MIDEAST: Reshuffle Is Not Reform

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has sacked the cabinet and appointed a new prime minister, but analysts say real changes will not come without sweeping democratic and economic reforms.

IRAQ: Arms Suppliers Scramble to Feed Hungry Market

When the 15-member U.N. Security Council legitimised the U.S.-imposed interim government in Baghdad in June, the five-page unanimous resolution carried a provision little publicised in the media: the lifting of a 14-year arms embargo on Iraq.

MIDEAST: Palestinian Win Rises Higher Than Israeli Wall

The ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague that the "security wall" Israel is building in the West Bank is illegal marks a major victory for Palestinians.

IRAQ: With Love From Saddam to the British

Saddam Hussein looks set to hand over to the British the one thing they love most - a palace coup.

MIDEAST: Another Jihad On the Rise

More than 200 people have been killed in clashes between Islamic rebels and government forces using warplanes and tanks; this is not Iraq, but the picture of new developments in Yemen.

POLITICS-U.S.: Cheney In the Balance?

Now that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has chosen Senator John Edwards as his vice-presidential running-mate, the capital's attention has shifted to the fate of Vice President Dick Cheney.

POLITICS: Iraq’s Future Goes Far Beyond Saddam Hussein’s Fate

Although the trial of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad is gripping theatre, attention should not shift from matters of fundamental importance. Basic questions remain about the longer-term prospects for post-Saddam Iraq, and these ought not to remain out of focus.

IRAQ: Saddam Could Call CIA in His Defence

Evidence offered by a top CIA man could confirm the testimony given by Saddam Hussein at the opening of his trial in Baghdad Thursday that he knew of the Halabja massacre only from the newspapers.

MIDEAST: Palestinians Walled In, And Walled Out

The security wall Israel is building around Jerusalem is raising concerns among Palestinians about their future and where they belong.

ECONOMY-IRAQ: New Gov’t Left With Fraction of Rebuilding Funds

A barrage of binding decrees passed during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, combined with a lack of resources, heavy debt and the continuing presence of a massive U.S. force, mean that the recent handover of authority to Iraqis may not equal real control over the economy, analysts here say.

IRAQ: Saddam Dragged to His Past

On what was to have been the day of the handover of sovereignty back to the Iraqi government, another symbolic handover took place. The U.S. army formally transferred Iraq's former leader Saddam Hussein to the legal custody of the new government.

DISARMAMENT: Clusters of Death

Growing international demands to suspend the use of cluster munitions, which scatter hundreds of small ''bomblets'' over a wide area and are blamed for thousands of civilian deaths around the world, appear to be falling on deaf ears among the governments that stockpile them.

IRAQ: Transfer of Sovereignty Is Fiction, Occupation Remains Fact

After the U.S. government's early handover of sovereignty to Iraq, the government that had been put together by U.S. experts under the supervision of former U.S. administrator Paul Bremer is supposed to be sovereign in Iraq. This strains credulity, however.

IRAQ: Handover, Yes, But to What?

Iraq's new minister of the interior Falah al-Nakib and his staff were so taken by surprise by the unexpected handover of sovereignty by the U.S.-led occupation Monday that they failed to make it to the brief ceremony.

POLITICS: Charity Finds Billions Missing In Iraqi Oil Revenues

Billions of dollars of Iraqi oil money have gone unaccounted for by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), according to a new report released Monday.

POLITICS: Regime Change in Iraq a Sham, Say Mideast Experts

Despite the positive responses Monday from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and members of the Security Council who praised the U.S. "transfer of sovereignty" to an interim government in Iraq, Middle East experts and political analysts dismiss the regime change in Baghdad as a "monumental fraud".

IRAQ: Transatlantic Differences Difficult to Bridge

The European Union and the United States are still trying to bridge differences over Iraq as the handover of power was brought forward to Monday.

IRAQ: How the French Inspired the Torture

The kind of torture inflicted upon Iraqi prisoners by the U.S. army followed methods France used during the Algerian war of independence in the late 1950s, several French historians and journalists say.

POLITICS: Probe Launched As South Koreans Mourn Beheaded Hostage

The failed attempt to rescue a South Korean hostage in Iraq, before he was beheaded, has prompted lawmakers in South Korea to launch an investigation into government agencies for their alleged inaction after first hearing news of the abduction.

POLITICS: NATO Seeks To Re-Invent Itself

Created against a Soviet-dominated eastern European communism that has since gone capitalist, NATO is trying to re-invent itself amid questions whether it can succeed or even survive.

IRAQ: Some Hope Rises Amidst the Violence

The daily mortar attacks on Camp War Eagle of the U.S. First Cavalry at the edge of the seething Shia Muslim Sadr City tapered off over the weekend. Just a few dry pops of exploding mortar grenades could be heard in the late afternoons. During the week the attacks had been so intense that two soldiers were seriously wounded and evacuated to Germany.