Saudi activists say kingdom needs real political reforms
@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } KUWAIT CITY — The announcement of municipal polls, hot on the heels of a huge economic aid...Israeli strikes escalate against Gaza
@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } A series of rockets have slammed into the Israeli port city of Ashdod, just south of Tel Aviv, shortly after...
Simmering unrest a worry for Assad
March 26th, 20110 @font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Protesters gather near the Omari Mosque in the southern old city of Deraa March 22, 2011.Syrian forces killed at...Bahrain fends off charge of pressing crackdown
@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } DUBAI — Amnesty International on Thursday accused Bahrain of pressing on with a crackdown against Shi'a...Yemen opposition eyes transition as fears rise
@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } SANAA — An escalating anti-regime campaign was seeking a transition on Thursday rather than more...Egyptians endorse constitutional change amid mounting polarization
@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } CAIRO (IPS) — Egyptians overwhelmingly endorsed a raft of proposed constitutional changes in a nationwide...
Israel accused of ‘A Form of Ethnic Cleansing’
March 26th, 20110 @font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } RAMALLAH (IPS) — "If the regime that encourages incitement, racism and anti-democracy is not...Mother ends grieving for Tunisia’s unwitting revolutionary
@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } TUNIS — The mother of Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian fruitseller whose desperate protest has shaken...
Revolutionary youth give Clinton the cold shoulder
March 26th, 20110 @font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } CAIRO (IPS) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week paid a highly-publicized visit...In Libya, Benghazi’s freedom fighters face a massacre
Rebel fighters flee from Ajdabiyah, outside Ajdabiyah on the road to Benghazi, March 15, 2011. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces reached Ajdabiyah after storming through Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, reversing the advance of a rag-tag rebel army, which only a few weeks ago was confident of charging into the capital Tripoli and...
Renewed Yemen protests met with violence
March 19th, 20110 An anti-government protester is carried by fellow protesters as he shouts slogans during a rally to demand the ouster of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh outside Sanaa University March 7, 2011. Dancing in circles with decorative daggers, tribesmen seem a festive addition to anti-government rallies in Sanaa. But to some, they...Protesters stage rare demonstration in Syria
Damascus - Protesters have demonstrated in Damascus, the Syrian capital, in a rare show of dissent against the country's hardline regime. Witnesses said 40 to 50 people gathered after midday prayers on Tuesday in the Al Hamidiya area near the city's Umayyad Mosque. A YouTube video showed protesters clapping and chanting "God, Syria,...Palestinian protests mark ‘March 15 Day of Rage’
RAMALLAH (IPS) — Tens of thousands of Palestinians from across the political spectrum took to the streets throughout the West Bank and Gaza on Tuesday to mark 'March 15, the day of rage' to protest the political division between Hamas and Fatah. Relations between the two are complicated by what transpired in the aftermath of 2006...Hillary Clinton arrives in Tunisia amid protests aimed at U.S.
A protester holds a sign during a demonstration against the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, in front of the Interior ministry's office in Tunis March 16, 2011. REUTERSTUNIS — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Tunisia two months after mass protests led to the overthrow of its...
Deadly crackdown on Bahrain protesters
March 18th, 20110 Tents are seen engulfed with fire as Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) forces move into Pearl Square to evacuate anti-government protesters, in Manama March 16, 2011. Bahraini tanks and armored personnel carriers moved towards Budaya Street in the capital Manama on Wednesday, minutes before a protest rally was expected to start......
UN approves no-fly zone, moves toward military action against Gaddafi
March 18th, 20110 Security agents try to stop supporters of Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi from protesting at the hotel where members of the foreign members were staying in Tripoli March 18, 2011. The United Nations authoriZed military action to curb Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Thursday, hours after he threatened to storm the rebel bastion of...Saleh promises new constitution for Yemen
"This initiative is too late. The demands on the street go beyond that and are bigger than that." Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's president, has promised to put a new constitution to a referendum this year and move the country to a "parliamentary system" but opponents say the move fails to meet the demands of anti-government......
Israel may ask U.S. for $20 billion more in security aid
NEW YORK — Israel may request an addition $20 billion in military aid from the United States in light of the unrest sweeping the Arab world, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Monday. Barak deemed the changes in the region a "movement in the right direction," and said that in the long...Pressure mounts on Saudis to ease protest ban
Saudi Arabia came under renewed pressure Wednesday to ease its ban on demonstrations, as Facebook activists called for a "Day of Rage" and a "Saudi revolution" later this week. Protesters chant slogans during a protest in Qatif March 9, 2011. Saudi Shi'ites staged another small protest in the kingdom's eastern province on...
Obama inches closer to military intervention
March 12th, 20110 U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates holds a news conference at a NATO defence ministers meeting (NAC) at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels March 10, 2011. NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday will discuss options to respond to the turmoil in Libya, including a possible no-fly zone, the officials...Protesters converge on Iraq capital
BAGHDAD — Hundreds of people have converged on Baghdad's Tahrir, or Liberation, Square for an anti-government demonstration despite a vehicle ban that forced many to walk for hours to the heart of the Iraqi capital. The Baghdad demonstration was one of many taking place across the country on Friday, including in the port of Basra and......
Gaddafi forces gain momentum; rebels flee oil port
March 12th, 20110 RAS LANOUF, Libya (AP) — With fierce barrages of tank and artillery fire, Moammar Gaddafi's loyalists threw rebels into a frantic retreat from a strategic oil port Thursday, using overwhelming force in a counteroffensive that reversed the opposition's advance toward the capital Tripoli and now threatens its positions in the...Moroccans welcome king’s reform vow, wait for actions
RABAT - Moroccans largely welcomed Thursday King Mohammed VI's promise of sweeping reforms, announced as uprisings rock the Arab world, but said they wanted to see if concrete changes would result. France and Spain, former colonizers which have become key trade partners, also praised the announcement in a rare national speech late......
ElBaradei to run for president
March 12th, 20110 CAIRO — Mohammed ElBaradei, the Nobel Laureate and former head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, has said on a privately owned TV channel that he intends to run for president in Egypt's 2011 presidential election. "When the door of presidential nominations opens, I intend to nominate myself," ElBaradei said on ONTV channel on...Kacem charged over Tunisia deaths
TUNIS — An arrest warrant has been issued for Tunisia's former interior minister, Rafik Belhaj Kacem, on charges of murder, the country's state news agency reports. Kacem was interior minister during the popular uprising that ousted long-term president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January. He's accused of being complicit in the......
