Middle Orient

ABU DHABI — British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s drive to revive Middle East peacemaking is failing to reverse the damage done to his credibility by Iraq and this year’s Lebanon crisis, analysts say.

US president sets conditions for Iran, Syria talks, says Blair to visit Middle East WASHINGTON (AP) — President George W. Bush said Thursday that a bipartisan panel’s call for a major course change in Iraq was an important document, but just one of several reports he will consider as he …

TEL AVIV (AP) — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday rejected a US advisory group’s conclusions that Israel must talk to Syria and solve its conflict with the Palestinians to help the Bush administration stabilise Iraq.

RAMALLAH (AP) — Leave Hamas in power for now, but call elections once the economic crisis in the Palestinian territories worsens further — that’s the emerging consensus of a panel advising President Mahmoud Abbas on how to handle the Islamists, a member of the group said Thursday.

BEIRUT (AFP) — Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed Thursday that the Lebanese opposition will not “surrender” in its mass protests to bring down the Western-backed government.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Two final witnesses told Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial Thursday of the horrors of the anti-Kurdish Anfal campaign, before the court adjourned for a week in preparation of its next phase.

BAQOUBA — Specialist Robert Mathews of the US army gets down on one knee between two hulking Bradley armoured fighting vehicles and prays — his cavalry platoon is heading into war-torn downtown Baqouba.

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan panel of Washington insiders has presented US and Iraqi political leaders a formidable challenge in dealing with the chaos in Iraq, but whether they can meet it is a major question.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Thirteen US troops died in Iraq over the weekend including four killed when a military helicopter made an “emergency landing” in the restive west of the country, the US military said Monday.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli army killed a Palestinian and arrested 17 fighters Monday in raids across the West Bank, despite a decision by the military to scale back such operations in order to bolster a shaky truce with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.