Middle Orient

CAIRO (AFP) — A third person has died from bird flu in Egypt, the hardest-hit non-Asian country in the world, as health officials struggled Thursday to enforce preventive measures.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — A former senior White House official testified that President George W. Bush authorised the leaking of classified material on Iraq, according to court papers made public on Thursday that immediately ignited a political storm.

MOGADISHU — Somali warlords are destroying Muse Suldan’s dream to be a teacher. The 12-year-old often flees Mogadishu and misses school to escape gunbattles between rival militias. Like a generation of young Somalis, he has never known peace or lived under a formal government, growing up in anarchy after strongman …

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AFP) — Ethnic riots in southeast Turkey in the past week left nine dead in the worst urban violence to hit the region in a decade, reviving memories of the height of a Kurdish rebellion that has claimed more than 37,000

AMMAN — Iraq’s resistance has replaced Abu Mussab Zarqawi as political head of the rebels, confining him to a military role, the son of Osama Ben Laden’s mentor told AFP Sunday in Jordan.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Reuters) — Israel on Sunday took its first steps towards forming a new government expected to be led by interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who wants to set the country’s final borders with or without Palestinian agreement.

ERBIL (Reuters) — A Kurdish writer was sentenced to 1-1/2 years in prison on Sunday for defaming Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, in a case that has raised questions about the freedom of the press in postwar Iraq.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — One thing seems certain after Israel holds an election on Tuesday — no matter who wins, peacemaking with the Palestinians will remain on hold.

KHARTOUM — Arab foreign ministers on Sunday renewed a previous commitment to provide the Palestinian Authority with $50 a month to cover for a budget deficit when Hamas takes office.

RAMALLAH — Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said yesterday Israel would seek talks with the US and others before embarking on another round of unilateral withdrawals from occupied Palestinian territories.