LEBANON: Maid To Serve

Adam, 32, left his wife and newborn daughter in northern Nigeria five years back to seek employment in Lebanon. He had a contract offering him 200 dollars a month to work in a cell phone shop in Hamra, Beirut.

POLITICS: Attitudes Toward U.S. Worsen in Arab World

Despite renewed U.S. efforts to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement this year, popular views of the United States in the Arab world have actually worsened since 2006, according to a major new survey of public opinion in six Arab states.

MIDEAST: Israel Prepares for Some Dire Scenarios

Salvo after salvo of missiles and rockets fired by Syria, Hezbollah and Gaza militants thudding into Israel's major population centres. Hundreds dead. Thousands injured.

MIDEAST: No Ambulance, Call the Radio

"I am bleeding uncontrollably, I need an ambulance." That was not a call to emergency services, it was an appeal broadcast live on radio in Gaza City.

MIDEAST: Disputes Surface in Israel Over Bread

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's latest headache has nothing to do with the Palestinians, or with Syria, or Iran, or even Hezbollah. It has to do with leavened bread.

Q&A: Crossing the Red Lines in Egypt

Launched in 1995, Al-Dustour was closed by the government three years later after publishing articles critical of the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. Following a judicial decree, the newspaper began printing again in 2005.

MIDEAST: Gaza Running on Near Empty

Ayman Eid stands as motionless as his orange Hyundai taxi. Never mind taking a passenger somewhere, Ayman has no idea how he will ever get home.

MIDEAST: Israel and Syria Flirt Dangerously

With negotiations on the Palestinian track limping along unproductively, Israeli leaders have again begun talking about renewing peace negotiations with Syria. But at the same time they are keeping a wary eye on new deployments by the Syrian military.

EUROPE: ‘Closer Than Ever’ to Israel, Regardless

Israel has been described as "closer to the European Union than ever before" by a leading Brussels official, even though a new EU report laments the ongoing killing of Palestinians by Israeli forces.

MIDEAST: Olmert Is Taking a Long Time Sinking

Ehud Olmert's most outstanding achievement during his first two years as prime minister is the fact he is still in office. The Israeli prime minister, who has just marked the second anniversary of his March 2006 electoral triumph, has turned political survival into an art form, defying incessant predictions of his demise by his political colleagues and many of the country's leading political pundits.

US/MIDEAST: Whispers for Engagement with Hamas

Two years after Hamas was isolated almost unanimously by the international community following its victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections, the militant Islamist group has repeatedly proved that it can disrupt U.S. President George W. Bush's plans for a decisive agreement on Palestinian-Israeli peace by the end of this year.

MIDEAST: This ‘Bombshell’ Took a Year Falling

A recent article in Vanity Fair magazine "exposing" a U.S.-planned coup attempt against Palestinian resistance movement Hamas last year has ignited a storm of debate about Washington's Middle East policies. Yet for more than nine months, details of the plot were reported in the independent Arabic press - and elsewhere - leading some observers to ask: where was the mainstream media?

MIDEAST: Another Arab Tea Party Ends

The 20th Arab League summit, convened earlier this week in the Syrian capital Damascus, drew relatively few heads of state, with both Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz choosing to stay at home. According to local commentators, the low level of diplomatic representation served to show up Syria's isolation within the otherwise U.S.-dominated Arab fold.

MIDEAST: Palestinians Not Helping Themselves Either

A deal currently being discussed by Israel and Egypt would see Israel sever a major tie with the Gaza Strip. Under the agreement, Egypt would become the sole external supplier of power to Gaza, replacing Israel which is today the major provider of electricity to the coastal strip.

MIDEAST: Flowers, Strawberries, and Missiles

Just 300 yards from the hidden eyes in the Israeli tank, Ahmed Felfel picks his strawberries. But it isn't the Israelis in the tank who worry him as much as those others who will not let him sell them.

EGYPT: Can&#39t Wait a Generation to Eat

A World Bank official said this month it could take as long as "a generation" for the effects of Egypt's recent economic growth to be felt by the poorest segments of the population. But as "neo-liberal" economists urge patience, retail prices for essential foodstuffs continue to skyrocket, stretching many household salaries to breaking point.

US/MIDEAST: Building on a Divided House

In a continuing bid to promote Palestinian-Israeli peace, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney became the latest in a parade of high ranking officials from the administration of President George W. Bush to visit the region and push the peace process set in motion at the Annapolis conference last fall.

LEBANON: A Devastated Town Recovers, In A Way

Ali Mohanna lives in a two-room cinderblock structure with his wife and brain-damaged son. By the side is a small, freshly ploughed tobacco field and the plot of rubble he once called home.

LEBANON: Children Learn That Religion Excludes

From East to West, the Arab region is afflicted with mounting religious divides that are increasingly affecting the well-being of the region's children. Lebanon's constitution, which splits power equally between Muslims and Christians, is no exception to this growing chasm.

MIDEAST: Israel Strengthens Hamas Some More

If Israeli leaders had hoped that their blockade of Gaza and the military's early March incursion into the coastal strip might undermine support for the leadership of the Islamic Hamas movement in power there, then they will have been disappointed with the findings of a recent opinion poll.

LEBANON: Hopes of Peace from Lords of War

The pages of Lebanon's history are drenched in blood. And, more than 30 years after the start of the 1975 civil war, Lebanese factions are still pitted against each other in a confrontation with a recurring sectarian dimension amidst a volatile regional context.