Middle Orient

GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli soldier was killed and three were wounded in a blast near the border with the Gaza Strip, Al Arabiya television said on Tuesday, in the deadliest incident for Israel since it declared a ceasefire 10 days ago. Palestinians living near the Kissufim border crossing told …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Thousands of Gazans remain homeless and hospitals still have a large number of intensive care patients, UN Information Center said on Tuesday. “At this stage, the initial response is focusing on the re-establishment of basic services to the population of Gaza, including water, health, food, cash assistance, education …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s Shahid Chamran University announced preparedness to educate Iraqi PhD students. The Iranian university also has inked four Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with the universities of India, France and Iraq, expert for international relations department Farah Chenari said. She also announced that Shahid Chamran university receives four free …

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – War ends in the Gaza Strip, a new U.S. president is sworn in, and suddenly this week there is new talk about talks between sworn enemies Israel and Hamas. But talk may be as far as it goes. Neither the contenders in Israel’s election nor Barack Obama …

MIDYAT, Turkey (Reuters) – In a remote village near the Turkish-Syrian border, a land dispute with neighboring villages is threatening the future of one of the world’s oldest functioning Christian monasteries. Critics say the dispute, which has become a rallying cry for Christian church groups across Europe, is a new …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -When Iraqis last voted in 2005, some in Washington feared the mainly Muslim nation would veer in the direction of Iran, an Islamic theocracy, instead of becoming the moderate democracy they envisioned for post-Saddam Iraq. The question when Iraqis elect new provincial leaders on January 31 will be …

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian political leaders said on Wednesday any resumption of peace talks with Israel would require the Jewish state to commit to withdraw from land occupied in 1967 and freeze all settlement activity. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) issued a statement in the West Bank city …

DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal urged the West Wednesday to lift its boycott of the Palestinian Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip. “I tell European nations … three years of trying to eliminate Hamas is enough. It is time for you to deal with Hamas, which has …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama phoned leaders in Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday to promise that he will actively engage on Arab-Israeli peace efforts, the White House said. “He used this opportunity on his first day in office to communicate his commitment to active …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The Iraqi government has decided to bring home a yacht once owned by ousted dictator Saddam Hussein after failing to find a buyer for it in Europe because of the world economic crisis, a spokesman said Wednesday. The Ocean Breeze, which was built in 1981, will be …