Planned talks bring hope for peace in Bahrain
MANAMA (IPS) - A national dialogue with no preconditions could bring the situation in Bahrain back to normal after a military crackdown that followed months of unrest. Three opposition groups – the Democratic Nationalist Rally, the Democratic Progressive Tribune and the National Democratic Action...
September knocks on Israeli gates
June 11th, 20110 JERUSALEM (IPS) — "September 2011 is knocking on our gates," says an Israeli army officer who, under strict operation procedures, would not reveal his name. He was alluding to the United Nations General Assembly annual meeting expected to resoundingly endorse the Palestinian drive for recognition...
The struggle for succession in Yemen
June 11th, 20110 DOHA, Qatar (IPS/Al Jazeera) — Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's departure for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia leaves something of a power vacuum in the country, which has been ruled by one man for decades. An anti-government protester shouts slogans during a demonstration calling for an...
Powers plot “post-Gaddafi” future as rebels vow oil output
June 11th, 20110 ABU DHABI — Major powers met on Thursday to map out what the United States calls an inevitable "post-Gaddafi Libya" as Italy promised hundreds of millions of euros in aid to answer rebel pleas for funds. A Libyan woman holding a Kingdom of Libya flag walks past a caricature of Muammar Gaddafi...
Saleh leaves country for medical treatment as Yemenis celebrate
June 5th, 20110 Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters are celebrating what they described as the fall of the Yemeni government after Ali Abdullah Saleh, the long-serving president, left the country for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.Medical sources say the president is undergoing surgery to remove shrapnel and that he...
Libya rebels to normalize ties with Israel if in power
June 4th, 20110 French writer passes National Transitional Council’s message of intentions to Netanyahu JERUSALEM - French writer Bernard Henri Levy said he delivered a message on Thursday from Libyan rebel leaders to Israel's premier saying they would seek diplomatic ties with Israel if they came to...NATO warplanes pound Tripoli, car bomb rocks Benghazi
TRIPOLI — NATO air raids shook Tripoli Thursday as the UN denounced crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in the conflict between Muamar Gaddafi's forces and rebels seeking to topple the strongman. A Libyan woman shows a photograph of her son Louay Chouichi at her house in Misrata June...
Yemen: Living with an endless revolution
June 4th, 20110 Anti-government protesters shout slogans during a rally to demand the ouster of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa May 31, 2011. Street fighting raged across the Yemeni capital on Tuesday after a tenuous truce broke down between tribal groups and forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, edging the impoverished Arab...Undefeated, freedom flotillas expand
GAZA CITY (IPS) — A gleaming new memorial towers in the center of Gaza City's battered port. Flanked by flags of various nations whose citizens have sailed to the Gaza Strip to highlight the all-out siege on Gaza, the memorial's inscription bears the names of the Turkish solidarity activists who...
Time running out for two-state solution
June 4th, 20110 RAMALLAH (IPS) — Time is of the essence if the implementation of a two-state solution to end the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to succeed. Changing demographics both within Israeli and Palestinian society could render this impossible, with a one-state solution the only feasible...
Detained Saudi woman driver freed on bail, promises king it won’t happen again
June 4th, 20110 JEDDAH - Saudi authorities decided Monday to free on bail Manal al-Sharif, who was detained for 10 days for breaking the ultra-conservative kingdom's ban on women driving, her lawyer said. "We were informed today of the decision to free Manal on bail. The procedural steps towards her release are...
Egypt to open Gaza border crossing permanently
May 28th, 20110 Egypt reopened border, allowing people to cross freely for the first time in four years.CAIRO — Egypt will open the Rafah border crossing on a daily basis starting this weekend in a bid to ease the blockade on the Gaza Strip, the official MENA news agency reported on Wednesday. Palestinians...Arab Spring solidarity defies national boundaries
VANCOUVER (IPS) — Ever since the ousting of Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, ordinary citizens have been leading uprisings all over North Africa and the Middle East against unwanted rulers. But what is now known as the "Arab Awakening" is not confined to people resisting within their own borders....
Hizbullah urges Syrians to back Assad regime
May 28th, 20110 Supporters of Lebanon's Hizbullah gesture and wave Hezbollah flags as they listen to a televised address by their leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during a rally marking Resistance and Liberation Day in Lebanese village of Nabi sheet, in Bekaa, May 25, 2011, commemorating the 11th anniversary of...Libyan PM to propose immediate ceasefire
Libya's Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi speaks during a news conference in Tripoli May 26, 2011. REUTERS/Louafi LarbiLONDON — Moamer Gaddafi's Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi will send international leaders a message proposing an immediate UN-monitored ceasefire in Libya, Britain's......
Street battles raise specter of civil war in Yemen
May 28th, 20110 Armed tribesmen loyal to Yemeni tribal leader Sadiq al-Ahmar patrol outside his house in Sanaa May 26, 2011. Dozens of Yemenis were killed in overnight gun battles in the capital, government officials said on Thursday, as fighting aimed at ending President Ali Abdullah Saleh's three-decade-long...
Palestinians call Netanyahu conditions “war”
May 28th, 20110 WASHINGTON (IPS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out what he called his vision for peace with the Palestinians Tuesday, but listed a set of conditions the Palestinians immediately called "a declaration of war." Speaking before a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress that capped five......
Ron Paul announces run for president on “Good MorningAmerica”
AUSTIN, TX – Texas Rep. Ron Paul announced last Friday that he will run for the Republican nomination for president in 2012. Paul, who has distinguished himself from more mainstream candidates by running in the past as a Libertarian, speaking out against the Federal Reserve private banking...City Council, clerk seats up for grabs in Dearborn Heights
DEARBORN HEIGHTS — Five candidates, Councilman Ned Apigian, Council Chair Ken Baron, Kathy Abdel-Hak, Lisa Hicks-Clayton, and Scott Craig, will run for three seats on City Council in Dearborn Heights as the Tuesday deadline to submit a petition has passed. Elizabeth Agius, another...Nakba anger points to third intifada
QALANDIA, Occupied West Bank (IPS) — Israeli confidence that Nakba day, marked by The Great March on May 15 in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel and neighboring Arab countries, would remain under control, has backfired badly. Palestinian refugees jump fences on May 15, 2011 in the Golan...
Obama: Palestine should have state on ’67 borders
May 20th, 20110 Palestinians watch a television broadcast of a speech by U.S. President Barack Obama in the U.S., at a shop in Gaza City May 19, 2011. In a statement after President Obama's speech outlining Middle East strategy, Netanyahu said on Thursday Israel would object to any withdrawal to "indefensible" borders,......
Saudi Arabia guards status quo
Saudi Arabia is leading a counter-revolution against the sweeping political changes in the Middle East by using money, force and religion. Once restrictive of the Muslim clerics, King Abdullah offered money and new censorship powers for their loyalty as he doled out 500 billion riyals ($130...
Gulf accord on Yemen to be inked Sunday
May 20th, 20110 SANAA - A Gulf-sponsored accord to end a bloody political dispute between President Ali Abdullah Saleh and Yemen's opposition will be signed on Sunday, officials from the ruling party and opposition said. "The signing will take place on Sunday in Sanaa," Sultan al-Barakani, the assistant secretary general of......
Syria condemns U.S. sanctions on Assad
May 20th, 20110 Syria's President Bashar al-Assad answers journalists in Paris, in this December 9, 2010 file picture.Syria has condemned the imposition of sanctions on its president by the United States as being "part of a regional scheme, aimed primarily at serving Israel's interests," state media...
Toward a “Palestinian Spring”
May 20th, 20110 A Palestinian refugee plays in front of homes rebuilt by UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which were destroyed in fighting in 2007, in Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp, northern Lebanon, in this April 19, 2011 file photo. The border protests on May 15, 2011, in which Israeli......