Syria under the microscope
WASHINGTON — In a step that could be perceived as a challenge to Republican members of Congress, U.S. President Barack Obama has appointed Robert Ford as the new US ambassador to Syria after congressional hearings on the matter were frozen in February 2010. Ford, who will be the first US ambassador to Damascus in six years, was...Gaza’s children dare to dream
GAZA CITY (IPS) - Despite the lingering trauma of living under siege, regular Israeli military attacks and the consequences of a bloody war several years ago, Gaza’s children still dream of happiness and of normal lives. Palestinians gather around a destroyed motorcycle after an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis in the southern...
Government collapse throws Lebanon into worst political turmoil since 2008
January 15th, 20110 Another drawn-out crisis and possible civil unrest is feared in Lebanon following the collapse of its government on Wednesday, Jan. 12 when the powerful Hizbullah and its allies withdrew from the country's coalition government. Analysts believe that Hariri will not be renamed prime minister if he refuses to reach a deal that is...
Tunisian President Ben Ali quits amid protests, flees country
January 15th, 20110 TUNIS – President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has quit today after more than 23 years in the position and has reportedly fled the north African country, with Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi taking over for the time being. The new interim leader called for unity after weeks of protests against the western-backed regime...Western-backed Ben Ali’s regime on last legs
Embattled Tunisian leader: No more deadly force against protestors TUNIS – A TV announcement was made by Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on Thursday, Jan. 13, his third since unrest began, ordering his nation's security forces to stop firing on demonstrators as the country's economic turmoil has continued and protests...
Lebanese government collapses
January 12th, 20110 BEIRUT - Lebanon's unity government has collapsed after the Hizbullah movement and its political allies resigned from the cabinet over arguments stemming from a UN probe into the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister,on February 14, 2005. There has been growing political...Aoun says Saudi-Syrian efforts fail, March 8 ministers to meet in Rabiyeh
BEIRUT: Free Patriotic Movement (F.P.M.) leader M.P. Michel Aoun said Tuesday Hizbullah and Speaker Nabih Berri's Amal Movement have been informed of the failure of Syrian-Saudi efforts to break the deadlock over the U.N.-backed tribunal investigating former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination. Aoun said a delegation of the...Tunisian unrest stirs Arab world
CAIRO (IPS) – As Western countries were busy celebrating Christmas and dealing with air traffic holiday delays because of snow blizzards, the tranquil North African country of Tunisia was going through events that would have been thought unthinkable just three weeks ago – public unrest that saw thousands demonstrate against the...
Egyptian church bombing fuels sectarian rift
January 8th, 20110 An Egyptian Coptic Christian lights candles for victims of the January 1 attack on an Orthodox Coptic church in Alexandria, in Amman Januray 5, 2011.REUTERS/Ali JarekjiCAIRO (IPS) – It was a tragic year for Egypt's minority Coptic Christian community that began with a drive-by shooting at a church in southern Egypt, and ended in...
New study from Ann Arbor toxicologist links Fallujah birth defects to U.S. weapons
January 8th, 20110 A new study has shed light on the massive surge in post-war birth defects in Fallujah, Iraq, showing for the first time that an epidemic of reproductive abnormalities has likely been caused by the presence of metals in the environment, potentially from the residues of munitions used by American armed forces on the city in 2004. A...
Lebanon: hard days ahead
January 8th, 20110 In Lebanon, 2010 saw the fragile political balance teetering on the edge of breakdown while Israeli threats of renewed war continued, writes Omayma Abdel-Latif Contrary to its beginning, which witnessed a number of political and civil initiatives towards national reconciliation, 2010 was largely marked by events that put at risk the...
Breaking the Israel-Palestine deadlock
January 8th, 20110 While intensively engaged in illegal settlement expansion, the government of Israel is also seeking to deal with two problems: a global campaign of what it perceives as “delegitimation” – that is, objections to its crimes and withdrawal of participation in them – and a parallel campaign of legitimation of Palestine. The...
The Arab world’s tipping point
January 8th, 20110 Nothing much happened for the Arab world in 2010, and nothing much will happen in 2011, writes Ezzedine Choukri Fishere*. But business as usual cannot – and will not – go on indefinitely. 2010 will go down in history, as far as the Arab world is concerned, as the most boring year of the decade – the year when nothing happened....
WikiLeaks: Israel plans total war on Lebanon, Gaza
January 8th, 20110 The Israeli military is planning out massive bombings of areas full of innocent civilians. AshkenaziThe Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten has summarized an Israeli military briefing by Israeli Chief of Staff Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi of a U.S. congressional delegation a little over a year ago and concludes that: "The memo on the talks...Iraq parliament gives Maliki government stamp of approval
BAGHDAD – Iraq's parliament on Tuesday gave Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government a vote of confidence and adopted a 43-point program aimed at liberalizing the economy and fighting terrorism. Parliament, in separate votes, gave its approval to Maliki, three deputy prime ministers and 29 other cabinet ministers, as well as......
Israel continues to destroy peace talks
ISSAWEYA (IPS) – More and more Palestinians are paying the price for deadlocked talks over Israel's continued settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Muhammad Robin Alyyan, 27, from the volatile Issaweya suburb of East Jerusalem, stands next to piles of rubble and twisted metal. This is all that remains of his, and...
The fate of Christians in the Arab world
December 27th, 20100 GENEVA (CGNews) – Should we be concerned about the fate of Christian communities in the Arab world? This burning issue hits the headlines time and again whenever a church is attacked in Iraq or Egyptian Copts are bullied. Most recently an appeal by a group of Iraqi Christians attend a Christmas mass at Chaldean Catholic church......
Islam the solution in face of injustice
First, an apology: I am not going to write about the Wikileaks. I like gossip as much as the next (wo)man. The leaks provide a lot of it, interspersed with some real information. To put it bluntly: secular nationalism has not delivered. It has brought no real independence, no freedom, no economic and technological breakthrough.But...Yemen funneled U.S. aid to insurgency war
NEW YORK (IPS) – Yemen is diverting U.S. military counterterrorism assistance to an abusive military campaign unrelated to terrorist threats, a prominent human rights group has learned from Wikileaks. U.S. military assistance to Yemen more than doubled from $67 million to $150 million in 2010 and is expected to increase to $250...Israel now builds separation wall with Africa
CAIRO (IPS) — After the separation barrier against Palestinian territories, Israel has begun to build a new wall, this one to keep migrants from Africa out. The new wall is coming up on the Egyptian border, and with Egyptian support. The Israeli government approved plans late last month to build a detention camp near its border with...
New poll underlines gloom shrouding “peace process”
December 18th, 20100 WASHINGTON – Hope among both Jewish and Palestinian Israelis that a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians can ever be achieved appears to be fading, according to two major new polls released here Thursday. A solid majority of 63 percent of Palestinian Israelis and a plurality of 47 percent of Jewish Israelis say they don't......
Think your commute is bad?
BETHLEHEM CHECKPOINT (IPS) – It's 5 a.m. The late autumn dawn is about to break. But for 3,500 Palestinian workers, a hard day's work began hours ago. Young and old men push and shove their way out through the narrow lane, barely a meter wide, bars of iron rising above them on either side. Over their heads sits a corrugated steel...Direct Mideast talks collapse, Gulf states back Palestinians
Brazil, Argentina recognize independent Palestine on 1967 borders Houses under construction are seen in a Jewish settlement near Jerusalem known to Israelis as Har Homa and to Palestinians as Jabal Abu Ghneim December 8, 2010. The United States on Tuesday abandoned its effort to persuade Israel to freeze construction of......
New regional alliance emerging
BEIRUT — Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri paid a state visit to Iran for the first time this week, the latest in a series of diplomatic exchanges that highlighted shifting balances within Lebanon and the region. Al-Hariri's trip followed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's touchdown in Beirut a few days before. These...Egypt’s duplicity stands exposed
CAIRO – More than 250,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables released by online whistle- blower WikiLeaks include statements made behind closed doors that could prove embarrassing for Egypt's government, say analysts. The embassy missives lift the veil on Egypt's advice to U.S. administration officials concerning the growing political......