Middle Orient

BAGHDAD — The cellos were once looted by roaming armed gangs and suicide bombers have shattered the ballerinas’ mirror-panelled halls. But love of the arts keeps bringing a group of students to Baghdad’s Music and Ballet school.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) — The United States was likely to call a UN vote on Tuesday to impose sanctions on four Sudanese accused of war crimes in Darfur, despite opposition from China and Russia, a US official said.

BEIRUT — Syrian troops, a familiar sight for almost 30 years, are gone from Lebanon’s streets. Anjar, the village that hosted Syria’s intelligence base, has sunk back into obscurity. Many old Syrian allies sit on the sidelines.

DAMASCUS (AP) — A UN investigator on Tuesday interviewed Syrian President Bashar Assad about the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister, an encounter the Syrian leader had previously twice declined.

DAHAB (Reuters) — Egyptian police detained at least 10 people, including computer engineers, on Tuesday in connection with a triple bombing that killed at least 18 people and wounded scores in the Red Sea tourist resort of Dahab.

WASHINGTON — A must-pass spending bill to pay for the rising costs of the war in Iraq and for additional hurricane aid for the storm-ravaged northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico Coast is debuting on the Senate floor to poor reviews from conservatives over its massive cost.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Al Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Mussab Zarqawi said in a rare video on Tuesday his mujahedeen were fighting on in the three-year-old war against the “crusader enemy” and America was behind efforts to form a new government.

CAIRO (AFP) — Egypt’s prime minister has said the verdict is still out on official claims that the recent attacks on churches that left one man dead were committed by a mentally unstable man.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) — Lebanon’s prime minister challenged Syria on Friday to mark borders between the two countries and establish diplomatic relations. But Syria said it was not ready to make such commitments.Prime Minister Fuad Siniora told the UN Security Council he had asked Secretary General Kofi Annan to “confirm …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Tough-talking Shiite Jawad Maliki was tasked to form a coalition government by Iraqi leaders on Saturday, ending a four-month political deadlock that many feared could pitch the country into a sectarian civil war.