Middle Orient

MOGADISHU (Reuters) — Rival Somali factions armed with truck-mounted machineguns fought on Monday for control of a town where President Abdullahi Yusuf plans to set up a temporary capital, killing and wounding several people, residents said. Hundreds of militiamen attacked the southern town of Baidoa at about 3:45am (0045 GMT) …

RIYADH (AFP) — Saudi Arabia moved again on Monday to reassure the world over the health of King Fahd, but the absence of any medical report after four days in hospital is causing rumours about the gravity of his condition. “Stable and reassuring” — the two words have been repeated …

RAMALLAH (AP) — The Palestinian Authority is moving ahead on securing the coastal Gaza Strip area that Israel is to evacuate this summer, putting out a call for 5,000 new security forces, an interior ministry spokesman said Saturday. But although there are fears Palestinian fighters will fire on Israeli targets …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — She had been getting away with it for years. But fate, in the shape of the Israeli border police, finally caught up with JJ, as she always knew it would, at the Qalandiya checkpoint into Ramallah. After what was an apparently random stop, perhaps since she was …

RIYADH (AFP) — King Fahd, the ruler of oil powerhouse Saudi Arabia, remained in hospital Saturday with a lung infection as worries about his health sent crude prices higher and the authorities insisted there was no cause for concern. “His condition is stable… The results of medical tests make us …

TEHRAN (AP) — Iran’s hard-line Guardian Council on Saturday approved a law forcing Iran to develop nuclear technology, including uranium enrichment, an action aimed at strengthening Tehran’s hand in negotiations with Europeans. The law’s passing does not compel the government to resume uranium enrichment immediately, but it insists the Tehran …

BEIRUT — As Lebanon prepares for what is being hailed as its first free vote in years, the powerful Shiite movement Hizbollah was flexing its military muscle and vowing to fight on against arch-enemy Israel. Hizbollah is projected to win possibly 12 seats in the elections kicking off in the …

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — A correspondent of Arab satellite television network Al Arabiya was acquitted of spreading false news said to have harmed national interests, following a report about an alleged shoot-out between militants and police, a criminal court ruled Saturday. The Dubai-based television station broadcast an official denial of …

BEIRUT — Lebanon has averted financial meltdown despite an acute political crisis. Initial pressure on its currency has eased. The tourist season may yet be salvaged. But analysts say full recovery will come only if reforms to rein in its ballooning $34 billion debt top the agenda after general elections …

BAGHDAD (AP) — Two of Iraq’s most influential Shiite and Sunni organisations agreed Saturday to try and make peace as the government prepared to take its war against the insurgency to Baghdad’s violent streets. The new effort to ease sectarian tensions, which threaten to plunge Iraq into civil strife, came …