Middle East News

Baghdad, May 11 (DPA) The US military said Sunday an operation targeting gunmen from the Al Qaeda terrorist network in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul left four people dead, including a woman and a child.

Gaza/Tel Aviv, May 11 (DPA) Gaza Strip's only power plant was shut down late Saturday because of a fuel shortage, cutting off electricity to an estimated 800,000 people, the plant's director Mujahed Salama said.

Amman, May 11 (DPA) Experts from seven Arab countries Saturday opened a meeting to discuss ways of coordinating their activities in the pursuit of peaceful nuclear technology.

Beirut, May 11 (DPA) Lebanon's Shia militant movement Hezbollah Saturday accused followers of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt of killing two of its members in a mountainous area east of Beirut.

Beirut, May 10 (Xinhua) Lebanese opposition MP Ali Hasan Khalil confirmed Saturday that Hezbollah would withdraw gunmen from Beirut, but accused Prime Minister Fouad Seniora of carrying out a coup against the resistance.

Istanbul, May 10 (DPA) The Turkish military Saturday said it killed 19 fighters of the banned underground organisation, the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), in clashes in which six Turkish soldiers also died.

Gaza, May 10 (DPA) Egypt Saturday re-opened its border with the Gaza Strip for three days to allow Palestinians stranded on both sides to cross, witnesses and Hamas security officials said.

Baghdad, May 10 (DPA) The Iraqi government and the Shia al-Sadr movement agreed Saturday to quit the intense fighting that continued since March 25 in Baghdad's Shia Sadr City, media reports said.

Beirut, May 9 (DPA) The Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah and its ally Amal Friday seized control of key western part of the Lebanese capital in the third day of armed clashes with pro-government opponents.

Basra (Iraq), May 9 (Xinhua) At least eight people have been killed and 21 injured in separate clashes between the government troops and insurgents near Iraq's southern city of Basra, the police and US military sources said Friday.

Beirut, May 9 (Xinhua) At least eight people were killed and 40 wounded in three days of sectarian fighting in the Lebanese capital, security sources said Friday.

Iran has complained to the United Nations about remarks of Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton that the US would 'totally obliterate' the Islamic Republic if it were to launch a nuclear attack on Israel.

A top Oil Ministry official says Iran, OPEC's second-largest producer, has completely stopped conducting all its oil transactions in US dollars.

A Hizbullah operative, serving a term of 147 years in an Israeli prison, is set to marry a former prisoner by exchanging correspondence with her, a media report in Jerusalem said.

'More Indian content please but not all of it.' While urging India to send more programming content, Afghanistan's Information and Culture Ministry has sought to impose a ban on some of the immensely popular Indian serials because they are deemed culturally inappropriate.

Los Banos, Philippines - The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is calling on the international community - with particular emphasis on onors - to start focusing on solutions to what's being described as a "rice price crisis" in Asia and elsewhere.

I've changed fonts nine times while writing this piece, even though I know Newsweek will print it in regular old Vincent no matter what I sneak in.

Nicosia, Apr.5 (ANI): For the first time in 45 years, inhabitants of the divided city of Nicosia in the Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, walked freely the full length of Ledra Street, the street that symbolised Cyprus' tragic history. The barricades that had severed the Street were torn down at dawn on Thursday, only hours before the long-awaited crossing was finally opened to the public.

Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses has become a headache for the government once again.
This time round, it cropped up at the annual Haj Conference on Wednesday. Delegates from Bihar alleged that an advertisement of "controversial" author Salman Rushdie's books, including Satanic Verses, was posted on the personal website of India's Consul General in Saudi Arabia, Ausaf Sayeed.

AFTER AMITABH Bachchan, the Green Revolution in India is the focus of Egypt's attention. It is a measure of how completely out of sync Egypt has been with India that the 1970s phenomenon that transformed India into a country that could grow enough food to feed its people, has become a point of interest today.