Middle East News

BAGHDAD - Google is documenting Iraq's national museum and will post photographs of its ancient treasures on the Internet early next year, Google chief Eric Schmidt announced Tuesday.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's official news agency reports a political activist and former head of the Tehran municipal council has been released on bail in the mass trial of opposition figures accused of fomenting the post-election unrest.

JERUSALEM - Israel's prime minister tried on Tuesday to temper expectations that a deal to free an Israeli soldier held by Hamas militants was imminent.

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi election official says a political dispute has made it "impossible" to hold elections in January as required by the constitution, and that a delay is certain.

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.

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.

LONDON (AFP) - A long-awaited public inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq war opened on Tuesday, with the chairman vowing not to "shy away from criticism" of individuals or institutions over the controversial conflict.

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 movement Hamas to swap a Gaza-held soldier for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners was "very close."

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran can take legal action if Russia refuses to fulfill its commitments to deliver an advanced missile defense system to the Islamic Republic, a senior military 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - US Internet giant Google will soon begin digitising artefacts and documents at Iraq's National Museum, its chief executive said in Baghdad on Tuesday.