EGYPT: Military Trials on the Rise After Mubarak

Amr El-Beheiry’s trial in a military court lasted just five minutes. The 33-year- old Egyptian was arrested on Feb. 26 and sentenced without a lawyer present to five years in prison for breaking curfew and assaulting a public official during a demonstration in Cairo.

Hariri Bombing Indictment Based on Flawed Premise

The indictment of four men linked to Hezbollah in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri made public by the Special Tribunal on Lebanon Aug. 17 is questionable not because it is based on "circumstantial evidence", but because that evidence is based on a flawed premise.

LIBYA: When Caught in the Crossfire

Thousands have been caught in the Libyan fighting – people neither with Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, or with the rebels. Ayman Agamy Abdelgawad, an Egyptian released from Tripoli’s Abdu Selim prison, shares his experiences with IPS. He narrates his experience below:

Palestinians Thirsting for Justice in Water-Starved Occupied Territories

In the strife-stricken Middle East, oil has always been in the realm of politics. But in the Israeli-occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank, oil has been supplanted by water.

Concern Grows Over Prospects for Middle East Disarmament Meeting

Four months before 2012 - the year a conference is slated to be held on freeing the Middle East region of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) - no date, facilitator, or host country has been named.

Refugees Tossed Between Iraq and Syria

At the height of Iraq’s sectarian war in 2006, 30-year-old Samer escaped his Baghdad neighbourhood to join a flood of refugees arriving in Syria. A young man of military age, he was at high risk of being targeted by armed forces that roamed the capital’s streets.

EGYPT: People-Funded TV Challenges Big Business

Egypt’s most organised political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, is tapping crowds as a new financing method for its nascent TV station and media outlets to be able to compete with well-oiled challengers in corporate and government- run media.

LIBYA: Dreaming of a Future After Gaddafi

"We grabbed all these weapons from Gaddafi's compound just before NATO shelled the whole place," says rebel fighter Massud Askar in downtown Nalut. The 50-year-old rebel displays an Italian light semi-automatic rifle in his right hand and a hand grenade in the other.

Libyans Find Historic Hope

"I’m 60 years old and I never thought I'd see this moment with my own eyes," Najib Taghuz tells IPS from the Tunisian-Libyan border. The engineer from the recently liberated town Gehryan is headed for Tunisia - his wife needs surgery on the left hand. But he hopes to return to a new Libya.

EGYPT: The Mubarak Show Goes Into Hiding

In a shuttered Cairo café, Egyptians crane their necks to watch the courtroom drama unfolding on a small television screen mounted high on the wall. The camera pans across the crowded courtroom and zooms in on a frail old man lying on a stretcher inside the caged defendants' box. Part Godfather, part Hannibal Lecter, he is the feared head of a powerful family at the centre of a web of violence and corruption. Beside him are his two sons, one known for shady business deals, the other groomed to head the cartel.

SYRIA: Driving Into a Divided Land

Scores of buses carrying Syrians out of the country are waiting in uneven lines on the Lebanese-Syrian border for their paperwork to be processed. There are no Arab or Western tourists eager to cross to the other side, usually seen in hordes this time of year.

MIDEAST: Palestinians Strike to Seek Historic Agreement

Nestled between rolling hills just outside of Jerusalem, a dozen Palestinian workers have escaped the scorching summer heat in the shade of a makeshift tent, where they anxiously wait to sign what would be the first collective bargaining agreement between Palestinian workers and an Israeli employer.

LEBANON: Women Prisoners Play the Liberation Role

To a soundtrack of almost constant pounding of fists against iron doors, drama therapist Zeina Daccache is trying to capture the attention of a group of women prisoners. Many of the 45 women are suffering from drug withdrawal and alternately appear agitated, upset, energised and detached. Others chat loudly, take long puffs off cigarettes, or pace the room.

MIDEAST: To Save From the Sea, and the Siege

It's a sunny Gaza morning and although a work day, the beach along Sheik Rajleen has enough people on it to keep Gaza's small number of lifeguards busy and alert. From a simple, raised wooden hut, a team of three monitor the sea, periodically calling out to swimmers below to move to calmer waters.

EGYPT: Sinai Simmers in Security Vacuum

Even before the recent revolution, Egypt's strategic Sinai Peninsula - inhabited mostly by restive Bedouin tribesmen - had a reputation for lawlessness. But in the months since the popular uprising that led to Mubarak's February ouster, the situation in Sinai appears more precarious than ever.

MIDEAST: Divided We Execute

The execution of a Palestinian father and son by Hamas security forces in Gaza throws up a sharp difference over the death penalty between Gaza and the West Bank. In the West Bank a temporary moratorium is in place.

EGYPT: Labour Unions Shake Off Old Masters

The trade union federation that ex-dictator Hosni Mubarak used to repress labour movements and mobilise regime support for sham elections during his 30-year rule has been disbanded, striking a powerful blow to the old order.

ISRAEL: Rights Recede Under Opium of Occupation

The nationwide movement for social justice that sent tens of thousands of Israelis to the streets on the weekend was seemingly oblivious to the fact that, concurrently, the Palestinians were officially announcing their bid for U.N.- endorsed recognition of statehood.

NGOs Cry “Sabotage” Over U.N. Meeting on Racism

A coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is accusing the U.N. Secretariat of "sabotaging" an upcoming high-level meeting on racism by upstaging it with a nuclear security summit scheduled for the same day.

MIDEAST: Work Has Come to This

It's a weekday morning, the beach is yet to fill with crowds seeking a break from the heat, but already the odd-jobbers are at work selling toys, clothes and food along the coast.

MIDEAST: In Prison, and Denied Education

Access to education for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails is getting worse as international organisations remain unwilling or unable to intervene. Secondary- school students here completed their exams in June, and received their results by end of July. However, the 1,800 Palestinian prisoners who were supposed to complete their exams were not permitted to do so by the Israeli Prison Service.