US soldiers of targeting civilians An incident described by US forces in Afghanistan as a “complex ambush” has left 16 civilians dead. The incident occurred on the road from the eastern city of Jalalabad to Pakistan when a suicide bomber targeted …

Syria is relatively hopeful an international meeting aimed at stabilising Iraq will succeed, but much depends on the attitude of the US, Vice-President Farouq al-Shara was quoted yesterday as saying.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, in hospital in Jordan suffering from exhaustion and dehydration, will be discharged in two or three days, Baghdad’s ambassador in Amman said yesterday.

BAGHDAD: Iraqi forces yesterday launched a mission to kill or capture the Al Qaeda insurgents who kidnapped 14 policemen, slit their throats and then boasted about it on the Internet.