Middle Orient

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) — President George W.  Bush met with top advisers at his Texas ranch on Thursday to hash out a new Iraq strategy that he plans to unveil next month to an American public weary of the war.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will be hanged within 30 days, an appeal court judge said Tuesday, after confirming the former strongman’s sentence for crimes against humanity.

A STRING OF car bombs and other blasts killed at least 54 Iraqis on Tuesday, including 17 outside Baghdad’s most venerated Sunni mosque, while US troops battled Shiite gunmen in Baghdad.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israelis are puzzling over the prospect of peace with Syria after their two foreign intelligence agencies gave dramatically different assessments of recent diplomatic overtures from Damascus.

MECCA — Divided in their troubled homeland, Iraqi pilgrims who made the perilous journey to Mecca for Hajj this week are united in their prayers for peace, stability and the loved ones they have lost.

RAMALLAH (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday announced new presidential and parliament elections to end an increasingly violent standoff with Hamas — a huge gamble that could strengthen the Islamists, drive his people into civil war and further put off peace talks with Israel.

January 25: In its first electoral outing, Hamas sweeps legislative elections in the Palestinian territories, ending 10 years of Fateh domination

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister reached out to Sunni Arabs at a national reconciliation conference on Saturday, urging Saddam Hussein-era officers to join the new army and urging a review of the ban against members of the former dictator’s ruling party.

NAJAF — Najaf, home to the golden domed shrine of the Imam Ali, is Iraq’s holiest Shiite city and has long lived off a constant flow of pilgrims. Now, with Iraq engulfed in a vicious sectarian war

BEIRUT — Lebanese opposition protesters led by Shiite group Hizbollah are digging in for the winter and vowing not to quit their central Beirut encampment until the Western-backed government falls.