Police in Basra have detained 267 foreign “criminals” as Iraq’s second city witnessed clashes between Shiite militiamen and security forces, officials said on Thursday.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak approved electricity and fuel cuts against Palestinians living in the impoverished Gaza Strip on Thursday in an effort to curb rocket attacks on the Jewish state.

It’s stalemate on the border with Iraq after Ankara slammed Baghdad’s proposals to deal with the PKK threat in the north of the country as “insufficient”.