Middle Orient

BAGHDAD — It is early afternoon in the emergency room of Baghdad’s Yarmouk Hospital. Medics are on stand by for a big influx of casualties from a bomb south of Baghdad. But right now they have a more pressing job. Several doctors, blood spattered on their white coats, are calmly …

BAGHDAD (AP) — Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein complained that he has not been allowed sufficient access to his lawyer in a new tape aired on Thursday by an Arabic satellite television station. The footage, broadcast by Dubai-based Al Arabiya, showed the former Iraqi leader complaining to Judge Munir Haddad …

SANAA (AFP) — Twelve people were killed during clashes on Thursday between security forces and armed demonstrators in a second day of deadly protests against a government decision to hike fuel prices, witnesses said. At least 50 protesters were also wounded in the capital and at least six towns in …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) — The Israeli parliament overwhelmingly rejected a last-ditch move by right-wingers Wednesday to delay the Gaza Strip pullout for up to a year as a protest march against next month’s withdrawal was blocked.

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran’s hardline judiciary said Wednesday it may consider a pardon for dissident writer Akbar Ganji, the country’s highest profile political prisoner who has been on hunger strike for five weeks. “Maybe a pardon can be applied to him. We are considering the matter,” judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud …

SANAA (AP) — At least eight Yemenis died when rioters and security forces clashed in different areas of Yemen Wednesday, a day after the government said it would reduce subsidies on oil products by more than half. Early morning, angry protesters marched in the streets of Sanaa and in other …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The cranes and bulldozers building a barrier to suicide bombers in this disputed city are also raising barricades to the Palestinian dream of a contiguous state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel says security needs have forced it to build 80 kilometres of eight-metre-high concrete walls …

RIYADH (AFP) — The US embassy in Riyadh warned in a statement on Wednesday that it had indications of possible new terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia. “The American embassy in Riyadh advises all American citizens living in Saudi Arabia that it has received indications of operational planning for a terrorist …

BAGHDAD (AP) — Shiite members of the committee drafting Iraq’s new constitution are pushing for a greater role for Islam in civil law, members said Wednesday, a proposal that could erode women’s rights in such matters as marriage, divorce and inheritance. Meanwhile, the head of the drafting committee said Wednesday …