Middle Orient

TEHRAN (AFP) — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday challenged his US counterpart George W. Bush to a live television debate as he shrugged off the threat of sanctions two days ahead of a UN deadline for Iran to halt sensitive atomic work.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister issued a fresh call Tuesday for armed groups to be dissolved after his office raised the death toll in fighting between government forces and Shiite fighters to 73.

KHARTOUM  (AFP) — Sudanese President Omar Bashir rebuffed a plea from Washington’s top Africa envoy Tuesday to allow a UN peacekeeping force in strife-torn Darfur, after forcing her to extend her visit to secure a meeting at all.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert came under heavy criticism Tuesday for announcing the creation of a committee of inquiry to examine the failures of the Lebanon war rather than a powerful independent commission.

ALGIERS (Reuters) — Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will decide soon whether or not to extend a six-month amnesty expiring on Monday for Islamist rebels who have fought for years to overthrow the government, state radio reported.

BAGHDAD — Starved of entertainment in their violence-racked city, many Baghdad residents are turning to food as one of their few remaining pleasures, and paying the price as they pile on the pounds.

BEIRUT (AFP) — UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged Israel Monday to lift its blockade of Lebanon, and pressed Hizbollah to free Israeli soldiers whose capture sparked a devastating 34-day onslaught on the Jewish state’s northern neighbour.

DIWANIYAH (AP) — Shiites armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic assault rifles battled Iraqi forces for 12 hours Monday, leaving 40 people dead, mostly soldiers, and underlining the Shiite-led government’s difficulties as it tries to rein in the violent sectarian forces of a cleric.

TIBNINE — “UN welcome” reads a faded sign on an old tailor’s shop in the south Lebanese town of Tibnine. In a nearby village, Ghanaian soldiers peruse the shelves of a shop selling everything from rugs to radios.

ISTANBUL — Turkey, the only Muslim member of NATO and a country with close ties to both Israel and Arab states, seems to many in Europe and the United States to be an ideal contributor to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.