Briefly

ISRAEL

Foreign minister will attend forum

JERUSALEM — Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will fly to Qatar this weekend to attend the Doha Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade, a top Israeli official said yesterday.

Ms. Livni will leave Sunday for Doha, where she will also address delegates to the forum, said the Israeli official. She will stay in Qatar until the meeting ends Tuesday.

She is expected to push for the release of Israeli conscript Gilad Shalit, seized in a June 2006 cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip by militants including members of the Islamist Hamas, the Ynet Web site reported. It said she would also raise the issue of Iran’s nuclear program.

IRAN

Reformist cleric starts jail term

TEHRAN — Iran has jailed a reformist cleric convicted of acting against national security and spreading propaganda against Iran’s Islamic system, ISNA reported yesterday.

Hadi Ghabel was taken to prison Monday to serve his 40-month jail term, the news agency said.

Mr. Ghabel is a midranking cleric who is a member of the executive council of Iran’s main reformist party, the Iranian Islamic Participation Front.

SAUDI ARABIA

Pakistani beheaded in murder case

RIYADH — A Pakistani man was beheaded by the sword yesterday after he was convicted of murdering a compatriot in Saudi Arabia, the interior ministry said.

Mohammed Faruq Fadl was found guilty of fatally beating Mohammed Afdal Wali Mohammed and dumping his body in a mountainous area, said a ministry statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

The execution, in the southern Assyr region, brings to 38 the number announced by Saudi Arabia this year.

SYRIA

Damascus aids in Hariri probe

DAMASCUS — Syria has been cooperating with a U.N. probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a senior official said in comments published yesterday.

“Syria has cooperated in a positive manner with the international investigation,” according to Ath-Thawra newspaper, quoting Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad.

A panel of U.N. investigators led by Canadian former prosecutor Daniel Bellemare released a report last month into the 2005 assassination, saying a “criminal network” was behind Mr. Hariri’s slaying in a Beirut car bombing.

SYRIA

Oil refinery deal made with China

SHANGHAI — China and Syria have signed an agreement to build a joint-venture refinery in eastern Syria, expanding their cooperation to include oil processing, state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. has disclosed.

China’s state-owned oil industry has been investing heavily abroad in hopes of securing energy supplies to fuel its booming economy.

Syria has been seeking Chinese technology to increase output from its own oil fields and reduce its reliance on oil-product imports.

From wire dispatches and staff reports