Middle Orient

BAGHDAD — Just before sunset, US soldiers from the Bushmaster Troop stop playing basketball and prepare to set off on another patrol in Dura, one of Baghdad’s most dangerous districts which they say is becoming safer. The soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division cheerfully load up with drinks and ammunition, …

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian voters had a choice for president for the first time Wednesday in an election the United States hopes is a key step towards democracy across the Middle East. But the ballot was marred by charges of fraud and the near-certainty that President Hosni Mubarak will win …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) — The Israeli military said Saturday it would complete its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip by September 15 but threatened to strike the territory hard if the Jewish state came under threat. The head of army logistics, General Eran Ofir, told public radio: “I think that we …

BAGHDAD (AP) — Insurgents killed 19 Iraqi security forces Saturday in clashes around Baqouba, while US and Iraqi forces intensified an offensive in a rebel-infested city that the Americans subdued last year — only to have the Iraqis lose control. Eight policemen died in a pair of shootouts in Baqouba, …

VIENNA (AP) — Iran faced a deadline Saturday to freeze work that could enable it to make an atomic weapon. European Union representatives warned Tehran had just weeks before a likely referral to the UN Security Council. The probability of Security Council action grew after an IAEA report revealed Friday …

DAMASCUS (AP) — Syrian troops have clashed with members of a militant group in the northern city of Hama — a region that once saw brutal clashes between the government and radicals. Five militants were killed, Syria’s state-run news agency reported Saturday. SANA, quoting an unnamed official at the Syrian …

CAIRO (AP) — A court ruled Saturday that civil society groups will be allowed to monitor Egypt’s historic multi-candidate presidential election set down for next week. The administrative court also referred articles for a controversial law regulating Wednesday’s first-ever presidential vote to a court to determine their constitutionality. Both decisions, …

GAZA CITY — Palestinian children started their school year Saturday hoping that Israel’s withdrawal from the war-weary Gaza Strip meant they were free of the military raids that made their student days a nightmare. One million pupils returned to schools across the West Bank and Gaza, as Israel was putting …

BEIRUT (AP) — Under intense pressure to cooperate with a UN probe into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, Syria on Saturday invited the world body’s chief investigator to Damascus to meet Syrian authorities within days. But in a move sure to turn the heat further up …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — With January 25, 2006 set as the new date for Palestinian parliamentary elections, most talk has been about what the ruling Fateh faction can do to stop the apparently inexorable rise in popularity of the opposition Hamas Islamists. Indeed, the delay in holding the elections originally slated …