Turkey wants to conclude compensation talks with Israel as soon as possible over the Gaza- bound flotilla incident in 2010, a Turkish diplomat told reporters Monday. "Israel should perfectly know that this is not a process of bargaining. Compensation talks should not be turned into horse trading or dirty bargaining," a Turkish official said, referring to their upcoming talks on Israel's compensation to Turkish victims of an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, which left nine dead three years ago. Ankara wanted to settle the issue as soon as possible, Turkish Daily News quoted the Turkish official as saying. An Israeli delegation, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's national security adviser Yaakov Amidror and Netanyahu 's special envoy Joseph Ciechwill, is set to visit Turkey on April 21-22 for compensation talks, as part of Turkey's second condition for the normalization of their strained bilateral relations with the Jewish state. Israel is willing to pay 100,000 U.S. dollars per victim, in return for dropping all lawsuits against Israeli commandos in Turkish courts, according to unconfirmed Israeli press reports. More»

Security and medical officials say nearly 20 people have been killed and almost 200 others injured in over a dozen bomb attacks carried out across Iraq. On Monday, six car bombs struck in five neighborhoods of the capital, Baghdad. Eight people were killed and nearly 50 others wounded in the explosions. Three car bombs were also detonated in quick succession in Tuz Khurmatu, situated about 175 kilometers (110 miles) north of Baghdad, at around 8:00 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) in the center and east of the town. The blasts killed six people and wounded 60 others. Another trio of car bombs ripped through the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, situated about 290 kilometers (175 miles) north of Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 19 others. Meanwhile, fourteen people were wounded in the city of Nasiriyah, situated about 305 kilometers (190 miles) south of Baghdad, when two explosives-laden cars exploded. More»

Iraq says its security forces have arrested 47 ‘terrorists’ on the charge of smuggling weapons from Iraq into Syria, Press TV reports. Iraqi authorities said a group of militants with the al-Nusra Front terrorist group has been captured in Anbar Province, which is close to the border with Syria. Large caches of weapons were also seized. The turmoil continues in Syria as the army battles foreign-sponsored militant groups in the country. Damascus has time and again called on its neighbors to control the flow of arms and militants into Syria. Last week, the al-Nusra Front formally pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. The terrorist group has been behind many of the deadly bombings targeting both civilians and government institutions across Syria since the beginning of violence in March 2011. While al-Qaeda-linked groups have been listed as terrorist entities under sanctions by the United Nations, militants in Syria, including those belonging to al-Nusra, have been receiving all forms of support from the West. More»

More Syrian refugees are opting to return home from Jordan, with around 300 now crossing back into the war-ravaged country each day, the UN's refugee agency said Friday, voicing deep concern for their safety. UNHCR said it had seen an increase in the past 10 days in the number of people crossing from Jordan into Syria, although it stressed that a far larger number of Syrians continued to flood across the border in the opposite direction. Agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming explained that people were opting to return home for a number of reasons, including reports of improved security in a number of border villages, and to protect their property. Many also want to reunite with family members or fetch left-behind relatives and bring them back to Jordan, Fleming told reporters in Geneva. On average, 300 people a day had over the past week and a half decided to leave Jordan and return mainly to villages close to the border in the Syrian governorate of Daraa. More»

Discussions between the United Nations and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government on a possible investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria have reached an impasse, U.N. diplomats said on Wednesday. Syria and the United Nations have been exchanging letters for weeks but the two sides are far from agreement on how the investigation should be run, diplomats said on condition of anonymity. Syria has asked the United Nations only to investigate what it says was a rebel chemical attack near Aleppo last month. The opposition has blamed President Bashar al-Assad's forces for that strike and also wants the U.N. team to look into other alleged chemical attacks by the government. More»

The Gulf state of Qatar is hosting a two-day conference on development and reconstruction in Sudan's Darfur region. The conference is seeking some $7.2bn (£4.7bn) in development aid aimed at making Darfur more self-dependent. Ahead of the meeting, the UK announced it would contribute at least £33m. Some 300,000 people are thought to have died during a decade of conflict in Darfur, according to UN estimates. As many as 1.4 million remain homeless. Sceptics say efforts to bring peace to Darfur are flawed, pointing to continued instability and division. Demonstrations against the Qatar conference took place across Darfur on Friday, AFP news agency reported. More»

US Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in Turkey, where he will hold talks expected to address relations with Israel and the conflict in Syria. After helping broker a reconciliation between Turkey and Israel, Mr Kerry will urge them to "fully normalise" relations, US officials said. He will also stress the importance of Turkey keeping its border open to those fleeing the war in Syria, they said. Turkey is Mr Kerry's first stop of a 10-day trip to Europe and Asia. He is due to meet Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. More»

The Syrian troops recaptured several rebellious areas near the capital Damascus on Saturday and repulsed an overnight infiltration attempt into the capital, killing tens of rebels, pro-government media reports said. The Syrian troops have reportedly encircled the sprawling eastern al-Ghouta suburb and recaptured many other rebellious suburbs surrounded Damascus, namely Kafreen, Haran al-Awamid, al- Ataibeh, and the industrial city in the Adra suburb. Meanwhile, the pro-government Sham FM radio said that tens of armed men were killed while attempting to infiltrate the capital from the hotspot suburb of Jobar on the eastern rim of Damascus. More»

Israeli tanks fired into Syria on Tuesday after shots were fired at troops in the occupied Golan Heights, a military spokeswoman said, in a further spillover of the Syrian civil war. "Shots were fired at an IDF (Israel Defence Forces) patrol on the border. No injuries or damage was caused. In response, IDF forces returned precise fire at the source and reported a direct hit," the spokeswoman said. The U.N. Security Council voiced concern last week about the increasing spillover into the Golan Heights of the civil war being fought between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebels trying to topple him. Earlier on Tuesday a mortar shell fired during fighting between Syrian forces and rebels landed in the Israeli-controlled territory of the Golan Heights, military sources said. More»

Veteran Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal was re-elected as head of the Islamic terrorist movement after a meeting in Cairo late on Monday. There had been speculation that Meshaal, 56, who is based in exile, would be forced aside by the movement's leaders in the Gaza Strip, which it has controlled since 2007. Meshaal himself had said last year that he would not seek a new term. While the Hamas leader was originally based in Damascus, he is now staying mainly in Doha, Qatar. But a Hamas official said that the party's governing shura council re-elected him for another four years at a meeting in Cairo late on Monday. "The leaders of Hamas chose Meshaal," the high-ranking official told the AFP news agency via telephone from the Egyptian capital, requesting anonymity. "The elections take place in total secrecy, but it's widely known that Meshaal's term will be renewed," said another Hamas official, also speaking on condition of anonymity. More»