Middle Orient

Tribunal grills Saddam aides about Kurd killings

BAGHDAD (AP) — The Iraqi tribunal investigating members of Saddam Hussein’s regime released a videotape Sunday showing two of the ousted dictator’s half brothers being questioned about their alleged role in displacing and killing Kurds. The Iraqi Special Tribunal also sought to put an end to speculation over the date …

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No chance now for Iran-US rapprochement

TEHRAN — After eight years of often conciliatory diplomacy and a presidential election where resuming ties with the United States was floated as a real possibility, Mahmood Ahmadinejad’s victory has abruptly slammed the door on any immediate chance of making up with Washington, analysts say. The final say on the …

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Israel demolishes Gaza buildings in prelude to pullout

SHIRAT HAYAM, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli bulldozers knocked down a row of abandoned buildings next to this seaside settlement on Sunday, clashing with Jewish settlers in the first military operation aimed at heading off opposition to Israel’s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. In a foretaste of what could …

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Iraq war support wanes

WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush will try to persuade sceptical Americans this week that the war in Iraq is winnable while shoring up his own weak approval ratings. Neither task will be easy. As part of a newly honed White House focus on Iraq, Bush will travel to an …

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Every picture tells story in Iraq

NEW YORK — Numbers and words, words and numbers, repeated so many times they begin to lose meaning. A suicide car bomber rams a military checkpoint. Police find 28 bullet-riddled bodies in shallow graves. A man walks into a restaurant and blows himself up.

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Iraq still violent and more divided

BAGHDAD — The new Iraq is still a place where violence reigns and ethnic and sectarian divisions are growing deeper one year after the handover of sovereignty by the US-led occupation. On the bright side, 8.5 million Iraqis voted in the watershed January election and the political process appears to …

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Iraq committed to democracy for all — Jaafari

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Al Jaafari late Friday sought to ease sectarian concerns about the shape of Iraq’s future government and denounced those who continued to foment violence against it. “There is a strong determination of the Iraqi people to succeed on this path,” Jaafari said …

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US struggles to repair image around world

Attitude least positive in Jordan WASHINGTON (AFP) — Anti-US sentiment is firmly entrenched around the world, mainly because of President George W. Bush and his policies, to such a degree that even US humanitarian efforts do little to curb it, according to a poll released Thursday.

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