MIDEAST: Palestinian Economic Boycott Hits Israeli Settlers

Israeli settlers are beginning to feel the bite of an economic boycott campaign launched by the Palestinian Authority (PA) against goods produced in the illegal Israeli settlements dotting the occupied West Bank.

MIDEAST: These Virtual Connections Are for Real

"I've learned most of what I know about photo editing and graphic design via the Internet," says Emad, 27-year-old film-maker and editor. In Gaza, this sort of thing has become usual in a different way.

MIDEAST: Dreaming With Their Feet

Ahmed Ismail, 23, is leading a dance out of troubled times in Gaza. Breakdancing is his way to help the youth of Gaza begin dreaming and having fun again.

MIDEAST: Chomsky – Latest Jewish Thinker Savaged by Israel

When internationally renowned linguist, philosopher and political analyst Noam Chomsky was barred from entering the West Bank, he joined a chorus of Jewish intellectuals savaged by the Israeli government for outspoken criticism.

MIDEAST: Divided We Celebrate

"What kind of celebration is this," said Bat-El, 22, engulfed in a sea of blue- and-white Israeli flags in a huge procession marking Israel's self-celebrated Jerusalem Day, the anniversary by the Hebrew calendar of Israel's conquest of East Jerusalem 43 years ago during the 1967 Arab-Israel war.

Iraqi Christians Cling to Their Faith in Jordanian Exile

As the 2003 United States-led invasion of Iraq began, the country’s Christians started streaming across the border into neighbouring Jordan. Today most of them continue to live here in abject poverty with no hope of ever returning to the land of their ancestors.

MIDEAST: Children Fight Off Israel With Music

"Why are you rushing? Isn't it nicer like this?" Mohammed Omer, oud teacher (an oud is similar to a lute) at the Gaza Music School, asks his student. Omer takes the oud and demonstrates, playing the song slowly, gracefully, with the ornamentations that are key to Arab music.

MIDEAST: Is Israel Sliding Towards a Police State?

Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu has been sentenced to another three months imprisonment for allegedly refusing to perform community service in West Jerusalem.

MIDEAST: Israeli Settlers Step Up Attacks on Palestinian Mosques

"There is immense anger as well as a feeling of vulnerability and fear when a place of sanctuary and holiness is subject to indiscriminate violence," says Issa Hussein.

MIDEAST: West Bankers Made Refugees in Their Own Country

Several Palestinians have set up a protest tent in no-man’s land in the northern Gaza Strip, near the Erez border crossing into Israel, as they protest their deportation from the Israeli occupied West Bank into Gaza where Hamas authorities have refused them entry.

Jerusalem Divided Between Hats and Hearts

There's a Jerusalem saying that the city wears too many hats -- Jewish hats, Muslim hats, Christian hats -- so it's difficult to get at its brain.

Zarqa Lives Up to al-Zarqawi’s Ideals

Infamous as the hometown of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the late al-Qaeda leader, Zarqa is dominated by Islamic parties.

Gaza ‘World Cup’ Scores Several Goals

Football is the world's most popular sport, boasting more than an estimated 2 billion fans. And despite its isolation from the world through Israel's four-year- old blockade, the Gaza Strip is no exception. When a football match is on, tea and shisha cafes are packed with people gathered around the TV sets.

Hezbollah Rocket Inventories Worry Israel, U.S.

Recent warnings by the United States that Hezbollah (Party of God) possesses more rockets than most governments has once again placed the party’s arsenal under the spotlight.

When Israel is 64

"Mine forever more, Will you still need me, Will you still feed me, When I'm sixty- four." Israelis weren't explicitly intoning the Beatles when they gathered around their Bar-B-Q get-togethers or followed the live broadcasts of official state ceremonies.

MIDEAST: Egypt, Hamas Complicit in Israel’s Gaza Blockade

A convoy of boats laden with humanitarian goods and accompanied by hundreds of journalists, human rights activists and European parliamentarians, is due to challenge Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza at the end of May.

Goldstone Escapes Solomonic Trial

He is among the most respected international jurists. But in Israel today, and in much of the Jewish world, he is among the most reviled.

MIDEAST: Hunger Strike by Palestinian Prisoners Cuts No Ice

Raed Abu Hammad, 27, was allegedly kicked to death by Israeli prison wardens on Apr. 16. This while Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have been on hunger strike since Apr. 7 to press for better treatment.

Israel Winning its War on Goats

Nine-year-old Ismail spends every afternoon herding his family's flock of sheep and goats, a scraggly group of roughly 20 animals. They live in a shanty house district near Tel el Howa in Gaza City, where growth is sparse to non-existent.

JORDAN: Women Make Progress But Honour Killings Persist

Earlier this month, a 33-year-old man was charged with hammering his wife to death and dumping her body on the highway leading to the Queen Alia International Airport. The husband confessed to murdering her ''to defend his honour,’’ as she was meeting a male friend.

IRAQ: Imam Assassination Sparks Fears of Violence

The assassination of Sheikh Ghazi Jabouri, a prominent Sunni Imam in the Al- Adhamiya district of Baghdad, has raised fears of renewed sectarian violence in the wake of the Mar. 7 elections.