REFUGEE DAY: A Third Time Homeless

Standing amid the rubble of their homes demolished during the latest fighting last month, they said it was the third time they had been made homeless by the conflict.

MIDEAST: Only a Lull Before Another Storm

The Israeli attack on Rafah in the Gaza Strip did not come in a political and military vacuum. The Israeli army's 'operation rainbow' is now only 'paused' and all indications are that the struggle that has continued between Israel and the Palestinians along the Egyptian border for more than three years now will resume shortly.

MIDEAST: U.N. Warns of Israeli Demolition Plan in Rafah

The United Nations issued a call to the international community Tuesday to press Israel to stop its military operations under way in Gaza aimed at destroying hundreds of houses, the largest such effort by the Israeli military in that region.

MIDEAST: Firing Line Comes Home

A few dozen militants could be seen trickling into the Block O neighbourhood of Rafah along the border with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip Monday afternoon. They said they came in anticipation of a major Israeli army operation in the area.

MIDEAST: Some Settlers Only Settle In Some More

On a barren hilltop in the Palestinian Jerusalem neighbourhood Abu Dis, a gap of several hundred metres interrupts the wall Israel is building in the city.

PRESS FREEDOM: Record Number of Deaths for Expressing Ideas

Last year, merely for doing their job, 42 journalists were killed and 766 were detained, the highest annual figures in the past decade, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF, Reporters Sans Frontieres).

THAILAND: Excessive Force May Produce More Muslim ‘Martyrs’

If the U.S. government can use excessive force in its conquest of Iraq, and the Israeli government can use the same to crush the resistance in occupied Palestine, then why shouldn't the Thai government resort to this to suppress militants in the country's south?

POLITICS-U.S.: Arab-American Vote Looms Large

Arab-Americans, one of the U.S.' smallest ethnic minorities, could well tip the balance against President George W Bush's re-election, according to a survey released Wednesday of four key battleground states where the vote could be decided.

MIDEAST: Culture Rises Above Security Walls

Waiting in the queue to buy tickets for the opening ceremony of the European Film Festival in the West Bank city of Ramallah, one cannot help but listen to the stories people exchange about the Israeli incursion into the city just hours before the show.

DEVELOPMENT: Conflict Threatens Mideast Economies – Report

The U.S.-led occupation of Iraq and the three-year-old Israeli-Palestinian confrontation in the West Bank and Gaza are threatening to de-stabilise the economies of most Middle Eastern nations, according to a U.N. report released Thursday.

CULTURE-MIDEAST: The Film Is In the Eye of the Beholder

Palestinians are looking at a new factor in their long and troubled relations with Israelis - Mel Gibson's film 'The Passion of the Christ'.

ECONOMY: Shareholders Drive Probe on Caterpillar’s Israel Sales

Activists are calling on fellow shareholders of U.S. heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar to press officials to probe the sale of company machinery to the Israeli Army, saying it violates an internal code of conduct and a U.S. ban on sales of products that target civilians.

POLITICS: Activists Crusade Against E-Jihad

For millions of Muslims, invitation to martyrdom is just a mouse click away. So-called "jihad sites" are springing up all over the Internet to offer the latest news, images and slogans of Islamic holy war.

POLITICS-MIDEAST: Summit Fiasco Exposes Divisions

Tunisia's decision to cancel the Arab summit has widely been seen as exposing rifts within the 22-member Arab League.

POLITICS-IRAN: Hamas Leader’s Death Highlights Rifts, Disaffection

The death in an Israeli rocket attack of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, has highlighted rifts between Iranians, and between Iran and its Arab neighbours.

MIDEAST: Peace Will Get Harder to Find on the Roadmap

Israelis here are just waiting for a wave of retaliatory attacks over the killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. The consensus seems to be that some major strikes will come sooner rather than later.

POLITICS-MIDEAST: After Killing, Anger, Frustration and Fear Peak

As Arabs and their leaders widely condemn Israel's assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin Monday, anger continues to spill into the streets, many are bracing for a violent backlash and moderates are raising their hands in frustration.

POLITICS-U.S.: Criticism of Israeli Killing Just ‘Rhetoric’

Implied criticism by the White House for Israel's killing of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin is merely ''rhetoric'', according to one Middle East expert in Washington.

POLITICS: Activists Tackle Bulldozer Maker, US Aid to Israel

Still angered by the death of Rachel Corrie, a U.S peace activist who was run over and crushed to death by an Israeli Army bulldozer, peace campaigners here are urging U.S. legislators to investigate the death of the 23-year-old activist.

INT’L WOMEN’S DAY: U.N. Wants More Women Peace Builders

As the world prepares to mark International Women's Day, the United Nations is warning that women continue to play little or no role in post-conflict peace building - be that in Afghanistan, Iraq, Northern Ireland, Liberia or Sierra Leone.

RIGHTS-FRANCE: Anti-Semitic Comedy No Laughing Matter

French stand-up comedian Dieudonné makes nobody laugh any more.