May, 2007

• 25 May

  AT A GLANCE

  Maliki nominates 6 new ministers BAGHDAD  (AFP) —  Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri  Al Maliki on Thursday nominated ministers for six Cabinet seats that  loyalists of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr vacated six weeks  ago. The move is widely viewed as a way of recasting the national government along more …

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• 25 May

  Ankara bomber belonged to Kurdish rebel group — reports

  ANKARA — The suicide bomber behind a deadly attack here was a former far-left militant believed to have joined the Kurdish separatist movement fighting a violent 22-year campaign, newspapers said on Thursday.

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• 25 May

  US confirms body is of captured soldier

  BAGHDAD (AFP) — The US military confirmed on Thursday that a body found floating in the Euphrates was one of three American soldiers snatched by Al Qaeda 12 days earlier, as a bomb attack hit civilian mourners at a funeral in western Iraq. Lieutenant Colonel Josslyn Aberle of US command …

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• 25 May

  Iran probably 3-8 years off nuclear bomb — IAEA

  LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) — Iran is probably three to eight years away from producing a nuclear bomb if it so chooses, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog warned on Thursday.

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• 25 May

  Analysts say US sanctions affecting Iran’s economy

  DUBAI (AP) — US sanctions against Iran have caused damage to the country’s economy, Iranian business leaders and analysts say, even as the UN Security Council prepares to consider additional measures to force Iran to curb its nuclear programme.

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• 25 May

  Fateh Islam leader is Palestinian nationalist, not terrorist, family says

  AMMAN — Shaker Youssef Absi, the Palestinian who heads a shadowy militant group blamed for this week’s violence in Lebanon, is not a terrorist but a nationalist who seeks an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands, his family says.

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• 25 May

  Assad gearing up for second term

  DAMASCUS (AFP) — Syria’s President Bashar Assad is a would-be reformer who is now gearing up for a second seven-year term having refused to bow to international calls for reform. Assad, running in a no-contest referendum on Sunday, came to power in July 2000 with the reputation of a modernist, …

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• 25 May

  Siniora vows to wipe out militants

  TRIPOLI  (AP) — Heavy exchanges of gunfire erupted late Thursday between Lebanese troops besieging a Palestinian refugee camp and Islamic militants holed up inside, breaking a two-day-old truce.

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• 25 May

  Israel detains over 30 Hamas officials

  NABLUS (Reuters) —  Israeli forces seized a Palestinian Cabinet minister and more than 30 other officials on Thursday in a new phase of a crackdown on Hamas that a United Nations envoy described as “troubling”.

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• 24 May

  Basescu returns to Romanian presidency

  BUCHAREST, Romania — Traian Basescu returned to the presidency on Wednesday (May 23rd) after the Constitutional Court formally validated the results of the May 19th impeachment referendum. Voters overwhelmingly rejected Parliament’s decision to dismiss Basescu last month for alleged constitutional violations. In his first statement since returning to the job, …

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