ARBIL, Iraq (AFP) - Iraqi Kurdish leaders told a visiting Turkish business delegation on Wednesday that tensions over cross-border raids by the Turkish army should not be allowed to affect booming trade.
The prime minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, Barham Saleh, criticised "unilateral" Turkish military action against suspected rear-bases for Kurdish rebel attacks inside Turkey [...]
BRUSSELS (AFP) - The planned demolition of Palestinian houses in east Jerusalem, as part of an archaeological project, is "an obstacle to peace," EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said Wednesday.
Jewish "settlements and the demolition of homes are illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible," Ashton warned i [...]
JERUSALEM (AFP) - An Israeli soldier and several civilians have been arrested for allegedly passing information to the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and smuggling drugs across the border, the army said on Wednesday.
"It is suspected that an IDF warrant officer and a number of Israeli civilians were in contact with Lebanese drug dealers so as to smuggle drugs over the border," a statement sai [...]
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak is to meet with Palestinian prime minister Salman Fayyad in the coming days, Barak said on Wednesday, for a rare high-level meeting between the two sides.
Barak confirmed the meeting after talks with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, but did not say when it would take place.
"We will talk about economic issues, issues they want to [...]
AMMAN (AFP) - A Jordanian man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing his married sister two years ago after seeing mobile phone images showing her having sex, a court official said on Wednesday.
"The court jailed him on Tuesday for stabbing his 29-year-old sister 30 times after the man she had an affair with showed him the images in an attempt to blackmail him" in 2008 in th [...]
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said the United States, England and France deserved to be eliminated in the World Cup for imposing nuclear sanctions on Tehran, newspapers reported on Wednesday.
"In this World Cup you see a meaningful correlation between politics and diplomacy and football," Mottaki was quoted as saying by Tehran Emrouz newspaper.
"Those who [...]
DUBAI (AFP) - Dubai's troubled real estate giant Nakheel said on Wednesday it has started paying larger creditors in a second phase of a cash and securities deal.
"We are delighted to commence making the 40 percent cash payments to our trade creditors," chairman Nakheel's Ali Lootah said in a statement.
In March, Nakheel had already started "initial payments to trade creditors of 500,000 [...]
BEIRUT (AFP) - A UN tribunal probing the 2005 murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri said Tuesday it will hold a public hearing to allow a general who was detained over the killing to challenge the court.
Lebanese General Jamil el-Sayed filed a request in March for access to court investigation files in order to prove his assertion that he had been the victim of slander and was arbitr [...]
TEHRAN (AFP) - A man claiming to be an Iranian nuclear scientist whom Tehran alleges the United States kidnapped said he has escaped from US agents, in a video screened on Tuesday on Iranian television.
"I am Shahram Amiri, a citizen of the Islamic republic. A few minutes ago I managed to escape from the hands of US intelligence agents in Virginia," said the man in the footage shown on st [...]
ABU DHABI (AFP) - The United Arab Emirates is "taking action" to maintain nuclear security, its envoy to the atomic watchdog said on Tuesday after a reported UAE crackdown on Iranian firms dealing in dangerous materials.
The UAE was "taking action to ensure that nuclear security is maintained and also countering any potential threats that would be utilised for any non-peaceful purposes," [...]
Passengers jump out of plane in India after bad landing
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