Israel begins Gaza ground offensive
January 3rd, 20090 Israeli soldiers advance near the border with central Gaza during a ground operation by the Israeli army late January 3, 2009. Israeli troops clashed with Hamas fighters as they advanced into Gaza on Saturday in the first ground action of an eight-day offensive on the Palestinian enclave, a witness and the Israeli army said....
Hundreds die in Israel raid on Gaza
December 27th, 20080 Smoke rises after an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip December 27, 2008. Israeli warplanes and helicopters pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least 208 people in one of the bloodiest days for the Palestinians in 60 years of conflict with the Jewish state. REUTERS/Baz Ratner At least 220...
UNIFIL troops treat Lebanese children
December 26th, 20080 AIN IBL, LEBANON - Ten toddlers at a nursery school in this southern Lebanon village had a surprise visit from an unlikely version of Santa Claus this week when French United Nations soldiers dressed up to hand out Christmas gifts. A French UNIFIL soldier with a toddler at the Ain Ibl nursery school in South Lebanon, where the...Qatari boat arrives with aid for Palestinians in Gaza
GAZA - The "Dignity" boat docked at the Gaza city harbor at an early hour on Saturday carrying one ton of Qatari medical aid along with representatives of Qatari charitable society and other activists. MP Jamal Al-Khudari, the head of the popular anti siege...U.S. military defiant on key terms of Iraqi pact
WASHINGTON (IPS) - U.S. military leaders and Pentagon officials have made it clear through public statements and deliberately leaked stories in recent weeks that they plan to violate a central provision of the U.S.-Iraq withdrawal agreement requiring the complete withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops from Iraqi cities by mid-2009 by...Can Obama restore our image in Mideast?
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama waves to onlookers as he leaves Anderson Hall after meeting with U.S. Marines on Christmas day at Kaneohe Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kailua December 25, 2008. REUTERS/Hugh Gentry Sitting in a focus group, a young Jordanian bewailed America's relationship with his region: "Since 1948, we have...
Gaza families eat grass as Israel locks border
December 20th, 20080 As a convoy of blue-and-white United Nations trucks loaded with food waited last night for Israeli permission to enter Gaza, Jindiya Abu Amra and her 12-year-old daughter went scrounging for the wild grass their family now lives on. A Palestinian displays her United Nations ration card as she asks for food supplies from the...
In new ads, Palestinians try to sway Israeli public on peace plan
December 20th, 20080 Palestinian children hold candles as part of the Global Peace Rally at the office of Palestinian Legislator Mustafa Barghouti (not pictured) in the West Bank city of Hebron, December 7, 2008. REUTERS/Nayef Hashlamoun Tel Aviv/Ramallah — Along Route 2, which follows the Mediterranean coastline, motorists are seeing an unusual...
WATCH VIDEO: Iraqi journalist throws shoes at Bush
December 16th, 20080 BAGHDAD (AFP) – Iraq faced mounting calls on Monday to release the journalist who hurled his shoes at George W. Bush, an action branded shameful by the government but hailed in the Arab world as an ideal parting gift to an unpopular US president. Colleagues of Muntazer al-Zaidi , who works for independent Iraqi television station...Does Hebron clash signal new round of settler revolts?
Last week's violence in the West Bank reveals just how far ultranationalist Jewish settlers have gone beyond the control of the Israeli government and army. HEBRON, WEST BANK — The violence here last week that started with the Israeli army evacuating ultranationalist settlers from a disputed house was captured on film and broadcast...Saudi women’s group wins EU rights prize
46 years of philanthropic activities give Al-Nahda Society first Chaillot Prize. RIYADH - A Saudi charity that helps divorced and underprivileged women has won a European Union prize for human rights groups in the Gulf, the Riyadh office of the European Commission said on Wednesday. The Al-Nahda Philanthropic Society for Women won...
Maliki’s tenure on ice as rift with Kurds widens
December 13th, 20080 Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki BAGHDAD AND SULAYMANIYAH, IRAQ — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's coalition of support is fraying. The Kurds, his chief Iraqi ally, are increasingly at odds with the Shiite premier over issues of power, oil, the military, and Kirkuk. Maliki's other main sponsor – the Bush...Settlers occupy Palestinian home in Hebron
Grenades and gunfire have been heard in the West Bank city of Hebron after Israeli forces stormed a disputed building to remove Jewish settlers following days of clashes with Palestinians. An Israeli police officer orders a group of Jewish settlers out of a house during the eviction of Jewish settlers from a disputed building in...
Aoun sees ‘bright future’ for ties with Damascus
December 6th, 20080 Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Michel Aoun on Wednesday predicted a "bright future" for ties between Lebanon and his former foe Syria after talks in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (R) shakes hands with Lebanese Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun before a meeting in...Saudi officals hope for safer Haj after renovations
RIYADH – Over two million Muslim pilgrims arrive in the holy city of Mecca this week for the haj pilgrimage amid a vast security operation to avert any militant attacks or deadly stampedes. Muslim pilgrims pray at the top of Mount Noor in Mecca, during the annual pilgrimage (Haj) December 4, 2008. The pilgrims will visit the......
America’s diminishing role in Iraq
Many Iraqis say passage of the US-Iraqi security pact ushers in a new era in which US military power will be replaced by Iraqi political power. BAGHDAD — A surprising development has emerged in this city's streets and its corridors of power – the U.S. and its 140,000 troops have become increasingly irrelevant. Iraqi Prime...“Museum of Tolerance” to be built over Muslim cemetery
On Oct. 29, two years after mediation began in Israeli courts, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s "Museum of Tolerance" could build on a Muslim cemetery, called Mamilla, in Jerusalem. A rendering of the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance. The Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Mohammad Hussein called......
Lebanese waiting for death penalty verdict
BEIRUT (IPS) — The Lebanese government will use television to gain maximum attention for its plan to abolish the death penalty, giving one station the first right to question Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar about the details of an abolition bill which will be eventually presented to parliament. Lebanese peacefully protest the...
No Thanksgiving in Gaza
November 22nd, 20080 On top of humanitarian disaster, a news blackout RAMALLAH (IPS) — Israel has imposed a virtual news blackout on the Gaza Strip. For the last ten days no foreign journalists have been able to enter the besieged territory to report on the escalating humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's complete closure of Gaza's borders for the last...Palestinian split deepens
CAIRO (IPS) — Palestinian resistance factions were roundly blamed in the mainstream media for their last-minute decision to boycott last week's Egypt-sponsored "comprehensive dialogue" summit, ostensibly aimed at Palestinian national reconciliation. But some independent commentators say the move, led by Gaza-based resistance faction...
Obama pressured to back off Iraq withdrawal
November 15th, 20080 WASHINGTON (IPS) — The promotion of Robert M. Gates as President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of defense appears to be the key element in a broad campaign by military officials and their supporters in the political elite and the news media to pressure Obama into dropping his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq in as little as 16......
Corporate vows tested in West Bank
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) — A company that is a member of the U.N. Global Compact for corporate social responsibility has ties to production in an Israeli settlement on the West Bank considered illegal by the United Nations. A spokesperson for the company, Vileda, an international household products firm, said he was unaware of the...Bush’s “Freedom Agenda” stumbles in Syria
WASHINGTON (IPS) — With media and diplomatic attention focused on the international incident ignited by a U.S. cross-border raid from Iraq into Syrian territory two weekends ago, the Syrian government quietly handed down 30-month prison terms to a group of democracy activists on Wednesday. Palestinians living in Syria take......
Rare Saudi Arabia protest tests limits of political speech
Forty Saudis plan a hunger strike this week to bring attention to the prolonged detention of 11 political activists. Riyadh — As hunger strikes go, the 48-hour fast that Fowzan Mohsin al-Harbi and 39 other Saudis plan to stage this week is not likely to have a dramatic outcome. Rather, says the mechanical engineer, the rare...
For peace, the U.S. will have to change
November 8th, 20080 RAMALLAH (IPS) — Barack Obama has been elected U.S. President at a time when the number of extremists has risen dramatically since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, going by the resistance to Western forces in the region. The U.S.-led "war on terror" has itself now become a threat to peace. A Palestinian holds a newspaper......