Middle Orient

BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi tennis coach and two of his players were killed this week in Baghdad because they were wearing shorts, authorities said Saturday, one of a series of recent attacks attributed to Islamic fundamentalists.

King, in US, sends condolences letter to Yudhoyono  YOGYAKARTA (AP) — A powerful earthquake flattened homes and buildings in central Indonesia early Saturday as people slept, killing more than 3,505 and injuring thousands more in the nation’s worst disaster since the 2004 tsunami.

CAIRO — Egypt’s rulers are ignoring US criticism of their crackdown on political opposition because they calculate that the Bush administration desperately needs friends in the Middle East, critics and observers say. The US State Department has publicly criticised Egypt three times this month over its human rights record, its …

MOGADISHU (AP) — At least 39 people were killed Thursday in renewed fighting in the Somali capital that sent thousands of frightened civilians running from their homes, medical officials and a militia commander said. According to reports collected from the Somali capital’s main hospitals, at least 30 people were killed …

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon marked the sixth anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon on Thursday, amid deep divisions among its rival leaders over the fate of Hizbollah’s weapons.

RAMADI, Iraq (AP) — Whole neighborhoods are lawless, too dangerous for police. Some roads are so bomb-laden that US troops won’t use them. Guerrillas attack US troops nearly every time they venture out — and hit their bases with gunfire, rockets or mortars when they don’t.

BALTIMORE (AP) — The restoration of US diplomatic relations with Libya should show Iran that it would receive a warm response from the international community if it abandoned its nuclear programme and its support for terrorist organisations, United Nations Ambassador John Bolton said Friday.

SHARM EL SHEIKH (AP) — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak opened the World Economic Forum on Saturday with a series of indirect but pointed jabs at the United States, warning also that the world must overcome the widening gap between rich and poor, and block escalating threats of terrorism. With US-Egyptian …

TRIPOLI (AP) — Oil-rich Venezuela’s anti-American president, recently slapped with a US arms embargo, was given a warm welcome to the Libyan capital Wednesday by Col. Muammar Qadhafi, whose authoritarian regime was only just removed from Washington’s list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

DAMASCUS (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister warned against a possible “escalation of the crisis in the region” as he arrived in Damascus on Thursday to discuss his country’s nuclear programme and the situation in Iraq with the Syrian president.