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MIDEAST: Amid Rocket Attacks, Israel Ponders Peace Peter Hirschberg JERUSALEM - A rocket attack on the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon this week has again ignited calls in Israel for an invasion of Gaza, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert still seems more inclined towards an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire proposal with Hamas in the coastal strip. MORE >>
US/IRAQ: Soldier Refuses Tour, Citing "Stomach-Churning Horrors" Aaron Glantz WASHINGTON - A U.S. Army soldier who served as a military journalist in Afghanistan, Japan, Europe and the Philippines announced Thursday his intent to refuse orders to deploy to Iraq. MORE >>
POLITICS-US: Bush Comments Rally Dems Behind Obama Ali Gharib WASHINGTON - U.S. President George W. Bush's comments in Israel Thursday ignited a political campaign row back home as Democratic leaders decried his comparison of engaging enemies to Nazi appeasement. MORE >>
POLITICS-US: An Ocean Apart, Bush, McCain Play to Neo-Con Dreams Analysis by Jim Lobe* WASHINGTON - In separate speeches delivered an ocean apart, the two standard bearers of the Republican Party Thursday offered rosy visions of a future designed to gladden the hearts of Israel-centred neo-conservatives without offering any details about how their dreams will be achieved. MORE >>
LABOUR-SRI LANKA: Domestic Workers Promised New Deal in Kuwait Feizal Samath* COLOMBO - Will a new agreement between licensed labour recruiters in Sri Lanka and Kuwait protect the rights of domestic workers who face serious abuse in the Gulf state? MORE >>
IRAQ: Nature Adds to Occupation Blows Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail* BAQUBA - Farmers in the Diyala province in Iraq have been hit by just about every crisis possible. First the security disaster dried up supplies and markets, then lack of electricity cut irrigation, and now comes a drying up of water resources. MORE >>
POLITICS: Bogus Claim, al-Maliki Stall U.S. Plan on Iran Arms Analysis by Gareth Porter* WASHINGTON - Early this month, the George W. Bush administration's plan to create a new crescendo of accusations against Iran for allegedly smuggling arms to Shiite militias in Iraq encountered not just one but two setbacks. MORE >>
MIDEAST: Siege Hits Palestinians Before They Are Born Mohammed Omer GAZA CITY - The Israeli siege of Gaza that has restricted access to food, water and medicine is now beginning to hit unborn children and newborn babies. MORE >>
EGYPT: Giving With One Hand, Taking Back With the Other Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani CAIRO - In an effort to offset soaring inflation, President Hosni Mubarak last month announced generous salary increases for all public sector employees. The gesture lost its lustre days later, however, when the government drastically raised prices of subsidised fuel. MORE >>
US/IRAQ: Tangled Web of Allegiances Leads Back to Tehran Ali Gharib WASHINGTON - If politics makes strange bedfellows, then the relationship between Iran, the United States and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq is the strangest ménage à trois in international relations today. MORE >>
POLITICS: Lebanon Crisis Shows Hues of Iraq Khody Akhavi WASHINGTON - Almost every country in the world has had a civil war, but rarely has a nation survived a second one. MORE >>
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