Middle East News - AP

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military released an Iraqi television cameraman for the Reuters news agency and other news organizations without charges Thursday after 23 days in detention.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - When Ruwaida al-Habis' father and two brothers were badly burned in a fire, she had no choice but to break Saudi Arabia's ban on women drivers to get them to a clinic.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Gaza's 1.4 million Palestinians, already largely confined to their narrow strip of land by Israeli and Egyptian border closures, face a new travel restriction: The Hamas administration has run out of passports.

JERUSALEM - The politician with perhaps the best chance to replace Israel's embattled prime minister on Thursday called for a unity government to pursue the creation of a Palestinian state living peacefully alongside Israel.

BAGHDAD - Iraq and China will sign a deal next week to develop the Ahdab oil field, restoring an agreement that was canceled after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, an Iraqi spokesman said Thursday.

BAGHDAD - An al-Qaida in Iraq front organization is claiming responsibility for a suicide attack that killed a U.S.-allied Sunni leader in northern Baghdad on Sunday.

As of Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008, at least 4,145 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

BAGHDAD - Top Sunni politicians on Wednesday accused Iraq's Shiite-dominated security forces of carrying out political arrests, and warned that this could push Iraq into another round of sectarian fighting.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Sudan's indicted president denied Wednesday that his regime is orchestrating genocide in the troubled western region of Darfur — and offered hope for an end to the violence and the dawn of reconciliation by promising free and fair elections next year.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi and U.S. negotiators have finished work on a draft security agreement that would see all American troops leave Iraqi cities by June 30 and the rest of the country by the end of 2011, Iraqi officials said Wednesday.

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's interior minister on Wednesday confirmed that 13 policemen were wounded in a suicide bombing this week.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military says Iraqi troops have detained the son of a prominent Sunni leader during a raid in Baghdad.

JERUSALEM - Israel has closed its cargo crossings with the Gaza Strip following a Palestinian rocket attack on southern Israel that violated a truce.

CAIRO, Egypt - Fire ravaged a 19th century palace used by the upper house of Egypt's parliament Tuesday, with flames bursting through windows as helicopters scooped water from the Nile River to douse the blaze.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Turkey's president urged Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir during talks Tuesday to act responsibly and to end the suffering in the devasted Darfur region.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi railway officials say Saddam Hussein's personal luxury train will return to service next month.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's official news agency says the country is preparing to build more nuclear power plants.

JERUSALEM - An army magazine says Israel is working on an unmanned vehicle that would evacuate wounded soldiers from the battlefield.

BAGHDAD - The Shiite-led government is cracking down on U.S.-backed Sunni Arab fighters in one of Iraq's most turbulent regions, arresting some leaders, disarming dozens of men and banning them from manning checkpoints except alongside official security forces.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has test launched a rocket it plans to use to carry a research satellite into orbit, state television reported Sunday.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - At first, the differences between the United Arab Emirates two leading cities were merely cultural. Abu Dhabi built world-class museums as fast as Dubai put up extravagant shopping malls — one with a ski slope inside.

TAL AFAR, Iraq - A series of bombings in this small but strategic northwestern Iraqi city is stoking fears of a return to sectarian conflict here and raising questions about a strategy of handing urban security to Iraqi police.

CAIRO, Egypt - A day after giving birth to septuplets, a 27-year-old Egyptian woman said Sunday she's only seen her babies on television and hopes to hold them and name them soon.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan police commanders on Sunday ordered 7,000 officers onto the capital's streets, including the country's youngest cadets, to secure Kabul ahead of Independence Day celebrations.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Turkish warplanes hit a suspected Kurdish rebel target in northern Iraq, Turkey's military said Sunday.