Middle Orient

DAMASCUS (Reuters) — Syria agreed on Monday with chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis on the procedures for questioning Syrian witnesses in the probe into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. “An agreement has been reached on the procedures and arrangements for hearing Syrian witnesses,” a Syrian official …

BAGHDAD (AP) — The US military, acting on a tip, raided a farmhouse Wednesday and rescued an American held hostage for 10 months. In southern Iraq, a roadside bomb killed four American security guards, fuelling fears the bloody insurgency was taking deeper root outside Sunni-dominated territory. Roy Hallums, 57, was …

GAZA CITY (AFP) — The security chaos blighting the Gaza Strip Wednesday claimed its highest-profile victim when local strongman Moussa Arafat, an adviser to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, was assassinated by gunmen. Abbas led condemnation of the popular resistance committees’ killing of Arafat, a cousin of the late Yasser Arafat, …

NAIROBI — Hollywood wasn’t exaggerating when it portrayed Osman Ali Atto as the master survivor of Mogadishu’s ganglands. But the warlord with a wrestler’s build and hawk-like face immortalised in the film “Black Hawk Down” says his wheeling and dealing is aimed as much at strengthening Somalia as at making …

CAIRO (AFP) — Confused Egyptian voters and officials tried Wednesday to adjust to indelible ink, independent monitors, party delegates and multi-choice ballots, in the country’s first contested presidential poll. In the Khaled Ben Walid School in the Cairo suburb of Shubra Al Khima, two judges debated which ink they were …

JEDDAH (AFP) — Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers called Wednesday for Israel to withdraw completely from the occupied West Bank and for the establishment of a Palestinian state. A statement issued after a meeting Tuesday of the GCC’s top diplomats also called for better relations with Iran and for …

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran is to challenge a tough report on its nuclear programme by the UN’s atomic energy watchdog as it contains “errors” and makes “unacceptable” demands of the Islamic republic, a senior official told AFP Wednesday. The senior nuclear negotiator, Ali Agha Mohammadi, also warned the United States …

BAGHDAD — Just before sunset, US soldiers from the Bushmaster Troop stop playing basketball and prepare to set off on another patrol in Dura, one of Baghdad’s most dangerous districts which they say is becoming safer. The soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division cheerfully load up with drinks and ammunition, …

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian voters had a choice for president for the first time Wednesday in an election the United States hopes is a key step towards democracy across the Middle East. But the ballot was marred by charges of fraud and the near-certainty that President Hosni Mubarak will win …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) — The Israeli military said Saturday it would complete its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip by September 15 but threatened to strike the territory hard if the Jewish state came under threat. The head of army logistics, General Eran Ofir, told public radio: “I think that we …