Middle Orient

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraqi forces placed Baghdad under a blanket curfew throughout Saturday after US troops arrested a man suspected of plotting to attack the capital’s government compound with suicide car bombings. US troops arrested a security guard at the home of the leader of the main Sunni Arab political …

GAZA (Agencies) — An Israeli air strike killed one fighter and wounded three other Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on Saturday, residents said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the strike was aimed at a vehicle used by fighters it accused of planning an attack against Israel.

ANKARA (AFP) — Turkey’s rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Saturday ordered a unilateral ceasefire effective October 1 in operations against the Turkish military. “The only path to resolve the region’s problems is through democratic dialogue, and to give life to a democratic and modern system that respects national or …

NABATIYAH  — From a hospital bed, 14-year-old Hassan tells how half his foot was blasted away by one of the million bomblets that Israel rained on south Lebanon during its war with Hizbollah. “I ran across a small object hidden in the vegetation,” the teenager says from his bed in …

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Qatar’s UN ambassador said a panel of experts had recommended that the Security Council impose sanctions on top Sudanese officials for violating peace efforts in Darfur, and strongly suggested that President Omar Bashir was among them.

BAQUBA — As the death squads’ grim threats began to mount against Shiite families in the Mafraq neighbourhood of Baqouba, north of Baghdad, fewer and fewer people attended their local prayer hall. Soon, the only members of the embattled Shiite community to brave the narrow streets of this religiously-mixed quarter …

BAGHDAD (AP) — The leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq called Thursday for explosives experts and nuclear scientists to join his group’s holy war and help attack US bases around the country. The audio message posted on the Internet came as at least 23 people were killed primarily in and …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday that he hopes to hold a long-delayed meeting with Mahmoud Abbas in the coming days, but ruled out releasing prisoners or offering other goodwill gestures to the Palestinian president until a captured Israeli soldier is freed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday announced plans to visit the Middle East next week to try to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace moves but analysts doubt she will make much headway. Rice will leave Washington on Sunday and plans to visit Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel’s prime minister said Thursday he did not expect another fight with Hizbollah soon, amid stalled talks on a timetable for the Jewish state to withdraw its remaining troops from Lebanon. “The chances that Hizbollah would be persuaded to mount in the short term a major …