Middle Orient

GAZA CITY (AP) — A resurgence in factional violence in Gaza on Wednesday killed five Palestinians, including a  woman, indicating that a fragile truce between Hamas and Fateh has collapsed. After nightfall, warring sides in southern Gaza agreed to stop the violence, but it was unclear if this would end …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was scheduled to meet today with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key regional mediator, as part of efforts to restart Mideast peace talks and free a captured Israeli soldier, but Israeli officials said they did not expect a breakthrough on the …

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq will execute two former aides of Saddam Hussein on Thursday, five days after the former leader was himself hanged in Baghdad, an official in prime minister’s office said Wednesday. Iraqi authorities, meanwhile, arrested a guard present during Saddam’s execution as part of an inquiry into how …

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush, just days from unveiling his new plan for Iraq, urged opposition Democrats who will control the US Congress until he leaves office in 2009 to back his spending priorities. “Congress has changed. Our obligations to the country haven’t,” he said, acknowledging the …

BEERSHEBA — An Israeli firm has designed a security system to ensure jailbreakers or intruders find a guard dog’s bark can indeed be worse than its bite. Harnessing technology that interprets barking — to see if an animal is responding to a threat instead of just routinely woofing — the …

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States said Wednesday it raised concerns with Iraq over the timing and procedures for Saddam Hussein’s execution before he was hanged, but insisted the former dictator got justice.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Thousands of Sunni Arabs vented their anger on Tuesday over Saddam Hussein’s execution as the Iraqi government promised an investigation into illicitly filmed footage of Shiite officials taunting him on the gallows.

BAGHDAD — US-led forces are likely to launch a limited new year offensive against Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr’s Mehdi Army, blamed for sectarian death squad killings, senior Iraqi officials say.

GAZA CITY (AP) — Palestinian fighters attacked the Gaza Strip’s main cargo crossing with mortar fire early Tuesday, lightly wounding an Israeli truck driver in the latest flare-up of violence in the coastal strip.

BEIRUT (Reuters) — Lebanon’s Hizbollah-led opposition will decide this week how to press its campaign against the government and sees little chance of an early end to the standoff, the group’s deputy leader said.