WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary Hillary Clinton and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will focus on reviving direct Israeli-Palestinian talks "as soon as possible" when they meet here Wednesday, a US official said.
The pair will also review Israel's announcement at the weekend to ease its blockade of the Gaza Strip, run by the militant Hamas group, State Department spokesman Philip Crow [...]
PARIS (AFP) - Several thousand people demonstrated on Tuesday in Paris for the release of an Israeli soldier held captive in the Gaza Strip for nearly four years and to support Israel.
Several French Jewish organisations including France's chief rabbi Gilles Bernheim called the rally of support for Gilad Shalit, who is also a French citizen, at Paris' Trocadero square near the River Seine [...]
WASHINGTON (AFP) - China and major international financial institutions have been increasingly willing to cut off Iran over its suspect nuclear program, top US officials assured skeptical lawmakers Tuesday.
"China is increasingly aware of its own stake in effective international action against Iran and its nuclear ambitions," the number three US diplomat, William Burns, told the Senate Fo [...]
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel's army chief vowed Tuesday to prevent Lebanese and Iranian aid ships from entering the Gaza Strip, saying the coastal enclave would not become an Iranian port, media reported.
"We have the right to inspect and prevent the flow of arms into Gaza," the Ynet news website quoted Israeli chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi as saying.
"We can't let Gaza become an Iranian p [...]
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel on Tuesday launched a spy satellite from a base in the south of the country, the defence ministry said, with the device reportedly capable of monitoring arch-foe Iran.
"A few minutes ago the State of Israel launched the Ofek-9 (Horizon-9) satellite from the Palmachim base," the ministry said. "The results of the launch are being examined by the technical team."
I [...]
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned Iraqis on Tuesday that two more years of electricity shortages lay ahead as there is no quick fix to the problem despite bloody demonstrations since the weekend.
He also launched a defiant defence of his beleaguered electricity minister but did not rule out accepting his colleague's offer to resign after a spate of protests over power r [...]
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on regional powers on Tuesday to stop meddling in Iraqi coalition talks, blaming them for the absence of a new government nearly four months after elections.
"I am not prepared to wait for what the external intervention will say, but unfortunately, the external intervention is influencing the national situation," Maliki told a news conf [...]
BEIRUT (AFP) - Lebanon said on Tuesday it would hold Israel responsible for any attack, in response to Israeli warnings that it would use "all necessary force" to stop aid boats planning to sail to blockaded Gaza.
"Israel will be held fully responsible for any attack on Lebanon," the foreign ministry said in a letter to the United Nations.
Lebanon "can not prohibit a ship from leaving it [...]
SANAA (AFP) - British minister for the Middle East Alistair Burt said in Sanaa on Tuesday that tackling Yemen's economic and social challenges is the best way to defeat terrorism in the poor Arab nation.
"Working together to address (the economic and social challenges that Yemen faces) is the best way to defeat terrorism within Yemen’s borders," Burt said after meeting Yemeni Presi [...]
TEHRAN (AFP) - An Iranian official said 10 associates of hanged Sunni rebel Abdolmalek Rigi were put on trial on Tuesday for illegally entering the country to carry out "acts of sabotage," ISNA news agency said.
The trial of the members of the shadowy Sunni Jundallah (Soldiers of God) began just two days after the hanging of their leader Rigi.
"The public hearing of 10 associates of Abdo [...]
Passengers jump out of plane in India after bad landing
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