Middle East News

CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt said on Thursday that it will not abolish the death penalty because it is a deterrent, even though human rights groups say that fair trials are not guaranteed. Full Story »

TEHRAN (AFP) - Parliament speaker Ali Larijani has said that the United States behaved like a "terrorist" by abducting its nuclear scientist who went missing in Saudi Arabia, state television reported on Wednesday. Full Story »

MOSCOW (AFP) - Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki on Thursday rejected holding Middle East peace talks in Moscow in the absence of preliminary negotiations with Israel. Full Story »

CAIRO - An al-Qaida offshoot that has claimed responsibility for kidnapping three Spaniards and a Frenchman in West Africa last month said Wednesday the four Europeans were in good health and treated according to Islamic laws. Full Story »

RIYADH (AFP) - Saudi Arabia rebuffed charges that the US kidnapped a Iranian nuclear scientist on a pilgrimage to Mecca, a Saudi newspaper said Wednesday, while a leading Iranian politician branded the act "terrorist behaviour." Full Story »

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Baghdad is to move disarmed Iranian rebels from a camp close to the border to southern Iraq before deporting them, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in remarks released on Thursday. Full Story »

TEHRAN (AFP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that Iran's plan to build 10 new uranium enrichment plants was not aimed at confronting the UN atomic watchdog, which censured Tehran last month, the state television website reported. Full Story »

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran would strike back at Israeli weapons manufacturing sites and nuclear installations if the Jewish state attacked the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities, Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi was quoted as saying Wednesday. Full Story »

PARIS (AFP) - France will hand back to Egypt five stolen relics on Monday when President Hosni Mubarak visits Paris, ending a row over the wall fragments sold to the Louvre. Full Story »

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will "show no mercy" toward opposition protesters seen as threatening national security, a judiciary official said on Tuesday, a day after thousands of students staged anti-government rallies. Full Story »

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran believes the United States is holding a former deputy defense minister who disappeared in 2007 and 10 other Iranian nationals, according to a list carried by the semi-official Mehr news agency on Wednesday. Full Story »

AMMAN (AFP) - Jordan's King Abdullah II named former royal court minister Samir Rifai as prime minister on Wednesday and, in a move analysts said signalled a new push for reform. Full Story »

TEHRAN (AFP) - Protesters clashed with supporters of the Iranian regime for a second straight day Tuesday even as the chief prosecutor threatened to try the main opposition leader and vigilantes briefly besieged his office. Full Story »

TEHRAN (AFP) - Tehran Tuesday accused the United States of abducting an Iranian nuclear scientist who went missing in Saudi Arabia during a minor Muslim pilgrimage, and said Riyadh must also be held accountable. Full Story »

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Thousands of demonstrators rallied outside the Israeli prime minister's residence in Jerusalem on Wednesday to protest a 10-month moratorium on new building permits for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. Full Story »

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's chief prosecutor indicated Tuesday that Mir Hossein Mousavi and other opposition figures could be hauled before court, as dozens of people on motorcycles surrounded the office of the ex-premier. Full Story »

JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Israeli parliament on Wednesday passed the first reading of a bill requiring a referendum to approve a pull-out from annexed east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as part of any peace deal. Full Story »

TEHRAN (AFP) - An Iranian nuclear scientist who went missing in Saudi Arabia has been "handed over by Riyadh to Washington," Mehr news agency reported on Tuesday, quoting Tehran's foreign ministry spokesman. Full Story »