Middle Orient

VIENNA — Despite suspending sensitive nuclear activities due to Western fears it is seeking to make atomic bombs, Iran has still managed to make progress on its programme but analysts differ on just how far along it has got. The question is critical, as Iran this month resumed work on …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraq’s presidency has signed death sentences for three men convicted of murder, paving the way for the first state-endorsed executions since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The men will be hanged. President Jalal Talabani, who opposes capital punishment, did not sign the document, but his deputy signed …

RIYADH (AFP) — Saudi security forces shot dead one of the country’s top Al Qaeda leaders in the holy city of Medina Thursday, the latest of the group’s chiefs in the Kingdom to be gunned down in a shoot-out. The clash that killed Saleh Al Ufi coincided with another operation …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraq’s parliament, pushed to the brink of a midnight deadline, gave negotiators an extra week on Monday to complete a draft constitution after weeks of intensive talks failed to bridge sectarian and ethnic rifts. Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders now have seven more days to agree the …

MOGADISHU (AFP) — Powerful Somali warlord Hussein Mohammed Aidid said Monday he hoped to mediate an end to a bitter dispute in the lawless nation’s transitional government that has sparked fears of deepening anarchy. Aidid, the deputy prime minister in the government, travelled to Mogadishu on Sunday after a four-year …

THE DECISION BY Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to pull Israeli settlers out of the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank has shaken Israel’s Orthodox Jewish community to its foundations. Never before has an Israeli government relinquished what the religious population universally regards as holy land, promised to …

ALGIERS (AFP) — Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has unveiled a draft charter for peace and national reconciliation that will be put to a referendum on September 29, national television reported on Sunday. The draft calls for “concrete steps to stop bloodshed and restore peace” in the north African country after …

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran named an outspoken hardliner to run its nuclear policy Monday in a move likely to intensify international concerns following the Islamic regime’s rejection of European incentives for abandoning ultra-sensitive fuel cycle work. New President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nominated the former director of state broadcast media, Ali Larijani, …

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday the Iraqi parliament “needed a little more time” to work out compromises but had made “substantial progress” towards drafting a constitution despite missing is self-imposed deadline. The process is working in an orderly fashion, and “I believe they are going …

AL ARISH (AFP) — Two Canadian women peacekeepers were wounded in a bomb blast Monday in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula that officials described as a terrorist attack. “Terrorists planted two gas canisters on the road and linked them to an electrical wire. They hid in nearby apricot groves and blew them …