Middle Orient

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Reuters) — Envoys from three European countries joined intensifying diplomacy in Israel on Sunday aimed at ending fighting between Israeli forces and Hizbollah that has wrecked swathes of Lebanon and left hundreds dead.

BAGHDAD (Agencies) — Car bombs killed more than 60 Iraqis on Sunday as Prime Minister Nuri Maliki prepared for a White House visit expected to focus on halting what many see as Iraq’s accelerating slide towards all-out sectarian civil war.

BAGHDAD — With concern on the Middle East focused on Lebanon, this week’s visit to Washington by Iraq’s prime minister may offer US policy makers a timely reminder of how deeply troubled their project in Iraq has become.

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia is expanding its military arsenal to counter what it sees as Iran’s growing influence in a region convulsed by violence.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — The US military has cleared a soldier of unlawfully killing an Iraqi civilian after investigators concluded Specialist Nathan Lynn had reason to believe the man was carrying a gun when he opened fire.

MANAMA — Bahrain’s appointed upper chamber on Saturday approved a tough law to combat terrorism already passed by the elected parliament and which critics say

LARNACA, Cyprus (AFP) — UN relief coordinator Jan Egeland said Saturday that Lebanon was suffering a major humanitarian crisis owing to a “senseless war” and complained of the difficulties of delivering aid.

More than 60 Hezbollah rockets hit northern Israel on Sunday, killing two civilians and wounding more than 20 others, military officials and police said. CNN witnessed some of these rockets in and around the port city of Haifa.

“I think it’s important that we not fall into the trap of moral equivalency here,” Ambassador John Bolton told CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer.”

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 23 — Saddam Hussein was hospitalized this morning, fed with a tube and given a battery of tests to ensure that he could stand trial later this week despite a hunger strike that began July 7, Iraqi and American officials said.