Armed Conflicts

Renovating an Embattled City

By Jillian Kestler-D'Amours
Every day, Anas Maraka sees his family’s home, but can’t go inside. “It’s hardest for my grandfather,” said Maraka, referring to the house overlooking Shuhada Street, once the central marketplace in Hebron’s old city.

U.N.’s Last Stand on Arms Trade Treaty

By Thalif Deen
Amidst a politically divisive debate on gun control in the United States following a rash of mass shootings, the United Nations will meet in March to finalise an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) after nearly two decades of negotiations.

Iraq Sunnis Block Trade Routes in New Protest

By AJ Correspondents
Tens of thousands of Sunni Muslims blocked Iraq's main trade route to neighbouring Syria and Jordan in a fourth day of demonstrations against Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The ‘Flattening’ of Gaza

By Eva Bartlett
On Nov. 17, four days into Israel’s eight-day assault on the Gaza Strip, deputy Israeli Prime Minister Eli Yishai publicly called for the Israeli army to “blow Gaza back to the Middle Ages, destroying all the infrastructure including roads and water”.

Thousands Orphaned by Poverty in Kashmir

By Sana Altaf
Seventeen-year-old Afzal is an unusual orphan. Though his father died many years ago, his mother is still alive and living with Afzal’s grandparents and younger siblings in a house not far from the orphanage where the boy has spent most of his teenage years.

Funding Shortage Thwarts Reconstruction Efforts

By Amantha Perera
The landscape in northern Sri Lanka’s former war zone can change abruptly from the ordinary to the surreal.

The Politics of Polio in Pakistan

By Ashfaq Yusufzai and Zofeen Ebrahim
The murder of nine health workers vaccinating children against polio in Pakistan’s northwest cities of Peshawar and Charsadda in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, and its southern port city Karachi, have elicited shock and outrage.

Colombian Landowners, Peasants Listen to Each Other

By Constanza Vieira
Colombia's large-scale agricultural producers and peasant farmers managed to listen to each other for the first time about the core cause of the decades-long armed conflict: the concentration of rural land ownership and the social and economic development of the countryside.

Marching Toward a Third Uprising?

By Pierre Klochendler
While the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip hasn’t been so quiet for the past two decades, it’s now the turn of the occupied West Bank to show signs of eruption.

A Third Intifada on the Horizon?

By Mel Frykberg
A new Palestinian group called the National Union Battalions (NUB), comprising Palestinians from across the political spectrum, has called for a third Palestinian uprising or Intifada. Simultaneously, Israeli intelligence is warning that conditions on the ground in the West Bank are ripe for another Palestinian revolt.

Ahead of Mali Resolution, Worries Grow over Military Intervention

By Carey L. Biron
Even as U.S. and French officials suggest that a United Nations resolution on military intervention in Mali could come by the end of the week, concerns are rising that such action could do far more harm than good.
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Rate of U.S., Russian Nuclear Disarmament “Slowing”

By Carey L. Biron
Although the United States and Russia have massively reduced their collective number of nuclear weapons since the heyday of the Cold War, the rate of that reduction is slowing, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) warned Monday.

Ceasefire Means ‘Nothing’ to Gaza Fishers

By Eva Bartlett
Shortly after Israel and Hamas signed a ceasefire agreement on Nov. 21, the Israeli navy abducted 30 Palestinian fishers from Gaza's waters, destroyed and sank a Palestinian fishing vessel, and confiscated nine fishing boats in the space of four days.

Remittances Soothe the Scourge of Militancy

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
Fifty-nine-year-old Sherdil Shah, a resident of South Waziristan – a hotbed of militancy in northern Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) – used to run a modest grain shop that fetched enough money to keep his family of 10 well-fed and looked after.

Kashmiri Separatists Scrabble for Political Relevance

By Athar Parvaiz
Amid growing scepticism among Kashmiri people that the separatist leadership has lost relevance in the region’s fast-changing political landscape, the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference – an alliance of separatist political parties and religious and social groups - is making a Herculean effort to reclaim some relevance in this disputed region.

Washington Struggles for Relevance as Assad’s Fall Approaches

By Samer Araabi
This week, the United States officially recognised the newly-formed National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people, culminating a two-year process of legitimising the Syrian opposition with the U.S. government.

Civil War on the Egyptian Horizon

By Mel Frykberg
Egypt is facing its worst political crisis since the January 2011 revolution ousted former dictator Hosni Mubarak, with analysts warning of a possible civil war. Furthermore, unlike during the revolution, opposition to the current regime is bitterly divided between Islamists and more secular Egyptians.

War Widows Struggle in a ‘Man’s World’

By Amantha Perera
Sita Tamang’s husband went missing sometime in 2004, two years before Nepal’s civil war came to an end. A native of Dharan, a town about 600 kilometres southeast of Kathmandu, Tamang waited seven years after his disappearance before she tried to claim compensation offered by the government after a 2006 peace deal ended this country’s bloodshed.

Major Study Suggests Crimes Against Humanity in Sudan

By Carey L. Biron
Reporting on the results of a two-year investigation, on Wednesday the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch presented findings that suggest that the Sudanese government’s aerial bombardment of civilians in the country’s south could amount to crimes against humanity.

Syria Opposition Wins International Backing

By AJ Correspondents
More than 100 countries have recognised a new Syrian opposition coalition, opening the way for greater assistance to the forces fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad, including possibly military aid.

No Basic Services for Oil Country

By Charlton Doki
South Sudan may have received slightly more than 10 billion dollars in oil revenue from 2005 to January 2012, when oil production shut down, according to both government officials and the World Bank. But development experts have urged the government to begin investing in the country and its people, as basic social services remain scarce.
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