U.N. faces its own major tragedy in Haiti
UNITED NATIONS - The major earthquake that struck Haiti Tuesday, causing death and destruction in the capital of Port-au-Prince, may also turn out to be a veritable disaster for the United Nations, which has over 9,000 personnel, including peacekeepers, international staffers and local civilians, scattered throughout the...
Burj Khalifa is tallest building in the world
January 9th, 20100 DUBAI - The world's tallest building was unveiled this week to an estimated on-site crowd of over 400,000 and the rest of the world, in a crescendo of fireworks, lasers and fountain displays. A general view of the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest tower, in Dubai January 3, 2010. REUTERS/Mosab Omar The official height of the...Yemeni detainees caught in bomb backlash
NEW YORK (IPS) - In the wake of the failed attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas day, legal experts and human rights advocates are pushing back against calls from politicians to halt the planned release of prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to their home country, Yemen. Yemeni Saleh Al Zoba (C), 60, a former...Egypt cracks down on foreign protesters heading to Gaza Strip
CAIRO - Getting in to the Gaza Strip is no easy feat, but driving across Egypt should not be this hard. Palestinians take part in a protest near the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt December 28, 2009, against the construction of an underground barrier. Egyptian officials confirmed that Egypt is building an underground...Fifty thousand to march in Gaza, spotlight inhumanity
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) — More than 50,000 people are expected to take to the streets of Gaza on Dec. 31 for a mass march designed to send a message to the United States, a key supporter of Israel's army, that the situation in Gaza violates international human rights laws. A man walks near a truck carrying humanitarian aid to the...
Love for Jesus unites Muslims, Christians
December 25th, 20090 "'Behold!' The angels said: 'O Mary! God giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him. His name will be Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, held in honor in this world and the Hereafter and in (the company of) those nearest to God.'" Palestinian schoolchildren visit the Grotto, where Christians believe the Virgin Mary gave birth to...Doctor admits Israeli pathologists harvested organs without consent
Israel has admitted pathologists harvested organs from dead Palestinians, and others, without the consent of their families – a practice it said ended in the 1990s. Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reported that the body of a Palestinian man named Bilal Ahmed Ghanem was abducted by Israeli soldiers and returned several days later...Egypt mediator to Jerusalem to consult on prisoner exchange
GAZA — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has invited a senior Egyptian mediator to Jerusalem on Sunday, raising speculation that Israel is about to make its latest response to the Islamist group Hamas for a major prisoner swap. Israeli police officers detain a Palestinian protester in front of the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's...
Obama meets with Lebanese President
December 18th, 20090 WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama this week asked Lebanese President Michel Sleiman in White House talks to take action against arms smuggling into Lebanon which he said threatened Israeli security. U.S. President Barack Obama (R) meets with his Lebanese counterpart Michel Suleiman in the Oval Office at the White House...House passes sanctions bill on Iran
WASHINGTON (IPS) — In advance of U.S. President Barack Obama's end of the year deadline for Iran to respond to negotiations aimed at bringing a halt to the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, the House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday to sanction companies that sell refined petroleum to Iran. A long-range, improved...Hizbullah fortifies frontier against Israel
NABATIYEH (IPS) — In the mountains towering above this southern city, Hizbullah (Party of God) is building a new line of defense on lands where a fierce war was once fought between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel. An asphalt road rising up from the sea seems to carve up the southern chain of mountains of Jabal...
Occupation eats away Israel’s heart and soul
December 18th, 20090 JERUSALEM — After Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank torched a mosque and desecrated copies of the Qur'an in the Palestinian village of Yasuf, last Friday morning, they ran into a wall of condemnation. Israeli police officers detain a Palestinian protester in front of the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City December...
Europe steps in to pressure Israel
December 12th, 20090 JERUSALEM (IPS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Palestinian counterpart Salam Fayyad have both been scrambling earnestly to win the backing of European leaders in advance of what could be a major EU policy shift that aims at creating new impetus for Palestinian-Israeli peace prospects. A view of the Dome of...One step closer to unilateral sanctions against Iran
WASHINGTON (IPS) — Congress has given new momentum to a bill imposing unilateral sanctions on Iran — a move seen by many as an ineffective form of sanctions and potentially antagonistic against valuable U.S. allies on the U.N. Security Council. This comes ahead of the end of the year deadline set by U.S. President Barack Obama for...
Increased focus and growing pressure on Pakistan
December 12th, 20090 WASHINGTON (IPS) — While President Barack Obama's announcement last week that he will "surge" 30,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan has received all of the attention here over the past week, Pakistan appears to be looming larger than ever in Washington's strategic calculations and concerns. A mother wounded in a bomb......
After Dubai World debt panic, UAE guarantees all bank deposits
DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates' central bank sought to reassure investors rattled by the debt woes of the politically-connected conglomerate Dubai World on Sunday with an announcement that it was backing all deposits in locally owned and foreign banks. Asian markets were cheered by the news, rising more than 3 percent on Monday...Threat rises from within Israel
JERUSALEM (IPS) — Israelis were perturbed when new recruits at a recent passing-out parade at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the remains of Judaism's holiest site, suddenly unfurled banners reading, 'Our Sons Do Not Evacuate Jews'. Israel's President Shimon Peres (R) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attend the annual......
Obama returns to greater Middle East mess
WASHINGTON (IPS) — As Barack Obama arrives home from his weeklong tour of East Asia, he confronts a growing list of ever more urgent problems in the Greater Middle East that he inherited from George W. Bush's "global war on terror." President Obama in the Middle East in 2008. From Palestine to Pakistan, Obama, who also faces a...U.S. takes aim over Jordan’s shoulder
MUWAQQAR, Jordan (IPS) — In the bleak and seemingly endless desert expanse that unfolds east of Jordan's capital city, Amman, lies a crucial cog in the ambitious regional designs of the U.S. and its allies in the Middle East. The controversial police training center in Jordan.Commonly known by its acronym JIPTC, the Jordan...
U.S. credibility as peace broker eroding by the day
November 20th, 20090 WASHINGTON (IPS) — In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, movement in the standoff between the two sides can be backward as often as it is forward. The past couple of weeks have seen moves from both sides that have garnered the attention of the world, but forward progress remains elusive. A laborer works at a construction site...Abbas resignation may be a stunt
RAMALLAH - U.S. and Israeli failure to take either Palestinian rights or Israeli settlement expansion seriously has placed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority (PA) in an untenable situation, which could seriously damage peace prospects. AbbasOn Thursday, November 5, Abbas announced his......
U.N. affirms Israeli-Hamas war crimes report
November 18th, 20090 UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - A 575-page blistering report by Justice Richard Goldstone detailing war crimes in Gaza last December is refusing to die despite an aggressive Israeli smear campaign to kill it. Mansour The report, which was favorably voted by the 47-member Human Rights Council in Geneva last month, received...Another legal setback for Arar torture case
NEW YORK (IPS) — A federal appeals court on Monday dismissed a lawsuit brought against a former U.S. attorney general by a Canadian citizen who sought damages for being unlawfully detained by U.S. authorities in New York and then secretly shipped to Syria, where he was imprisoned for a year and allegedly tortured. Maher......
Israel rations Palestinians to trickle of water
November 4th, 20090 Amnesty International has accused Israel of denying Palestinians the right to access adequate water by maintaining total control over the shared water resources and pursuing discriminatory policies. A Palestinian boy drinks water from a public tap in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip October 27, 2009. Human rights group...J Street meet draws foreign policy heavyweights
WASHINGTON (IPS) — J Street, the relatively new "pro-Israel, pro-peace" advocacy group, exceeded expectations for its inaugural conference here in Washington with over 1,500 participants attending the four-day event. Turnout surpassed the organizers' 1,000 expected participants, despite a series of attacks accusing the group of......