News Bulletin

(AFP) Top Middle East stories on Sunday:

* Turkey-unrest-Kurds-Iraq
CIZRE, Turkey
The Turkish army said at least 112 Kurdish rebels have been killed in a major offensive in northern Iraq and warned Iraqi Kurds not to shelter militants fleeing the fighting after confirmed a helicopter had been destroyed.

* Iraq-unrest
HILLA, Iraq: A suicide bomber blew himself up amid a crowd of Shiite pilgrims south of Baghdad, killing at least 40 people, police and medical officials told AFP.
Iran-nuclear-politics-UN

* TEHRAN: Iran warned it would hit back with an appropriate response to new UN Security Council sanctions over its contested nuclear programme, as Western powers stepped up efforts to punish Tehran.

Mideast-diplomacy
* JERUSALEM: The top Israeli and Palestinian negotiators hosted the first round of talks of work teams tasked with discussing the technical details of a future peace deal.
Mideast-Israel-Japan-diplomacy-economy

* JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert headed to Japan on a rare visit expected to focus on economic ties as well as efforts to halt Iran's controversial nuclear drive.

* Palestinian-unrest-Hamas
KOBAR, West Bank: Thousands of West Bank Hamas supporters vowed revenge at the funeral of an imam from the Islamist movement who died while in the custody of Palestinian security forces.

* Iraq-Maliki-health
BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki left for London for further medical tests, his second visit to a British hospital in two months, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told AFP.

* Yemen-oil-unrest
SANAA: Yemeni security forces have foiled an attempt to blow up an oil pipeline which was hit by a bomb blast last year, the official Saba news agency reported.
Israel-Egypt-immigration

* JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered security authorities to deport to Egypt migrants who enter the country illegally across their common border.

* Denmark-media-Islam-Jordan
AMMAN: At least 18 Jordanian media outlets will launch a campaign to protest the reprinting of a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed in Danish newspapers, organisers said.