LEBANON: March 14 Marches Ahead

The Jun. 7 election in Lebanon has provided another dramatic turn of events in the country's tumultuous political arena. While early opinion polls had pointed to a landslide sweep for the March 8 opposition that prominently includes Hizbullah, the Western and Arab backed March 14 coalition won the majority of parliamentary seats in a surprise victory.

MIDEAST: Israel Cracks Down on Minority Rights

Three bills recently making the rounds in the Israeli parliament have caused outrage amongst Israel's Arab minority.

LEBANON: Hizbullah Punching Above Its Numbers

Understanding Lebanon's complex political system is no easy task. In a relatively small country of about four million, Lebanon has more than 18 religious communities and dozens of active political parties. The sectarian political system divides the 128 seats of parliament between 10 of those religious sects, leaving one for minorities.

LEBANON: Women Battle for Citizenship Rights

One can be born in Lebanon and live here all one's life, and still not be a Lebanese citizen. Lebanon is one of few remaining countries in the Middle East where a mother is unable to pass citizenship to her children.

EGYPT: ‘Obama Talks Democracy, Endorses Dictatorship’

Egyptian officials are lining up to praise U.S. President Barack Obama's address to the Islamic world delivered in Cairo Thursday. But local campaigners for political reform say the speech was disappointingly light on the issues of democracy and human rights.

MIDEAST: Lebanese Polls Closely Watched by U.S. and Region

After emerging from a political crisis last year, the Lebanese people will head to the polls Jun. 7 to determine the composition of the new parliament. A variety of foreign powers, including the U.S., will be watching closely, waiting for the electoral results before they determine their policies towards the new government.

US-MIDEAST: Hamas Leader to Obama: Deeds, Not Words

The head of Hamas's political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, gave a qualified welcome here Thursday to the big speech that Pres. Barack Obama addressed to the Muslim world in Cairo.

MIDEAST: 'Lay Down Your Pain, Lay Down Your Arms'

U.S. President Barack Obama drew widespread, if in some quarters, guarded praise from around the region as he labelled the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, Israelis and the Arab world the No. 2 issue (behind the extremism of a minority of Muslims) that needs addressing if relations between the U.S. and the Muslim world are to be changed for the better.

U.S.: Obama Appeals to Muslim World for "New Beginning"

In what was perhaps the most widely anticipated speech delivered by a U.S. president abroad in recent memory, Barack Obama Thursday extended a hand to the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims, receiving repeated applause and a standing ovation from the audience at Cairo University in the Egyptian capital.

US-MIDEAST: Cairo Speech Widely Hailed at Home

U.S. President Barack Obama's historic speech in Cairo Thursday elicited broad approval from around the U.S., with the notable exception of the neoconservative right.

POLITICS-US: Hawks Push "Jordanian Option" for Palestine

As U.S. President Barack Obama prepares to deliver a major foreign policy speech in Cairo and his administration pushes aggressively for a two-state solution in Israel-Palestine, neoconservatives and other foreign policy hawks back home are calling on him to scrap the two-state solution altogether and consider alternatives to Palestinian statehood.

US-MIDEAST: Obama Overture Fraught With Stumbling Blocks

In his most widely anticipated speech to date, U.S. President Barack Obama will reach out directly to the Muslim world Thursday morning at Cairo University.

POLITICS-US: Report Ties Dubious Iran Nuclear Docs to Israel

A report on Iran’s nuclear programme issued by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month generated news stories publicising an incendiary charge that U.S. intelligence is underestimating Iran’s progress in designing a "nuclear warhead" before the halt in nuclear weapons-related research in 2003.

MIDEAST: Obama Turns the Screws on Israel

Air raid sirens wailed out on Tuesday morning and Israelis were asked to go down into bomb shelters as the country engaged in its largest-ever civil defence drill. Israelis remain deeply worried by what they perceive as an existential threat of a possible future all-out missile attack from Iran and its proxies.

MIDEAST: Palestinian Authority Going the Israeli Way

A surge in confidence, following unprecedented U.S. political support, led to the Palestinian Authority's bloody crackdown on a Hamas cell in the northern West Bank on Sunday which left six Palestinians dead.

EGYPT: Muslim Brotherhood on the Mat

Several leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood opposition movement stand accused of plans to form an "international network of organisational cells." Its leaders say the charges are blatant fabrications.

EGYPT: Cyber Insurgency Rattles Regime

Egyptian cyber-dissidents are becoming increasing vocal in their online criticism of President Hosni Mubarak's regime, utilising a widening repertoire of Internet networking and publishing tools to expose government abuses.

LEBANON: Legal Flaws Could Twist Election Result

When Lebanon heads to the polls Jun. 7 to decide whether the Hizbullah-led opposition alliance will unseat the ruling Western-backed coalition, voter anonymity could be compromised by shortcomings in the 2008 parliamentary election law.

FRANCE: Sharing a Recipe for Peace

Fourteen women are gathered in a Jewish kosher bakery on a sunny afternoon in Creteil, a multi-ethnic commune southeast of Paris. Bent over bowls of flour, tubs of butter and cartons of eggs, the women share jokes and anecdotes, speaking in both French and Arabic, as they knead dough and crack eggs open.

MIDEAST: Bloody New Battles Suit Israel

The inevitable has happened. Simmering tensions between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah have left six Palestinians dead, in the bloodiest confrontation between the two groups since Hamas ousted Fatah from Gaza in June 2007.

POLITICS: Abbas Visit Comes as U.S.-Israeli Tensions Mount

U.S. President Barack Obama’s first meeting on Thursday with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas was less remarkable for the actual talks between the two leaders than it was for the changed Washington political climate in which it took place.