Middle Orient

BEIRUT (AFP) — Lebanon vowed Tuesday to carry out a full-scale probe into the fate of 30 people whose skeletal remains were found in mass graves at the weekend, and has sought help from the Red Cross. “This is an extremely painful situation, and I have asked the International Committee …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel vowed Tuesday to target the leadership of Islamic Jihad, as victims of a suicide bombing by one of the Palestinian group’s members were laid to rest. Hours later, Jihad expressed its continuing commitment to a truce agreed in March, and said the bombing was in …

BRUSSELS — Foreign ministers of the 26-member North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) here to hold their annual meeting on Thursday will begin with a special off-the-record session devoted to the Middle East, a senior NATO official said on Monday. “What happens in the Middle East is pivotal. There is a …

BAGHDAD — Election posters promising a stable Iraq cut no ice with men like Abu Mohammed, who runs a women’s clothing boutique in Baghdad’s Adhamiya district by day. By night Abu Mohammed is an insurgent, attacking US military convoys with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault rifles, fighting Iraqi troops and …

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Two Iraqi policewomen killed 36 fellow officers and cadets in a double suicide bombing in Baghdad Tuesday, as insurgents claimed the kidnapping of an American amid further violence just nine days before key elections. The blasts, on the same day that eight other Iraqi security personnel were …

TEHRAN (AP) — Iran said Sunday that a resumption of talks with Europe over Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme could lead to important results. But Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi reiterated that Iran would not accept conditions to the talks, which broke off in August. “If Europeans respect our right, …

BAGHDAD — Anti-Western feeling is running high ahead of Iraq’s election this month and many voters think sending US troops home should be the priority of the next government, an informal survey by Reuters indicated. Campaigning for the December 15 parliamentary election has not focused much on the US-led occupation, …

WASHINGTON — In its drive to build an international consensus against Iran developing nuclear weapons, the Bush administration has made a significant concession but failed to develop an effective strategy for resolving one of its greatest challenges, experts say.

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s most powerful politician, a secretive cleric who once led a militia based in Iran, launched the campaign this weekend of a Shiite alliance set to win the biggest number of seats in this month’s parliamentary vote. Two years after appearing on Iraq’s murky political scene, Abdul-Aziz Hakim …

Damascus denies involvement ANJAR, Lebanon (AP) — On a small hill overlooking this border town that was once a stark symbol of Syrian power in Lebanon, an excavator shovels soil as white-gloved Lebanese army forensic experts comb the earth hunting for grisly reminders of this country’s brutal past.