Middle Orient

BEDDAWI (AFP) —  With their long beards, Pakistani-style clothes and brand new weapons, the Fateh Islam guerrillas have long spread fear among Palestinian refugees in an embattled camp in northern Lebanon.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — US and British forces on Saturday clashed with Moqtada  Sadr’s supporters in Baghdad and Basra, even as Iraq’s politicians cautiously welcomed the radical Shiite cleric’s return to the political scene.

GAZA CITY (AP) — Israeli air strikes killed five Hamas members in Gaza on Saturday, shortly after fighters floated the idea of halting rocket fire on Israeli border towns if Israel ended its 10-day-old air campaign.

NAHR BARED (Reuters) — The United States sent more ammunition on Saturday to Lebanon, whose army is struggling to defeat a group of heavily armed Islamists holed up inside a Palestinian refugee camp.

A bomb exploded in a busy market area of Athgaon, Guwahati killing 7 people and injuring almost 30. ULFA, the banned outfit, seems to be behind the deadly blast which created panic across the city. Police officials are already probing an enquiry into the blast.

Fighting between the Lebanese military and Muslim fighters at a Palestinian refugee camp has continued into a fourth day, with renewed gunfire reported in the evening. The fighting has left scores dead, destroyed houses and triggered a flood of refugees from the camp.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Libya has agreed to postpone the execution of an Egyptian man who was due to die on Sunday, after Egypt asked Tripoli to allow more time in that and nine other cases, the Egyptian state news agency MENA said on Saturday.

Consiliul de Securitate al ONU va vota miercuri un proiect de rezoluţie care instituie tribunalul internaţional pentru judecarea presupuşilor asasini ai fostului premier libanez anti-sirian Rafik al-Hariri.

The idea of launching a military operation into northern Iraq, where thousands of members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have found a safe haven, has taken center stage in recent debates over how to eliminate the terrorist threat, the worst manifestations of which the Turkish public has dealt …

US air force planes have delivered military equipment to the Lebanese army, a Western diplomat and security officials have said.  The Lebanese government had requested more military aid from Washington after the eruption of fighting between the army and the Fatah al-Islam group in a Palestinian refugee camp in the …