Middle Orient

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi accused Israel on Tuesday of excessive

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel launched air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, wounding eight people, local residents and medics said.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel has put its diplomatic missions abroad on high alert for possible attacks by Hizbollah or local Muslims angered by Israel’s offensive against the Lebanese guerrilla group, security sources said on Monday.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain hopes a peace plan for Lebanon can emerge within days that could lead to a ceasefire, but only after details are worked out for an international force, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday.

GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli air strike aimed at the home of a suspected militant in the Gaza Strip wounded seven people from surrounding houses early on Tuesday, local residents said.

LONDON (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday his country will not slide into civil war but acknowledged that mounting sectarian violence is now killing 100 civilians a day.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Pakistan is building a new nuclear reactor that could produce enough plutonium for 40 to 50 nuclear weapons a year in what would be a major expansion of its nuclear

BAGHDAD (AP) — American troops are stepping up operations in the Baghdad area to combat “death squads” and dampen down the violence threatening the new unity government, a US general said Monday.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Saddam Hussein’s half-brother argued with the chief judge Monday and accused a court employee of shaking down a relative for money as the trial entered its final phase

The Israel-Hezbollah conflict has displaced Sroor and her family from their neighborhood near Beirut’s airport.