Middle Orient

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — More than 2,000 companies paid about $1.8 billion in illicit kickbacks and surcharges to Saddam Hussein’s government through extensive manipulation of the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq, according to key findings of a UN-backed investigation obtained by the Associated Press. The report — to be released …

SULTAN YACOUB (AP) — Commandos manned positions near Palestinian bases in this rugged region Thursday and soldiers blocked smuggling routes along the Syrian border as Lebanon beefed up efforts to control its territory amid heightened tensions with Syria. The tense standoff with the pro-Syrian Palestinian groups, which started Wednesday, demonstrated …

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) — Arms are still flowing across the Syrian border to Palestinians in Lebanon, a UN report said on Wednesday, adding further pressure on Damascus after threats of sanctions by France and the United States. Secretary General Kofi Annan, in a report to the UN Security Council, said …

LONDON (AP) — Governments around the world expressed shock and scorn Thursday at the Iranian president’s call for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” and several summoned Tehran’s envoys in their capitals for a reprimand. However, Israeli calls for Iran to be suspended from the United Nations over the …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraq’s ruling Shiite Islamist parties struck a last-minute deal to patch up differences on Thursday and agreed to register as a united bloc for December 15 polls where they face a new Sunni Arab alliance. But in a flare-up likely to fuel mistrust between Iraq’s two main …

Israel launched missile strikes in Gaza on Tuesday, targeting buildings it said were used by fighters in response to renewed Palestinian rocket attacks on the Jewish state. The flare-up of violence — one of the worst since Israel quit the Gaza Strip last month — followed Israel’s killing of a …

VIENNA (AFP) — The United States and the European Union will hold off taking Iran before the UN Security Council over its nuclear programme until they get Russia to back them and may even allow Tehran to do some nuclear fuel work, diplomats told AFP. “If the Russians don’t come …

BAGHDAD — Saddam Hussein sat in the dock last Wednesday in the building which once housed the national and international headquarters of his Baath Party in Baghdad, looked up at the senior judge on the bench, and paused for a beat or two before answering his question. “I’ve said what …

WASHINGTON — Three women sharing a hunger, not for fast food, but peace, chatted away in a food court at Washington’s ornate Union Station Monday — completely ignored in the rush of travellers grabbing a lunchtime snack. But their gathering was poignant, and remarkable, because as each one admitted, it …

Beirut, Oct.24 (SANA)- Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saleem al-Hoss has warned against allowing any foreign party to exploit the report of the international investigation committee concerning the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri to torpedo foundation of relations with Syria.