MIDEAST: Israel Lands in Public Relations Nightmare

Israeli riot police and soldiers have, since Friday, sealed off the Al Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine, restricting entry to women and Palestinian men over 50.

IRAQ: Women Miss Saddam

Under Saddam Hussein, women in government got a year's maternity leave; that is now cut to six months. Under the Personal Status Law in force since Jul. 14, 1958, when Iraqis overthrew the British-installed monarchy, Iraqi women had most of the rights that Western women do.

EGYPT: Population Growth Overtakes Literacy Rise

Literacy programmes are teaching millions of Egyptians to read, but are struggling to keep up with the country's high population growth.

MIDEAST: Building Settlements, Not Peace

"The best laid-schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley" (Scottish for 'going wrong').

MIDEAST: Iran, Israel Spoiling for a Fight?

Iran and Israel appear to be spoiling for a fight, going by recent belligerent statements emanating from several regional capitals.

MIDEAST: Israeli Left Emerges From Coma Amid Atrocities

Amid the wave of violence that swept through the occupied Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem, over the last few days, there are signs that the Israeli left may be emerging from its collective coma.

MIDEAST: Palestinians Preparing for Statehood Anyhow

Was it Yasser Arafat's biggest political error? A decade ago, the deadline for the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel as envisaged in the 1993 Oslo peace accords thrust itself into the fruitless Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.

MIDEAST: Palestinian Homes on ‘David’s Garden’ Spared for Now

Outside the Bedouin-style protest tent in the heart of this Palestinian neighbourhood, the anger is palpable, but controlled.

MIDEAST: Occupation Turns Palestinian Women Into Breadwinners

Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, with its ubiquitous closures, checkpoints, military raids and arrests, has decimated the Palestinian economy in the West Bank and Gaza.

ENVIRONMENT-LEBANON: Coastal Pollution Threatens Fisherfolk

Pollution, oil spills and difficult living conditions are some of the challenges that fishermen in this eastern Mediterranean country face daily.

MIDEAST: Piano Sounds Good in Gaza Too

At 14, Nour plays the piano, and she knows the facts around her. That the average age for marriage is 18, likely to a man found by parents, her place would be within that home, and a woman has on average 6.5 children.

MIDEAST: Picking Pebbles to Live Somehow

They come by the hundreds every day to sand dunes and rubble sites to sift for pebbles, stones and sand that can be used in making concrete blocks. They lean into trash bins across the Strip, and wade through piles of rubbish scavenging for plastics, metals, and any bits worth reselling.

HEALTH: Chained to Smoking

Arab governments have stepped up efforts to curtail tobacco use, but initiatives have met stiff resistance from the region's smokers.

MIDEAST: New Call to Past Adds to Troubles

When last December Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, delivering to an international conference in Herzliya outside Tel Aviv what has become the equivalent of Israel's 'State of the Union' address, chose to focus not on Iran's nuclear ambitions or on the prospects of Middle East peace, but on "the need to re-enforce our national heritage," his vision was dismissed by supporters and critics alike as inconsequential.

JORDAN: Where Iraqi Women Are Also Fathers

Back in Najaf, Iraq, Khayzaran and her family lived in a well-kept house. They had two cars and a small orchard. Her children, two girls and three boys, attended school and came home to modest feasts.

MIDEAST: How to Check Both Iran and Israel

The U.S. is raising the stakes in its bid to halt Iran's nuclear programme, putting the issue on a "pressure track", says top U.S. general David Petraeus. The U.S. and other world powers are drumming up support for a fourth round of UN sanctions against Iran for its refusal to comply with repeated ultimatums to suspend uranium enrichment and to agree to a deal involving UN-backed nuclear fuel.

MIDEAST: Palestinians Excluded From Bulk of West Bank

Israel’s illegal occupation and continued expropriation of Palestinian land in the West Bank has left 2.5 million Palestinians living there with effectively less than 40 percent of the territory.

MIDEAST: Dubai Hit Exposes Hamas’s Weaknesses

Hamas has closed ranks and is licking its wounds following the Jan. 20 assassination in Dubai of one of its top operatives, Mahmoud Al Mabhouh. It is alleged that one of its own was responsible for providing the hit team with vital logistical information.

MIDEAST: Scandals, Assassination Plan Rock Palestinian Authority

The Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah is fighting a tidal wave of fresh allegations, including sexual harassment, an internal power struggle and embezzlement.

MIDEAST: Gaza’s Female Scribes Face Worse Than Discrimination

Female journalists worldwide complain about discrimination on the grounds of gender. However, their colleagues in Gaza also face death threats, the dangers of working in a war zone and the struggle for daily necessities as the Israeli siege on Gaza drags on.

MIDEAST: Telling Film Floats Between Art and the Actual

An Oscar nominee for best foreign-language film, Israel's 'Ajami', is a tragic, yet realistic, pointer to the multi-layered conflict of Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians.