Lebanese caught by surprise
BEIRUT — It was far from business as usual in the second round of Lebanon's municipal elections. An image taken from a video of a minor scuffling incident at election polls in in south Lebanon."Urgent: The Free Patriotic Movement calls on its supporters to volunteer and vote for us to make a difference. Five hours remain! Change is a...
Deadly blasts hit Sadr City
May 16th, 20100 A woman walks past a piece of a destroyed car at the site of Wednesday's bomb attack in Baghdad May 13, 2010. REUTERS/Kareem RaheemBAGHDAD — A late night car bomb that tore through a cafe in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood killing nine people appears to have detonated prematurely, also blowing up three suspected militants in the...
Yemen’s sorrowful options: Revolt, migrate or die
May 15th, 20100 When the Soviets concluded their pull-out from Afghanistan in February 1989, the United States government abruptly lost interest in the country. A man walks under a poster supporting Yemen's national unity in the southern port city of Aden May 13, 2010. Yemenis will celebrate on May 22, the 20th anniversary of the reunification of South...Young Lebanese demonstrate for secularism in Beirut
BEIRUT — "Sectarianism kills" and "We are for civil marriage, not civil war" read the colorful banners at a protest in the center of Beirut.Hundreds of young Lebanese gathered to march for secularism in a country that lives under a deeply divisive sectarian system.Being Lebanese in Lebanon comes second to being a Christian or a Muslim,...
Bad faith in the Holy City
April 25th, 20100 The Israeli government's announcement in March that it would further expand East Jerusalem settlements was just the latest in a decades-old series of calculated slights to the United States. Israeli Arabs and other supporters march during a protest to mark the right of return for refugees who fled their homes during the 1948 war that...Women make progress but honor killings persist
AMMAN (IPS) — Earlier this month here, a 33-year-old man was charged with hammering his wife to death and dumping her body on the highway leading to the Queen Alia International Airport. The husband confessed to murdering her ''to defend his honor," as she was meeting a male friend.Also this month local newspapers ran a story about a...Imam assassination sparks fears of violence
BAGHDAD (IPS) - The assassination of Sheikh Ghazi Jabouri, a prominent Sunni imam in the Al- Adhamiya district of Baghdad, has raised fears of renewed sectarian violence in the wake of the March 7 elections.Tensions have been reported in the area following the assassination Wednesday last week. At least two gunmen killed Sheikh Jabouri,...Election sets off new political tussle
BAGHDAD (IPS) — The March elections here have only deepened political divisions and brought more violence. Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (C) greets people attending a conference on national reconciliation in Baghdad April 12, 2010. ...
Critics question ElBaradei’s promises of change
April 20th, 20100 CAIRO (IPS) — Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), rocked Egypt's political arena last year by announcing his desire to contest the presidency. But while the idea has fired the imagination of political activists, many analysts remain skeptical. A protester shouts anti-government slogans...Leaked video of shooting spurs calls for new probe
WASHINGTON (IPS) — Journalist advocacy groups called for the reopening of an investigation into the 2007 killing of a Reuters photographer and his driver after the WikiLeaks website released classified video footage on Monday of a 2007 helicopter attack in Baghdad which killed 12 people. Undated file photo of Reuters driver Saeed...Rights group alleges war crimes
WASHINGTON (IPS) — The Yemeni government and Houthi rebels should investigate allegations that war crimes took place during recent hostilities between the two groups in the northern region of the country, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released Wednesday."It is time to end the impunity surrounding the cycle of civilian...Flawed U.S. strategy has undermined Iraq’s stability and security
Millions of Iraqis braved bombs and bullets to vote on March 7, 2010, in Iraq's second free elections in a half-century. The vote counting process proved to be more chaotic than expected, with accusations of fraud by leading parties, divisions among highly politicized electoral officials and chaos in disclosing the results. In the...Uphill coalition-building for Iraq election winners unfolds
WASHINGTON (IPS) - Iraq's major political forces are beginning what is likely to be a lengthy and uncertain process of talks to form a government. A key question is whether Iraq's politically diverse groups will join forces based on ideological, ethnic, sectarian or merely pragmatic considerations. Iraq's President Jalal...Roumieh Prison breeds criminality not reform
BEIRUT (IPS) - Lebanon's notorious Roumieh prison, the scene of a stand-off between inmates and security personnel this month, is no stranger to rioting, escapes, corruption and abuse. An army helicopter flies over Roumieh Prison, Lebanon's biggest jail, in the hilly eastern suburb overlooking the capital Beirut, Lebanon,...Arab summit is political theatre
Arab leaders met last week in Libya in a ritual summit held almost annually since the end of the Second World War. Although the League of Arab States (also commonly referred to as the Arab League) was established in 1945, it was not until 1964 that member states met for the first time at the Cairo headquarters to discuss the Israeli......
Debate rages on over proposed alcohol ban in Bahrain
MANAMA (IPS) - Legislators say it would encourage more Islamic behavior and cure social ills, but critics say a complete ban by Bahrain on selling alcohol would mean big losses in tax revenues and lead to a black market in liquor. A campaign launched on the social networking site Facebook by Bahraini youth, though the creation...Rights groups condemn harassment of ex-prisoners in Tunisia
WASHINGTON (IPS) - The Tunisian government should stop the harassment of political prisoners after their release from jail, say rights groups in two new reports. Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali According to both Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, the government of Tunisia often subjects......
Iraq election increases women in parliament regardless of vote count
BAGHDAD (McClatchy) — Maysoun al Damlouji has just one word for the male politicians who are sure to be upset when they find out their newly won parliamentary seats will be handed to female candidates under a quota to increase the role of women in the Iraqi government. An Iraqi woman votes at a polling station in Basra,...
Top ten reasons Jerusalem does not belong only to Jewish-Israelis
March 27th, 20100 Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the American Israel Public Affairs Council on Monday that "Jerusalem is not a settlement." He continued that the historical connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel cannot be denied. He added that neither could the historical connection between the Jewish people and...The battle for Al-Azhar
The controversy surrounding the legacy of Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the head of the Al-Azhar mosque and university who died last week, is more complex than many would expect. Al-Azhar mosque and university. Some of his critics viewed him as the theological functionary through which the state marketed not only its...U.N. slams abuse of emergency law
NEW YORK — Despite diplomatic maneuvering designed to block any review of its human rights record, a United Nations special rapporteur has told the U.N. Human Rights Council that proposed changes in Egypt's constitution "would create a permanent legal state of emergency." Egyptian students protested the Emergency Law recently......
IN PICTURES: ‘Day of Rage’ clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli military
March 19th, 20100 A Palestinian schoolgirl walks past Israeli border police officers on her way home from school during clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian stone-throwers in the Shuafat refugee camp in the West Bank near Jerusalem March 16, 2010. Palestinians mounted violent protests in Jerusalem on Tuesday and President Barack Obama's...‘Day of rage’ engulfs Palestine
Palestinians hurl rocks at Israeli soldiers at Atara checkpoint, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, March 15, 2010. Israeli troops injured at least seven Palestinians during a confrontation in the occupied West Bank on Monday, Palestinian medical sources said. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman View more photos of clashes on the......
Iraq PM’s bloc pulls ahead in vote tally
March 19th, 20100 Journalists monitor a screen showing the fractional results of national election in Baghdad, March 15, 2010. Early results from the March 7 parliamentary vote show Shi'a Arab Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law bloc ahead in seven of 18 provinces, while strong Sunni Arab support has propelled the secularist Iraqiya list...
Yemen to free Houthi rebels
March 19th, 20100 Yemen has come under heavy international pressure to end the northern war and focus on fighting al-Qaeda, whose Yemen-based wing claimed responsibility for a failed attack on a U.S.-bound plane in December. Supporters of the separatist Southern Movement march in an anti-government protest in the Radfan district in southern......
