Middle East News

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's Foreign Ministry says the country is ready to exchange its low-enriched uranium with a higher enriched one, but only on its own soil.

BAGHDAD - Google is documenting the treasures of Iraq's national museum.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - For years just an obscure fight raging in remote desert mountains, Yemen's war with Shiite rebels has been dragged up to a new level, inflaming the rivalry between the Middle East's two powerhouses Saudi Arabia and Iran.

JERUSALEM - Israel's military says it has carried out three airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, targeting a weapons-manufacturing facility and weapons smuggling tunnels.

BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament failed Monday to produce an election law acceptable to minority Sunni Arabs, prompting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to say that nationwide balloting scheduled for January "might slip" to a later date.

JERUSALEM - Israel TV reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is proposing a 10-month freeze in construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

SAN'A, Yemen - A Japanese engineer seized by Yemeni tribesmen seeking to swap him for a prisoner with al-Qaida links was released Monday after a week in captivity.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian authorities have banned the country's largest-circulation newspaper for publishing a photo of a Baha'i temple, state media reported Monday.

Palestinians said Monday that negotiators were close to exchanging an Israeli soldier held by Gaza militants for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israel has carried out such swaps in the past:

LONDON (AFP) - A long-awaited public inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq war held its first hearing Tuesday, six and a half years after Tony Blair controversially led the country in backing the US-led conflict.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran could consider sending its low-enriched uranium abroad, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, signaling a possible softening of its opposition to a plan aimed at easing Western concern over its nuclear ambitions.

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Three Palestinians were wounded early on Tuesday as Israel carried out three air strikes on Hamas-run Gaza in response to rocket fire from the enclave, witnesses, medics and the army said.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - An Israeli minister said on Tuesday that a deal with the Islamist Hamas movement to swap a Gaza-held soldier in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners was "very close."

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran does not oppose sending its controversial low-enriched uranium abroad as long as there is a simultaneous exchange inside the country of nuclear fuel processed by world powers, a senior official said on Tuesday.

BRASILIA (AFP) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has urged his visiting Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to find a "just solution" with the West to Tehran's contested nuclear program.

BRASILIA, Brazil - Iran's leader got a welcoming bear hug from the Brazilian president, who urged Western nations to drop threats of punishment over the Iranian nuclear program and instead negotiate a fair solution.

BRASILIA (AFP) - Visiting Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said Monday that US and Israeli military threats against Iran were a thing of the past, and that, in any case, "they don't have the courage" to attack Iran.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A popular conservative newspaper critical of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been closed down for carrying a photograph of a temple of the banned Baha'i faith, media reported on Tuesday.

LONDON (AFP) - A long-awaited public inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq war opens Tuesday, with former civil servants first to appear in hearings set to climax with Tony Blair taking the stand.

LONDON (AFP) - The government will this week announce details of an inquiry into the alleged torture and murder of Iraqi detainees by British troops, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Belgian man pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of conspiring to illegally export F-5 fighter jet engines and parts from the United States to Iran, the Justice Department said.

SANAA (AFP) - A Japanese engineer freed after nine days held hostage by tribesmen near the Yemeni capital Sanaa voiced his relief at his release and said he just wanted to see his wife and take a shower.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - A senior Israeli official has met with the foreign minister of Oman on the sidelines of a water meeting in Muscat, the Haaretz daily reported on Tuesday.

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran on Monday shut down a best-selling newspaper, Hamshahri, for carrying a picture of a temple belonging to the outlawed Bahai sect, the official IRNA news agency reported.

MOBILE, Alabama (AFP) - An alleged Belgian arms dealer has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to export fighter jet engines and parts to Iran, US justice officials said.

TEHRAN, Iran - Former Iranian Interior Minister Ali Kordan, who was dismissed after being accused of faking a law degree from the University of Oxford, has died, reports said Monday. He was 51.

BANJUL (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday vowed closer cooperation with Gambia at the end of a 24-hour visit to the west African nation and stressed the country's identical views on world issues.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran on Sunday began large-scale air defense war games aimed at protecting its nuclear facilities from attack, state TV reported, as an air force commander boasted the country could deter any military strike by Israel.

SANAA (AFP) - For Yemenis, the mild narcotic qat is as much a part of the social fabric as an after-dinner drink in the West and, as with brandies, connoisseurs want the best varieties. But the trees that produce the most sought-after leaves now lie in a war zone.