Arab News Portal

By Zerin Elci

ANKARA (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on Thursday for quickly starting face-to-face negotiations with Syria after a third round of indirect peace talks mediated by Turkey ended with an agreement to meet again.

“With the Syrians, we are talking seriously and, in my estimation, very soon the negotiations will have to be direct,” Olmert told an economic conference in the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat. “They will not be able to continue in the mode in which they are currently being held.”

MADRID. July 4. KAZINFORM. The World Petroleum Congress wrapped up yesterday in the shadow of record crude prices, with concern growing about a third oil shock but with little consensus about what to do about …

In this July 2007 photo, a poster showing radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, right, and Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah is held up during a protest march in the Amil neighbourhood in Baghdad.

The four-wheel-drives outside the terracotta villas include a Lexus and a Porsche , and under the shade of the palms and the bright red poinciana trees men in liveried overalls are buffing them to a shine.

The trial of Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Morocco on charges of conspiracy and spreading false information is set to resume on Friday after a stormy first hearing on Tuesday.

The candidacy of the Moroccan city, Rabat, to host the permanent seat of the pan-African organisation of Africa’s United Cities and Loca l Governments has been approved by the continental body’s congress, held …

Iraq’s prime minister plans trips abroad this month, apparently hoping improved security at home will pay dividends in greater international support - including from a country that did not back the U.S. …

The Moroccan Office National de l’Electricite and Algerian company Sonelgaz signed, here Thursday, a trade agreement on energy transit to the Spanish market through the Moroccan network.

CHALLENGE: James Briaris, left, of Great Somerford will swim the Strait of Gibraltar in memory of his friend, Mark Holt’s mother who died with cancer SWIMMER James Briaris will be tackling the Strait of …

The Libyan embassy in Nairobi Monday denied involvement in the deal to buy the Grand Regency Hotel at Sh2.9 billion.