Middle Orient

A U.S.-backed Iraqi security plan seen as a last-ditch attempt to halt violence in Baghdad will not produce results overnight, a U.S. general warned on Sunday, after a one-ton suicide truck bomb killed 135 people.

The dairy farmers’ bid for Tnuva Food Industries Ltd. has failed. Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. (TASE:AFIL; Pink Sheets:AFIVY) today notified the dairy farmers of the Israel

Syrian customs officers have thwarted an attempt to smuggle arms to Lebanon through an Iraqi truck, Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reported Sunday.

BRUSSELS, Belgium – The European Union on Sunday strongly condemned a weekend suicide attack in a Baghdad market which killed at least 132 people.

Gunmen from the rival Hamas and Fatah factions on Sunday began pulling back from their positions in the latest attempt to enforce a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

Baghdad, Feb 4 (Prensa Latina) Several bombings and attacks with at least 17 dead, involving at least ten policemen and other authorities, label Iraqi resistance to the occupation unstoppable.

DAMASCUS – Syria and Indonesia Sunday signed an agreement for economic, scientific and technical cooperation, Syria’s official SANA news agency said.

BNP Paribas (Paris:BNP; Pink Sheets:BNPQY) has become the fourth foreign bank to conduct full business activity in Israel, after completing the upgrade of its representative office in Tel Aviv.

The US is demanding that Israel improve its protection of intellectual property, US Deputy Secretary of Commerce David Sampson told Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Eli Yishai.

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) – At least seven car bombings rattled the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk on Saturday, killing four civilians and wounding 37 others across the oil-rich city, police sources said.