MIDEAST: Blast Spreads a New Unease

For now it is just the recriminations that have resumed flying back and forth between Israelis and Palestinians, not yet the bombs, missiles and bullets in the same numbers as during the height of the Intifadah.

MIDEAST: Hizbollah May Hold the Key in Lebanon

Ever since the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri earlier this month, the radical Shia group Hizbollah has been much sought after by politicians opposed to the Syrian presence.

/CORRECTION*/POLITICS: World Bank May Fund Israeli Checkpoints

The World Bank, an international development institution that says it has no political agenda, may be preparing to fund Israeli security checkpoints around a controversial separation wall under construction on occupied Palestinian territories.

IRAN: ‘Peaceful Dictatorship Better than Democratic Chaos’

The two Kurdish guerrilla fighters, if anyone, should have wanted the United States to overthrow the regime in Iran. They have just escaped after five years in an Iranian prison for membership of the banned Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran.

RIGHTS-EGYPT: Thousands Still Detained Following October Bombing

If U.S. President George W. Bush wants Egypt to lead the Middle East toward democracy, he might first ask President Hosni Mubarak to stop the arbitrary detentions and torture of hundreds of dissidents and suspected Islamists.

IRAQ: All Not Quiet on the Northern Front

Turkey holds the option of unilateral intervention in northern Iraq if Kurds declare independence and claim the oil wealth of disputed Kirkuk, considered the main spoils in the uncertain Iraqi equation.

IRAQ: Leaving Kurdistan, Like Leaving a Country

One of the best ways to understand the political dynamics at play in Northern Iraq is to hop into a taxi and travel north towards the Turkish border.

MIDEAST: Assassination Puts the Spotlight on Syria

It was a Valentine's day massacre in front of Beirut's formerly glorious St. George hotel. Violence returned to the Lebanese capital on a scale not seen since the end of the civil war 14 years ago, and its victim was the very man who was synonymous with the country's slow emergence from that nightmare, former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

IRAQ: Iranian Shadow Falls Over Baghdad

The main victors in the Iraq elections appear to be a slate of Shia politicians inspired by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, and led by Sayyed Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. That makes Hakim a key man, whatever shape the government takes.

MIDEAST: Cracks Appear in Truce Already

Having bathed in the dreamy tranquility of Sharm El-Sheikh and imbibed the heady atmosphere of their ceasefire summit at the Egyptian Red Sea resort, both Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas returned to considerably less attractive political landscapes at home.

POLITICS: The Next President of Iraq?

Fresh from their success at the polls, Iraq's two main Kurdish political parties have put forward 72-year-old Jalal Talabani as their candidate for the presidency of Iraq. If he succeeds in winning the post, it will be a fitting coda to one of Iraq's most colourful careers.

OIL-IRAQ: Violence Leaves Long Lines at the Pump

The George W. Bush administration and the Turkish government did their best to kiss and make up this week. After days of sabre-rattling from Ankara over Kurdish domination in Kirkuk, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appeared shoulder to shoulder with her Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul, yesterday.

RIGHTS-EGYPT: Dissidents Arrested on Eve of "National Dialogue"

Less than a week after U.S. President George W. Bush urged his Egyptian counterpart, Hosni Mubarak, to institute democratic reforms, human rights groups are worried that the long-time leader has instead launched a new crackdown against the political opposition.

POLITICS-IRAQ: Christians Flee to Safer Ground

Zaid Suleyman, a 34-year-old taxi driver, sits in the administration office of St Joseph's, an Assyrian Christian church in the Kurdish-controlled north of Iraq. He and his wife fled the capital, Baghdad, for the comparative peace of this region in September, and have been renting a room from an elderly church member ever since.

IRAQ: Arabs Fear Kirkuk Purge

"When someone has the power, he will take everything," says retired soldier Mohammed Hassan Mohammed in a Shia mosque in the Northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

MIDEAST: ‘Pre-Negotiations’ Bring Some Promise

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon go into Tuesday's summit in Egypt with a strong common interest - to portray their long-awaited meeting as a success - but with very different agendas.

IRAQ: ‘More a Census Than an Election’

Kurds are declaring victory after elections in Iraq's northern oil-rich city, Kirkuk, but other groups in the multi-ethnic city are not ready to concede. Some allege massive voter fraud..

POLITICS-AFGHANISTAN: The Birth of a Narco-State

A rejuvenated campaign to crack down on Afghanistan's booming heroin trade could backfire and end up alienating large sectors of the population from the government of President Hamid Karzai, warn Afghan development and rights groups.

IRAQ: New Freedom in Kurdish Air

Two members of Kurdish parties are touring a soccer stadium turned refugee camp on the southern outskirts of Iraq's northern oil-rich city Kirkuk on a sunny morning. They are carrying a petition asking Kurds whether they want ethnic federalism in Iraq or Kurdish independence.

MIDEAST: Nuclear Heat Rises Over Iran

When Israel dispatched F-16 bombers almost 24 years ago to destroy Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor in Osirak, the pilots knew they only had to hit a single target. Were Israeli or U.S. planes to be sent today to neutralise Iran's nuclear programme, the mission would be far more complicated: with Iranian facilities spread out, the pilots would have to strike targets across the country, and none of them a large, clearly identifiable reactor.

IRAQ: Some Just Voted for Food

Voting in Baghdad was linked with receipt of food rations, several voters said after the Sunday poll.