Middle Orient

JABALIYA REFUGEE CAMP — Khalil Madhouni, a balding, middle-aged baker in this particularly squalid patch of the Gaza Strip, goes from fighter to peacemaker in the time it takes him to scratch his round belly with flour-caked fingernails. “War forever,” the angry-eyed bread maker growls when asked if the ruling …

SANAA — Unprecedented political debate during recent Yemeni polls also broke taboos over the issue of succession, putting reelected President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s plans for his son to take over on hold, analysts say.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Some 800,000 foreigners are working in Iran illegally. An Iran Daily report on Monday said that

RAMALLAH —  In a deepening of the political tension between Fateh and Hamas, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday said Abbas would not travel to Gaza Tuesday for a planned resumption of negotiations to form a Palestinian unity government.

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (AP) — Seeking to end anger in the Islamic world caused by his remarks on holy war, Pope Benedict XVI told Muslim ambassadors Monday that the two faiths must overcome any historic enmities and together reject violence — saying the future of humanity is at stake.

KISMAYO, Somalia (AFP) — Muslim gunmen opened fire Monday on crowds protesting the overnight Islamist takeover of Somalia’s key port of Kismayo, with conflicting reports of casualties.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) — The African Union will add 4,000 troops to its extended Darfur peacekeeping mission, bringing the number of police and soldiers in western Sudan to 11,000, a spokesman for the AU said on Monday.

SANAA (AFP) — Four French nationals kidnapped by Yemeni tribesmen two weeks ago have been freed and are well, state-owned news agency Saba said Monday.

RABAT (Reuters) — Morocco’s once secretive socialists have launched a mass membership drive to boost their chances at polls next year in which their message of secular modernity faces a challenge from resurgent Islamists.

RABAT (Reuters) — Morocco’s once secretive socialists have launched a mass membership drive to boost their chances at polls next year in which their message of secular modernity faces a challenge from resurgent Islamists.