EGYPT: Mubarak Faces Court Without the Circus

With the trial of Hosni Mubarak set to resume Monday, attorneys representing the families of protesters killed during Egypt’s uprising are trying to cut out the deadwood in their midst.

Flotilla Report Leaks, Turkey Expels Israeli Ambassador

A highly anticipated and controversial report on Israel's May 2010 interception of an aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip and subsequent killing of nine civilians and wounding of many others was finally leaked on Thursday, as diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey continued to deteriorate.

OP-ED: Manipulating Social Networks

If there's one thing that net-savvy activists from Tunisia to Bahrain are aware of, it’s that the Internet isn’t always safe. From the constant threat of surveillance to the knowledge that posting the wrong picture on Facebook can get you arrested - or worse - activists have for a long time taken measures to mitigate risks, censoring themselves, using special tools like Tor, or staying off certain networks altogether.

MEDIA-IRAQ: ‘Protection’ Law Offers Little Safety

When Ali Sumerian, an editor for Al-Sabah newspaper, and three local media colleagues sat down for a restaurant meal after reporting on a demonstration in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square on Feb. 25 this year, security forces detained them. "We were accused of encouraging an anti-political process," says Sumerian. It was only after their arrest triggered a media outcry, he says, were they released 12 hours later. The four were just some of the journalists attacked and arrested that day.

MIDEAST: Israelis Stage an Investigation Act

Israeli soldiers and security forces have conducted a string of arrests and violent raids over recent weeks, at Jenin’s renowned Freedom Theatre, in their investigation into the murder of actor Juliano Mer-Khamis, the theatre’s former director and co-founder, earlier this year.

U.S.: Poll Tracks Shifts in Public Attitudes Since 9/11

In the first of what is likely to be a tidal wave of polling in the run-up to the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, a survey released here Thursday by the Pew Research Center found some important shifts in U.S. public opinion over the past decade.

OP-ED: Language Becomes a Political Weapon in Israel

Speaking to the U.S. congress in May, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu boasted that his country is a beacon of freedom in the Middle East and North Africa, that it is the only place where Arabs "enjoy real democratic rights".

U.S.-LIBYA: Debate Stoked Over “Leading From Behind”

As rebels moved to consolidate control over a post-Gaddafi Libya, foreign policy analysts here are debating whether Washington's role in the nearly six-month civil war in the oil-rich North African nation marks a new model for military intervention and "regime change" in objectionable countries.

U.N. Set to Take International Lead in Post-Gaddafi Libya

The United Nations appears poised to play a major role in Libya in the coming days and months. It remains unclear, however, if the world body will be able to restore peace and democracy in that conflict-ridden oil-rich country, independent analysts and diplomats say.

LIBYA: Eid Comes With Political Celebration

"Gaddafi renamed this one as the ‘Green Square’ but we have brought back its ancient name, ‘Martyrs square’," Asma Mohamed, Tripoli resident tells IPS. Eid celebrations are being followed by the anniversary Thursday of Muammar Gaddafi coming to power 42 years ago. Celebrations of one kind have mixed with celebrations of another.

Tribunal Concealed Evidence Al-Qaeda Cell Killed Hariri

In focusing entirely on the alleged links between four Hezbollah activists and the 2005 bombing that killed Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the indictment issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon earlier this month has continued the practice of the U.N investigation before it of refusing to acknowledge the much stronger evidence that an Al-Qaeda cell was responsible for the assassination.

ISRAEL: Children Facing Deportation Find Friends

After Israel’s Interior Ministry attempted to deport the first migrant workers’ child educated in the Israeli school system, human rights groups are calling on the Israeli government to develop a clear immigration policy and an official protocol that will minimise the psychological impact of detaining and deporting young children.

EGYPT: Military Trials on the Rise After Mubarak

Amr El-Beheiry’s trial in a military court lasted just five minutes. The 33-year- old Egyptian was arrested on Feb. 26 and sentenced without a lawyer present to five years in prison for breaking curfew and assaulting a public official during a demonstration in Cairo.

Hariri Bombing Indictment Based on Flawed Premise

The indictment of four men linked to Hezbollah in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri made public by the Special Tribunal on Lebanon Aug. 17 is questionable not because it is based on "circumstantial evidence", but because that evidence is based on a flawed premise.

IRAN: Music Finds a Voice in Tehran

The waiter at the coffee shop moves rapidly to the entrance for a quick glance outside. Within, a young Iranian musician has started to play the saxophone. He has five minutes to perform, he cannot risk a raid on the "guerrilla" location for a little music.

LIBYA: When Caught in the Crossfire

Thousands have been caught in the Libyan fighting – people neither with Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, or with the rebels. Ayman Agamy Abdelgawad, an Egyptian released from Tripoli’s Abdu Selim prison, shares his experiences with IPS. He narrates his experience below:

Female Trafficking Soars in Iraq

Rania was 16 years old when officials raped her during Saddam Hussein’s 1991 crackdown in Iraq’s Shia south. "My brothers were sentenced to death, and the price to stop this was to offer my body," she says.

IRAQ: Trafficked to Baghdad’s Green Zone

Ukrainian and Bulgarian workers are currently camped out on a construction site of half-built luxury villas in Baghdad’s elite "Green Zone" – a vast security enclave housing government offices, embassies and international NGOs - demanding their salaries before being shipped back home.

Concern Grows Over Prospects for Middle East Disarmament Meeting

Four months before 2012 - the year a conference is slated to be held on freeing the Middle East region of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) - no date, facilitator, or host country has been named.

Refugees Tossed Between Iraq and Syria

At the height of Iraq’s sectarian war in 2006, 30-year-old Samer escaped his Baghdad neighbourhood to join a flood of refugees arriving in Syria. A young man of military age, he was at high risk of being targeted by armed forces that roamed the capital’s streets.

EGYPT: People-Funded TV Challenges Big Business

Egypt’s most organised political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, is tapping crowds as a new financing method for its nascent TV station and media outlets to be able to compete with well-oiled challengers in corporate and government- run media.