Middle East News

BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament failed Monday to produce an election law that pleased 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. Full Story »

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

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. Full Story »

JERUSALEM - Hamas leaders raced to Egypt on Monday amid signs of progress on a deal to swap hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for a captive Israeli soldier held by the Islamic militant group for more than three years. Full Story »

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. Full Story »

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: Full Story »

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. Full Story »

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. Full Story »

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military says an American soldier has been killed in action in Iraq. Full Story »

CAIRO - Angry soccer fans rampaged through a posh diplomatic neighborhood in Cairo over the weekend, smashing shop windows and shouting obscenities in a frenzy fed by venomous headlines that portrayed Algerians as barbaric terrorists with a history of violence. Full Story »

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. Full Story »

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. Full Story »

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. Full Story »

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's defence minister will this week announce details of an inquiry into the alleged torture and murder of Iraqi detainees by British troops, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. Full Story »

BRASILIA, Brazil - The world must engage and not isolate Iran in the push for Middle East peace, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday, and Iranian leaders should negotiate with Western nations for a solution to concerns over its nuclear program. Full Story »

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. Full Story »

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. Full Story »

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran will not ship its low enriched uranium abroad, a top security official said on Monday, renewing the government's rejection of UN-drafted proposals aimed at allaying concerns over its nuclear ambitions. Full Story »