Middle East News

Former executives at US security contractor Blackwater Worldwide have admitted sending about $1m to Iraq to pay off officials angry about the fatal shootings of 17 civilians by its employees, according to a report.

Thousands of Palestinians gathered Wednesday to mark five years since the death of their iconic leader Yasser Arafat, with president Mahmud Abbas due to address the West Bank rally, AFP reported.

Egypt has registered the sixth A/ H1N1 flu death case in the country, Al-Ahram daily reported on Wednesday, Xinhua reported.

New cabinet of ministers of Lebanon wants to separate foreign policy from operation of government: Chatham House's expert

Azerbaijan, Baku, November 10 / Trend News, U.Sadikhova /

Words by Saad al-Hariri, who heads a new Lebanese government, that this event opens a new page in the Lebanese history, are both constructive and rhetorical, said Nadim Shehadi, Associate Fellow for the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the British Institute of International Affairs Chatham House.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is going to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Paris on Wednesday, the Elysee Palace said Tuesday in a statement, Xinhua reported.

The United States accused Iran in the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday of illicit arms deliveries to Lebanese guerrillas, endorsing charges by Israel after it seized a ship in the Mediterranean last week, Reuters reported.

Israel is readying all options to try to force Iran to halt its atomic program, Israel's top general told a parliamentary panel on Tuesday, an official said, Reuters reported.

Israeli President Shimon Peres urged Brazil to use its growing clout to challenge Iran's threats against his country during a visit here just two weeks before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, AFP reported.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki on Tuesday said that his security forces arrested a terrorist allegedly involved in Baghdad deadly bombings that killed and wounded more than 600 people, Xinhua reported.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has significantly expanded its ability to strike deep into Israel with rockets that can now reach the Jewish state's largest cities, and now possesses tens of thousands of projectiles, Israel's army chief said Tuesday.

Lebanese new Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced the formation of Lebanon's new cabinet on Monday night, bringing an end to the five-month cabinet impasse following the June parliamentary elections.

Pirates have hijacked a Panamanian-flagged ship with 18 crew off the east coast of Africa, the latest in an increasing number of attacks, a Somali businessman said Tuesday.

A former British soldier has admitted for the first time that he saw two of his colleagues kicking and hitting a handcuffed Iraqi prisoner minutes before he died.

A passenger bus overturned with Iranian citizens traveling to Syria on their way to see holy sites. As a result 10 people died, the Irirbnews television channel reported.

Dueling visits to Brazil by the presidents of Israel and Iran are showing the South American powerhouse's growing role in Mideast diplomacy, AP reported.

Reporting from Beirut and Doha, Qatar - After a months-long deadlock, Lebanon's rival political camps agreed to a unity government that includes both American-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim political party and militia that the United States considers a terrorist organization, Los Angeles Times reported.

The Gaza Strip-ruling Hamas authorities on Monday banned the holding of a conference for the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in Gaza, organizers said, Xinhua reported.

Arab League head Amr Moussa on Monday urged the Palestinian president to reconsider his decision not to run for a second term in the January 2010 elections, Jpost reported.

A senior U.N. official on Monday called on Israel to allow building materials into Gaza, warning that the thousands displaced by an Israeli offensive early this year face a cold winter without proper accommodations, AP reported.

The possible collapse of the Palestinian Authority , Israel's negotiating partner, loomed Monday, as several aides to its president, Mahmoud Abbas , said that he intended to resign and forecast that others would follow.