Middle Orient

August 17, 2006 — The Moscow city court has sentenced the former head of security at the bankrupt oil firm Yukos to 24 years in prison for a series of contract killings. Aleksei Pichugin is already serving a 20-year sentence on charges of organizing several murders,

A Sudanese court has sentenced Slovenian president’s special envoy Tomo Kriznar to two years in jail for spying and entering the country illegally, news agencies are reporting. He was involved in the peace process   between Sudan’s government and rebels in the troubled Darfur region.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Tuesday that the Middle East peace process had failed, in a speech about the conflict in Lebanon on Tuesday.

Lebanon’s army is preparing to move into south Lebanon as the United Nations plans to send an initial force of 3,500 troops to the region to enforce the truce between Israel and Hezbollah.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said Tuesday that the U.S. plan for a “new Middle East” has collapsed following Hizbullah’s victory against Israel.

Taliban fighters shot down a NATO aircraft in Karam Khail area of Nowbahar district in Zabul province on afternoon, August 14. The  NATO aircraft was shot down with a rocket, killing all the troops onboard.

White House denies as ‘flat wrong’ a US role in Hizbullah conflict, with an eye toward Iran. A special report in The New Yorker says the Bush administration was closely involved in the planning of

BEIRUT, Aug 14 (Reuters) – Guerrillas fire rockets and Israeli soldiers weep. Hizbollah’s television station tries to convince viewers that the Middle East’s strongest army is far from invincible.

Prominent investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh reported that Israel had previously planned to attack Lebanon prior to the Hezbollah’s kidnappings on 12 July, which is regarded as the official reason for the Lebanese war, and added that the Bush administration was “closely” interested in the war planning.

The Islamic force has seized control of a strategic township near the Ethiopian border from Somalia’s puppet “transitional government”, further expanding their territory, officials and residents say.