IRAQ: Everyone Now Needs Food Aid

The war in Iraq has made the entire population of 27 million dependent on food aid, leaders of aid programmes say.

MIDEAST: Israeli Controls Choke Palestinian Economy

Yusuf wakes up every morning at 3.30 am. He sets out on foot from his West Bank village, taking care to avoid Israeli army roadblocks, where he would be asked to produce a work permit he does not possess. Ninety minutes later, he arrives at the Israeli community where he works cleaning homes. At the end of the day, he makes the same journey back..

LABOUR: Workers Condemn Middle East Free Trade ‘Model’

A U.S. free trade initiative that provides Jordanian exports, which include mandatory input from Israel, to U.S. retailers is sliding into a sweatshop operation, say workers who complain about deteriorating health because of the poor conditions.

POLITICS-YEMEN: Disputes Rise over Support to U.S.

Just weeks after taking over, the new government faces a minor revolt over its policies, particularly over cooperation with the United States.

IRAQ: U.N. Fears its Workers May Become Targets

A senior U.N. official says that security concerns inside Iraq include the possibility that the agencies' humanitarian workers could be singled out for guerrilla attacks - just like U.S. and UK soldiers.

TRADE: U.S. Maps Out Ambitious Middle East Deal

The United States said Monday it will negotiate free trade agreements separately with Arab countries as a first step towards setting up a U.S.- Middle East Free Trade Agreement (MEFTA) by 2013 that would include up to 20 of the region's nations.

MIDEAST: Settling Down to a Confrontation

Already, a group of settlers are preparing to rebuild Mitzpeh Yitzhar, the settler outpost on the West Bank taken down before television cameras earlier in the week.

MIDEAST: History Sits on This Fence

For Israelis it is an anti-terror panacea, a bulwark against the suicide bombers trying to get into their cities to kill them. For the Palestinians it is the "Apartheid Wall", another instrument of the occupation, another attempt by Israel to annex the land on which they hope to construct an independent state.

POLITICS: Road Map Looking Like a Dead End to Palestinians

With the U.S.-backed road map peace plan in danger of being swallowed up by the latest round of bloodletting in the Middle East, the prevailing sense among Palestinians is that they are hopelessly trapped, unable to end 36 years of Israeli occupation either through negotiation or through armed conflict.

POLITICS-ISRAEL: Road Blocks Rise on Road Map to Peace

After meeting Israeli and Palestinian leaders at a peace summit in Aqaba on June 4, President George W. Bush said he planned to "ride herd" with them - like a cowboy on horseback herding cattle, he explained - to ensure the sides lived up to their obligations in the road map peace plan.

ISRAEL-PALESTINE: Violence Leaves Road Map on Shaky Ground

A four-day escalation of violence between Israel and the Palestinians left the new Middle East peace plan on the verge of collapse by Wednesday.

MIDDLE EAST: Mubarak meets Bush ahead of Sharm el-Sheikh summit

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and US President George W. Bush held a meeting at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh here today ahead of a summit which will also include a number of Arab leaders.

RUSSIA-IRAN: Spent nuclear fuel from Bushehr plant to be returned to Russia.

Russia and Iran have an agreement that all the spent nuclear fuel form the first reactor that is being constructed by Russia in Bushehr, Iran, will be returned to Russia, Russian Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev said.

SAUDI ARABIA-TERRORISM: American wounded in Riyadh explosion dies

One of the Americans who was wounded in the Riyadh explosion last May 12 died of serious injuries he sustained bringing the death toll to 35, among them nine Americans.

MIDDLE EAST: Israeli troops kill Palestinian police officer

Israeli troops shot a Palestinian police officer to death in a midnight raid on the northern Gaza Strip east of the village of Beit Lahya, a Palestinian public security spokesman said.

ALGERIA: Aftershock hits Zemouri east of Algiers

Algerian Zemouri region was hit last night by an aftershock quake measuring 4.2 in the open Richter scale.

IRAQ: US female soldier killed and another soldier wounded

A US woman soldier was killed and another soldier was wounded in an exchange of fire in Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

EDUCATION-MOROCCO: New War on Terror of Ignorance

"The extremists have been taking advantage of my brother's ignorance," says Karim Benkhayi, a 22-year-old student. "Had he gone to school, he would not have been so vulnerable to the religious fanatics."

POLITICS-YEMEN: Unrest over Detained Leaders Grows

Public unrest is rising over the detention of two Yemenis in Germany following claims by the U.S. that they are members of Al-Qaeda.

LEBANON-US: Consulate reopens in Beirut opens after 19-year absence

The United States consulate in Lebanon, which was shut down 19 years ago following attacks on the embassy, was reopened Monday in Beirut.

UAE-ENVIRONMENT: Costly drive to combat desertification

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), which will host a global anti-desertification conference next week, is pushing ahead with an expensive afforestation program to achieve self-sufficiency in most farm products.