Middle East News

RAMALLAH, West Bank - President Barack Obama warned Mahmoud Abbas in a letter that U.S.-Palestinian relations might suffer if the Palestinian leader refuses to resume direct peace talks with Israel, a senior PLO official said Saturday. Full Story »

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed three Iraqi soldiers responding to an earlier blast Saturday in an area south of Baghdad, officials said. One bystander was also killed. Full Story »

CAIRO - Aid group Doctors Without Borders said it has been forced to suspend work in a volatile part of South Sudan because of attacks against his staff, as violence between rival tribes surges in the area. Full Story »

TEHRAN, Iran - Two strong earthquakes shook different parts of Iran in less than 24 hours, injuring more than 200 people and damaging hundreds of homes, Iranian media reported Saturday. Full Story »

BEIRUT - The leaders of Syria and Saudi Arabia, once bitter rivals, made an unprecedented show of cooperation Friday, traveling together to Lebanon in hopes of preventing any violence if members of a militant group are indicted in the 2005 assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister. Full Story »

TEHRAN, Iran - An Iranian official says cigarettes smuggled into Iran have been tainted with pig blood and nuclear material as part of a Western conspiracy. Full Story »

DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria on Thursday warned the United States to stop trying to interfere as Arab leaders try to defuse heightened tensions in the Middle East. Full Story »

JERUSALEM - Thousands of Israelis marched calmly Thursday in Jerusalem's longest gay pride parade despite opposition from anti-gay demonstrators. Full Story »

CAIRO - Arab nations on Thursday backed the Palestinian president's refusal to immediately restart direct talks with Israel despite heavy U.S. pressure. Full Story »

JERUSALEM - The men behind a unique six-hour eating marathon in Jerusalem want diners to know two things about locusts: First, they taste great stir-fried, and second, they're kosher. Full Story »

JERUSALEM (AFP) - A rocket fired by Gaza militants slammed into southern Israel on Saturday night for the second time in less than 36 hours, causing damages but no casualties, the military said. Full Story »

BRASILIA (AFP) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula on Saturday offered to give asylum to an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, according to news reports. Full Story »

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) - US President Barack Obama has warned Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas that failure to resume direct peace talks with Israel could undermine US-Palestinian ties, Palestinian officials said on Saturday. Full Story »

TEHRAN (AFP) - The case of three US hikers held in Tehran is not linked to that of an Iranian nuclear scientist who returned from the United States, an Iranian official said Saturday on the one-year anniversary of their detention. Full Story »

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi soldiers arrested two suspected insurgents behind a brazen series of attacks in Baghdad this week that killed 16 people and wounded 14 others, a security official said on Saturday. Full Story »

TEHRAN (AFP) - An Iranian documentary filmmaker who returned home after reportedly spending two months in US custody has said the FBI held him in solitary confinement and put "pressure" on him, state media reported Saturday. Full Story »

SANAA (AFP) - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Saturday accused the northern Shiite rebels of rejecting a February truce, through repeated acts of aggression. Full Story »

BINT JBEIL, Lebanon (AFP) - Qatar's emir on Saturday made a high-profile visit to south Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold destroyed in a 2006 war with Israel and whose rebuilding the emirate is helping finance. Full Story »