Middle Orient

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed 14 police recruits and two policemen in northern Iraq on Thursday, police and military sources said. An attacker wearing a military uniform detonated an explosive vest near a police recruiting centre where about 200 applicants queued at Sinjar, near Mosul, police said.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on the international community on Thursday to cancel the country’s debt and end sanctions imposed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sunni-led Arab states need to offer more support to the Shi’ite-led Iraqi government to give reconstruction efforts a chance to succeed, Sweden’s foreign minister said on Wednesday ahead of a conference on Iraq.

GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli air strike on Wednesday killed two Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical workers said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s main Sunni Arab political bloc said on Wednesday it had suspended talks to rejoin the Shi’ite-led government after a disagreement with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki over a cabinet post.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed at least six members of a U.S.-backed neighborhood patrol and wounded 18 others on Monday, police said.

(Reuters) – Following are security developments in Iraq at 9:30 a.m. EDT on Monday: *denotes new or updated item * BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb wounded five people on the airport highway, in western Baghdad, police said. * BAGHDAD – A bomb blast wounded two people in Shaab district, northern …

CAIRO (Reuters) – The governments of the Middle East, from Iran to Israel and beyond, are increasingly ignoring the wishes of a U.S. administration which has only eight months left in office, going their own way in regional diplomacy.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The Roman Catholic Church hopes a year dedicated to Saint Paul, born two millennia ago in Tarsus in today’s southern Turkey, will bring signs of more religious tolerance in the mostly Muslim but secularist country.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s parliament elected army chief Michel Suleiman as head of state on Sunday, reviving paralyzed state institutions after an 18-month standoff between a U.S.-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition.