Lebanon needs both security and freedom
In Lebanon, the rulers are proud of existing freedoms and the reformers are obsessed with national security. All summer the Lebanese have been waiting for a new cabinet of ministers to emerge, with no results yet. For the people it feels like going through a ten-month pregnancy. Lebanon's sectarian formula of power sharing offers a...
Rift developing between PA and Fatah
October 17th, 20090 RAMALLAH (IPS) — An increasingly isolated and unpopular Palestinian Authority (PA) has again made a 180-degree turn in the Goldstone Report fiasco as it tries to fend off mounting criticism from all and sundry, including its own organization. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gestures during his visit to the West Bank city...Children flee fighting in Yemen
AMRAN, Yemen (IPS/AJ) — As the conflict between government forces and Houthi fighters grinds on in the mountains of Saada in northern Yemen, thousands of Yemeni civilians, many of them children, are being forced from their homes by the fighting. The latest U.N. figures estimate that 150,000 have so far been displaced by the bloodiest...Abbas and the Goldstone Report: Our shame is complete
As Israeli bombs fell on the Gaza Strip during its one-sided war between Dec. 27, 2008 and Jan. 18, 2009, millions around the world took to the streets in complete and uncompromising outrage. The level of barbarity in that war, especially as it was conducted against a poor, defenseless and physically trapped nation, united people of...Celebrating healthy living
A marching strawberry might not be what most people imagine when they think of refugee camps. But if you were visiting the war-damaged Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el Bared in northern Lebanon last year, you would have seen children in colorful, fruit-themed costumes marching in a parade down the camp's narrow and cluttered streets....Virtually, some real freedom in Egypt
CAIRO (IPS) — Egyptians critical of their government are using new media and the Internet to expose its improprieties and press for social change. More than 12 million Egyptians, about 15 percent of the population, are logging on regularly.Twitter users in Egypt have provided minute-by-minute coverage of labor strikes,...Saudi king visits Syria to boost ties
The king of Saudi Arabia visited Damascus last Wednesday for talks with the Syrian president aimed at healing a long-standing rift between the two countries. Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (R) welcomes King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at the al-Shaeb presidential palace in Damascus October 7, 2009. King Abdullah...How Israel bought off UN’s war crimes probe
Israel celebrated last weekend its success at the United Nations in forcing the Palestinians to defer demands that the International Criminal Court investigate allegations of war crimes committed by Israel during its winter assault on the Gaza Strip. The about-turn, following vigorous lobbying from Israel and the United States,...After Goldstone, Hamas faces fateful choice
The uproar over the Palestinian Authority's (PA) collaboration with Israel to bury the Goldstone Report, calling for trials of Israeli leaders for war crimes in Gaza, is a political earthquake. The whole political order in place since the 1993 Oslo accords were signed is crumbling. As the initial tremors begin to fade, the same old...Riots may point to third Palestinian uprising
EAST JERUSALEM (IPS) — Palestinian politicians and Israeli political analysts are warning of a third Palestinian intifada following serious rioting in East Jerusalem last Sunday. Palestinians carry the body of Fuad Torokman during his funeral in the West Bank town of Yabad, near Jenin September 30, 2009. An Israeli army jeep...UAE accused of expelling Lebanese Shi’a
BEIRUT — The United Arab Emirates has expelled dozens of long-term Lebanese Shi'a residents from the country over their presumed affiliation with Hizbullah, a representative said on Wednesday. "The common factor among all those expelled in the past three months is that they are all Shii'a and as such are part of a community that...
Human catastrophe looms as war rages on in Yemen
September 30th, 20090 NORTH YEMEN (IPS/Al Jazeera) — In the searing heat of the desert near the Saudi border, the sound of heavy artillery echoes across the mountains every few minutes, hammering the ears of Askar Ragass and her terrified family. Askar says she and her family fled the fighting and sought refuge at the al-Mazraq IDP camp. PHOTO:...
Peacemaker works to save Yemen
September 30th, 20090 Tribal conflict and revenge killings are rife in Yemen, where about half the population is illiterate and poverty is widespread. Sheik Abdul-Rahman Al-Marwany, president of the Dar Al-Salaam organization, works as an anti-revenge mediator between different tribes. Karim Ben Khelifa / Oeil Public for TIME With war-torn Somalia...
Cairo sinking in garbage
September 30th, 20090 CAIRO — Garbage collectors in Cairo's Giza district have resumed work, but it could take weeks to clear the 25,000 tons of garbage that accumulated during their month-long strike, and longer still to solve the underlying problems. "We're drowning in garbage," says Hany El-Sayed, a butcher whose shop overlooks a meter-high pile of...Widows and children begin to beg
GAZA CITY (IPS) — There are few parks and green spaces in Gaza, and those that exist are crowded with people hungry for nature. Day and night, people of all ages flock to the Joondi, or the park of the Unknown Soldier, in central Gaza City. An Israeli army convoy drives by the northern Gaza border September 22, 2009. U.S.......
Gaza’s water supply near collapse
September 19th, 20090 RAMALLAH (IPS) — The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that Gaza's access to safe supply of drinking water could cease at any time. The World Health Organization (WHO) says outbreaks of disease could be triggered as a consequence. Palestinians fill a water tank in front of a house, damaged during the...Arabs tackle free speech taboo
As soon as the cameramen called it a wrap, the audience swarmed onto the TV studio set. Almost giddy with delight, several university students from Saudi Arabia went straight for chairs vacated by the performers and pretended to be stars of the show. The Doha Debates, the five-year-old hit show on BBC World News. The program......
Gender discrimination in citizenship rights
MANAMA (IPS) — There is inequality in citizenship laws for women and men in the Gulf Arab states. Bahraini women chat Tuesday in front of a wall in a Shiite Muslim village that's been marked with anti-government graffiti. PHOTO: AP Here in Bahrain, women who marry foreigners cannot obtain citizenship for their husbands or...Stormy times as U.S. withdraws from Iraq
WASHINGTON (IPS) — Political violence in Iraq killed 456 Iraqis in August, the highest monthly death toll since July 2008. And with the U.S. showing no sign it plans to reverse the troop withdrawal that is now well underway, numerous struggles for power are shaping up inside Iraq. A resident watches Iraqi police secure the...
Lebanon’s PM-designate Hariri quits
September 11th, 20090 BEIRUT — Saad Hariri, Lebanon's prime minister-designate, is stepping down just 10 weeks after being asked to form a unity government. Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman (L) meets with prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri at Beiteddine palace in Beiteddine village, Mount Lebanon September 10, 2009. Hariri said on Thursday...
Thousands of worshippers shut out of East Jerusalem
September 5th, 20090 QALANDIA (IPS) — The future of East Jerusalem and of Palestinian access to it has again been brought under the spotlight. In this 2008 BBC photo, West Bank Palestinians wait to be granted access through the Israeli checkpoint at Kalandia so they can attend Friday prayers in the al-Aqsa mosque in Israeli-occupied East......
In Syria, delicate preservation work is pushing against profit-driven speed
DAMASCUS — It claims to be the world's oldest capital city, outlived only by Aleppo, Syria; and Jericho, on the West Bank. The proof is there, in Mesopotamian texts that mention Damascus and in a deep urban foundation of streets, houses, and sewers from every civilization, piled on top of one another. An old Damascus...Israel evicts Palestinians to the street, moves Israelis into homes
EAST JERUSALEM (IPS) — Israel's continued policy of Judaizing East Jerusalem in order to establish facts on the ground before the future of that part of the city is decided, has left dozens of Palestinians homeless and sleeping on the streets. Israeli soldiers scuffle with Palestinian and foreign peace activists after they......
Critical healthcare fails to recover
RAMALLAH — The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that unless the siege of Gaza is lifted and a political solution implemented, Gaza's badly damaged health system will go from very bad to worse. Palestinians walk past the UNRWA office, where representatives of Palestinian refugee camps conduct a sit-in protest against...Iraqi-Syrian feud political suicide for Maliki
Relations between Iraq and Syria plunged abruptly on Tuesday after Baghdad recalled its ambassador to Damascus over the recent bombings in the Iraqi capital in which 100 Iraqis were killed. Iraqi ambassador in Syria Ala al-Jawadi speaks during a news conference at his office in Damascus August 25, 2009. Iraq and Syria recalled......