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UN chief sending Gaza war crimes report to Security Council

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday he will send a report calling for Israel and the Palestinians to investigate alleged war crimes during last winter's conflict in Gaza to the UN Security Council "as soon as possible."

World Focus: Without Abbas, does doomsday loom?

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

When Western diplomats considered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's announcement that he did not want to stand for re-election yesterday, they must have asked themselves the famous question attributed to Metternich about the death of a rival, "What did he mean by that?"

Abbas makes shock decision not stand in Palestinian poll

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, last night chided the US and announced that he did not want to stand for another term in elections officially scheduled for January.

Israel seizes cache of arms ‘bound for Lebanon’

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:00:47 GMT

The Israeli navy yesterday seized a ship carrying what defence officials said was five hundred tons of Iranian-supplied weapons bound for Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, including Katyusha rockets that could be used in the event of renewed Israel-Hizbollah hostilities.

Iran's reformists use key anniversary to defy regime

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

It was meant to be a highlight of the Iranian revolutionary calendar, a day of mass rallies sponsored by the government to showcase contempt for America and the West.

Paedophile rapist to be beheaded and crucified in Saudi Arabia

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:44:12 GMT

A man who kidnapped and raped five children, one of whom was left in the desert to die, has been sentenced to be beheaded and his body publicly crucified.

Rapist to be beheaded and crucified in Saudi Arabia

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:44:12 GMT

A man who kidnapped and raped five children, one of whom was left in the desert to die, has been sentenced to be beheaded and his body publicly crucified.

Settlement by stealth belies promises of restraint

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Maysaa Al-Kurd has lived all her life in the home her family moved into in 1956. The pomegranate tree standing in the garden was planted by her father when she was still an infant nearly half a century ago. But that hardly reassured her yesterday when she heard the Jewish settlers break into the next-door extension building her brother Nabil built to house his family in 2001.

Iran calls for talks over UN nuclear deal

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Iran wants more talks on a UN-drafted nuclear deal and prefers to import atomic fuel rather than send its own uranium abroad for processing, a senior official said yesterday, suggesting terms that world powers are likely to rebuff.

Clinton backtracks on Israeli settlements after Arab anger

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, was forced into an awkward diplomatic pirouette yesterday, insisting to Arab foreign ministers that Washington had not capitulated to Israel's continuing hunger for new Jewish settlements even if statements she had made 24 hours earlier seemed to imply exactly that.

Iraq bicycle bomb kills five

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

A bomb attached to a bicycle killed five people in southern Iraq yesterday, and at least five others were killed in violence across the country, police said.

Jewish extremist held for hate crimes

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Israelis targeted by a suspected extremist Jewish settler called for harsh penalties if the man, accused of a series of murders and attempted murders, is found guilty.

Clinton backs Israel on settlements stance

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Palestinian leaders angrily accused Hillary Clinton of undercutting Middle East peace prospects yesterday after she endorsed Israel's plans to continue expanding West Bank settlements.

Iranian politicians reject UN-drafted uranium plan

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:32:45 GMT

Iran's senior politicians have rejected a UN-backed plan to ship much of the country's uranium abroad for further enrichment.

Politicians in Libya for terror redress talks

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:41:57 GMT

A delegation of politicians from Northern Ireland were heading to Libya today for talks about compensation for victims of IRA violence.

Iran heads for nuclear row

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Iran yesterday proposed changes to a UN-drafted nuclear fuel deal, making demands that appeared to challenge the basis of the agreement with the United States, France and Russia, Iranian media said.

Student expelled to Gaza Strip by force

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

A Palestinian student has been handcuffed, blindfolded and forcibly expelled to the Gaza Strip by Israeli troops just two months before she was due to graduate from university.

Kate Allen: Swimming the Israeli settlements

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:52:55 GMT

In the 1968 film “The Swimmer”, starring Burt Lancaster, the hero hits on the idea of getting home by swimming the length of various pools owned by his rich friends in a leafy north-eastern US state.

Israel accused of denying Palestinians access to water

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Israel is accused today of denying the West Bank and Gaza access to adequate water through a "total" and "discriminatory" control that enables its own people to consume four times as much as the Palestinians.

Saudi king scraps flogging for sex talk show woman

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:59:42 GMT

Saudi Arabia's king waived a flogging sentence on a female journalist charged for involvement in a risque TV show, the second such pardoning of such a high profile case by the monarch in recent years.

First inspectors visit Iran's secret nuclear plant as talks hit deadlock

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

UN inspectors yesterday got their first look inside a once-secret Iranian uranium enrichment plant that raised western suspicions about Tehran's nuclear programme.

Carnage in Baghdad as twin blasts strike city

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Devastating twin car bombings wreaked carnage in the heart of Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 147 people and injuring 520 others in the deadliest attack in the country in two years.

Poll date pushes Palestinian rivals even further apart

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:19:06 GMT

Hamas, the militant Palestinian movement that rules the Gaza Strip is accusing Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate president in the West Bank, of deepening internal Palestinian divisions by unilaterally setting January elections.

Hamas accuses Abbas of deepening divisions

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:19:06 GMT

UN makes a drama out of Gaza crisis

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:17:12 GMT

Her face larger than life on the big screen at the back of the stage, Jodie Clarke explains just what was happening at her workplace on 15 January 2009, and how the military she was constantly in touch with were insisting it was not. “My dear, I am standing in my building,” she says she told the person at the other end of the phone. “It is collapsing around me. There is a huge fire. You are hitting the UN compound.”