POLITICS-MOROCCO: Poverty Blamed for Terrorist Attack

The terrorist attacks that rocked Casablanca, Morocco's financial centre, have been blamed by analysts on deprivation that makes the young vulnerable to extremist propaganda.

PALESTINE: Ereikat resigns his government post

Palestinian Minister of Negotiations Affairs Sa'eb Ereikat has resigned his post at the Palestinian government, according to Palestinian sources.

MIDDLE EAST: Roadmap to uncertainty

A major United Arab Emirates (UAE) English daily today commented on the - Roadmap" to peace in the Middle East initiative, casting a big doubt if the initiative would ever succeed in the light of the Israeli escalation of its atrocities against the Palestinian people.

IRAQ: Handing over administration to the people will lead to democratic

A major United Arab Emirates (UAE) Arabic daily today said that the best way to help the Iraqi people out of their painful and sad mood brought on them by Saddam Hussein was to hasten the transfer of the country's administration to its people.

UAE: Economy grows despite regional crisis

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) economy and its various sectors continue to enjoy stability and significant growth despite the tense atmosphere and the negative political and military situation which engulfed the region and shook some of the biggest economies of the world to their roots, according to indices and economic trends.

UAE-DESERTIFICATION: Control policy proves successful

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) desertification control and land reclamation policies have proven to have yielded fruit with the plantation of thousands of hectares of palm trees, woodlands and green belts, according to a recent report by the Abu Dhabi Municipality.

MIDDLE EAST: No peace without Israel’s withdrawal to pre-67 war borders,

The Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat emphasized today that peace cannot be restored in the area without withdrawal of Israeli troops to the borders that existed before the 1967 war.

UAE: Second batch of injured and sick Iraqis arrive for treatment

The second batch of sick Iraqis arrived here yesterday from Mosul to undergo treatment in hospitals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in line with the instructions of President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

MIDDLE EAST-PEACE PLAN: Failure at the first hurdle, UAE paper says

A United Arab Emirates (UAE) paper today criticized the US bias towards Israel in the current negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis on the new Middle East peace plan.

UAE-HEALTH: Authorities follow WHO criteria on SARS

For a person to be classified as a suspected case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), he/she would have to come not more than 10 days ago from an endemic area with local chains of transmission and developed symptoms of the disease.

MIDDLE EAST: Israel sends tanks into northern Gaza Strip

Israeli army forces moved dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers into large areas of the northern Gaza Strip early Thursday.

POLITICS-MIDEAST: Hard Spotlight On New PM

The recent vote of support by the Palestinian Legislative Council for the government of Mahmoud Abbas is much more than a vote of confidence in one man. The decision ushers in the constitutional creation of the position of an empowered prime minister accountable to the Palestinian Legislative Council.

POLITICS-ISRAEL: Sharon bears Down on Israeli Arabs

After its military moves in the Palestinian territories, the Israeli government is cracking the whip on leaders of its own Arab population.

IRAQ: 3,000 bodies exhumed at mass grave

Villagers pulled body after body from a mass grave in central Iraq on Wednesday, exhuming the remains of up to 3,000 people they suspect were killed during the 1991 revolt against Saddam Hussein's regime.

SAUDI ARABIA: Death toll in Riyadh blasts rises to 34, says official source

An official source today quoted the concerned authorities as saying that the death toll in Riyadh blasts increased to 34 until Wednesday, May 14, 2003.

CHECHNYA: Bomb blast kills 20 in village festive crowd

Over 20 people died and tens of others were injured as a result of Wednesday's explosion during a religious holiday near the village of Belorechye, the Gudermes district of Chechnya, reported the Itar-Tass news agency today.

UAE: Religious dialogue for achieving common grounds for cooperation

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-up (ZCCF) has published a study under the title of "Dialogue Among Religions", as part of the Center's efforts in showing the Islamic viewpoint regarding this issue.

MIDDLE EAST: Current crisis will create new generation of Arabs, says media

The US image, once admired by the Arabs, is fading away from the minds and psyche of the Arabs, especially the young generation, said an Arab media expert.

SAUDI ARABIA: UAE papers describe bombings as callous acts of terrorism

United Arab Emirates (UAE) Arabic and English dailies today condemned the suicide bombings that hit the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Monday night as despicable, contemptible and callous acts of terrorism.

UAE-CHILDREN: Arab Child Culture conference urges media to play bigger role

Launching a television news channel and a newspaper that will address the problems being faced by children, in addition to a new web site supervised by education specialists in Arab countries, were among a number of recommendations announced on the last day of the two-day conference 'Arab Child Culture' organized by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Children and Youth Centers of the Sharjah Supreme Family Council.

MIDDLE EAST: Israelis kill seven Palestinians in Gaza Strip

Israeli soldiers killed seven Palestinians in the Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis early Wednesday morning and wounded three others , reports said.