IRAQ: Kurd Bombing Adds New Uncertainty

The suicide bombing Sunday in the normally tranquil north of Iraq has brought new uncertainty five months before the United States is due to cede political power to Iraqis.

MIDEAST: Hezbollah Steps Onto Palestinian Stage

Israel completed the latest stage of its complex exchange of prisoners - or their remains - with the Lebanese Hezbollah movement Friday morning.

MIDEAST: Resistance Rises to Recruitment of Suicide Bombers

Abir al-Masri looks pale and drawn. She lost two of her four sons earlier this month. The first, Amjad, was killed by an Israeli bullet, and the second, Iyad, died a week later in a botched suicide attack.

POLITICS-ISRAEL: Sharon Stands Tough Under Siege

Israeli Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom mounted an uncharacteristically robust defence this week of Israel's separation barrier. He sounded angry and combative, even picking fights with members of the foreign press.

ECONOMY-EGYPT: Dollars and Dinars Sink the Floated Pound

Ragab was certain only of two things until last week: the dollar will climb, and the Egyptian pound will fall. Now he has found another certainty.

IRAQ: Saddam Captured, So What?

Over the past month the capture of Saddam Hussein has become the stuff of dinner party conversations, café debates and drunken speculation across the Middle East. Within Iraq and outside, fascination with the deposed dictator remains strong.

IRAQ: Kurds Head Towards Separation Up North

Recent developments in Northern Iraq may lead to the division of post-Saddam Iraq along ethnic lines.

MIDEAST: Talk About Talks Raises New Doubts

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon does not believe Syrian President Bashar Assad when he says he wants to renew peace talks with Israel. He does not appear willing to pay the territorial price of a comprehensive settlement, and does not believe his people are either.

IRAQ: The Story Behind Saddam’s Arrest

U.S. accounts have portrayed Saddam's capture as a triumph of their high-tech innovation and old-fashioned ingenuity, but reports in the Middle East and off-the-record interviews reveal a version of events decidedly different from those already known.

POLITICS: Experts Warn of Muscle-Flexing Behind Afghan Constitution

Political power plays at the just-concluded assembly to write a new constitution for Afghanistan raise serious question about whether the country can hold free and fair elections as scheduled later this year, say rights groups and other experts.

MIDEAST: Nuclear Spotlight Shifts from Libya to Israel

The decision last month by Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi to relinquish his weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles will have enhanced the sense among Israeli leaders that their regional strategic position, already improved by the toppling of Saddam Hussein, was far better at the start of 2004 than it had been at the start of the previous year.

ECONOMY: Egypt Rushes to Rescue Tourism

It was too late to save Flight 604, but Egyptian officials are moving quickly to save a fragile tourism industry.

IRAQ: ‘Why Isn’t Saddam Dead’

An extraordinary number of Iraqis just want their former president dead.

IRAQ: Arrest Embarrasses Saddam’s Tribe

Sheik Mahmoud Nidda who heads Saddam Hussein's Al Nasseri tribe has reasons to be upset.

IRAQ: Anger Too Surfaces over Arrest

Many people in the poor Sunni Adamiyeh neighbourhood find the arrest of Saddam Hussein unbearable. A day after the news broke, at least a thousand protesters shout their rage.

IRAQ: Triumph Becomes Also a Problem

The arrest of Saddam Hussein closes a long chapter, but poses new challenges for the coalition forces in their relations with Iraqi officials and people.

MIDEAST: Settlers Begin to Feel Isolated

"We have heard these rumours of evacuation so often, and we are still here," says an Israeli settler in Netzarim, an isolated outpost in central Gaza surrounded by hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. But there is a new unease about.

MIDEAST: Mixed Response to Geneva Peace Plan

Amid much fanfare and hype, a group of mostly former leaders on Monday gathered in Geneva for the signing ceremony of an elaborate and painstakingly negotiated alternative peace plan between Israelis and Palestinians.

MIDEAST: End of Red Cross Aid Upsets Palestinians

Naima Zayyad tries to put a brave face on it. Her husband has not worked since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising, more than three years ago, and now he is ill.

IRAN: Ethnic Voices Seek Stronger Cultural Identities

When one morning this month a group of around a thousand Azeri-speaking Iranians gathered at a cemetery south of Tehran, they were doing more than commemorating the death anniversary of a man they admired. They were also signalling the growing demand from Iran's ethnic communities for cultural autonomy.

IRAQ: Contracts Leave Local Business Out

U.S. officials have shut Iraqis out of the business of reconstruction contracts, many local businessmen say.