POLITICS: A Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Key political figures from the West and the Muslim world, as well as the outgoing U.N. chief Kofi Annan, urged the international community Monday to seriously examine ways to promote greater dialogue among civilisations and cultures.

POLITICS-US: Holy Warriors Set Sights on Iran

Over the past 20 years, the U.S. Christian right has evolved into one of the most powerful grassroots organising forces within the Republican Party, and a host of Christian Zionists have taken a well-earned seat at the foreign policy table.

POLITICS-US: Neo-Cons Wanted Israel to Attack Syria

Neo-conservative hawks in and outside the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush had hoped that Israel would attack Syria during last summer's Lebanon war, according to a newly published interview with a prominent neo-conservative whose spouse is a top Middle East adviser in Vice President Dick Cheney's office.

MIDEAST: To Map a Green Line or Not

A directive by Israel's education minister that all maps in new editions of school textbooks must include the 1967 line that separates Israel from the West Bank has sparked a political firestorm, with right-wing politicians and religious leaders threatening to boycott the books if they are issued.

POLITICS: Holocaust Meet Taunts West, Worries Iran&#39s Jews

By hosting an international conference on the Holocaust this week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad succeeded in doing what he does best- outraging the West and taunting the Israeli state. But he has also got the small community of Iranian Jews worried.

MIDEAST: Israel Watchful of Hezbollah Moves

An Iranian and Syrian satellite, Hezbollah operating unfettered, and the Israeli army ceasing to patrol the south - that is the fate Israeli leaders fear could befall Lebanon if anti- government forces succeed in ousting the elected government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

POLITICS-US: Losing Arab Allies’ Hearts and Minds

Attitudes towards the United States reached new lows through most of the Arab world over the past year, according to the findings of a major new survey of five Arab countries released here Thursday by Zogby International and the Arab American Institute (AAI).

EGYPT: Opposition Skeptical over Constitutional Reform

Following earlier pledges to make 2007 "the year of constitutional reform," President Hosni Mubarak recently called for a raft of amendments to the national charter "with the aim of securing a new era of political change." According to opposition figures and political analysts, however, the promised reforms represent little more than window dressing.

POLITICS-US: Public Found Likely to Support Baker Report

With the administration of President George W. Bush under mounting pressure to alter U.S. strategy in Iraq and the Middle East, a new public opinion survey quietly released this week found strong popular support for pursuing new diplomatic avenues as proposed by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG).

MIDEAST: Olmert Looks Away From Iraq

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was doing his best to persuade a skeptical audience of journalists that a report by a U.S. advisory group, which linked the chaos in Iraq to the unresolved conflict between Israel and its neighbours, would have no impact on U.S. policy in the region.

POLITICS-US: Baker Group Urges Major Policy Overhaul

Calling the situation in Iraq "grave and deteriorating," the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG) Wednesday urged a major overhaul of U.S. policies both in Iraq and the larger Middle East.

RELIGION: Headscarves Dispute Travels to Egypt

Heated disputes have arisen in Egypt over the suggestion by culture minister Farouk Hosni last week that the rising number of Egyptian women wearing the Islamic headscarf is a sign of social "regression".

MIDEAST: Moderate Seeks a Voice

Sufyan Abu Zayda has seen too many broken ceasefires and heard too many unfulfilled speeches about peace and reconciliation to allow himself to enthuse about the latest Israeli-Palestinian truce and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's call for renewed dialogue earlier this week.

MIDEAST: Fragile Calm Takes Shape

After five months of trying to outlast one another, Israelis and Palestinians have agreed to stop killing each other - for now. By 6 am on Sunday morning, the last Israeli soldier had left the Gaza Strip. That was also the time at which Palestinian militants had agreed they would cease firing rockets into Israel as part of a mutual ceasefire.

LEBANON: Assassination Leaves Govt Gasping

The assassination of Christian Maronite leader Pierre Gemayel does more than strike a blow to a fragile Lebanese government just trying to survive: it raises fears of sectarian violence with painful memories of a devastating 15-year civil war still fresh.

LEBANON: Chaos Appears On the Horizon

The assassination of Pierre Gemayel in Beirut on Tuesday has interrupted an 18-month relative safety for anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians and intellectuals, and signals the kick-off of a series of events aiming at totally destabilising the ailing national government and dividing the Christian community in the country - and possibly plunging the entire region into chaos.

ENVIRONMENT-MIDEAST: Lebanese Waters Still Stained Black

Squally winter weather in the eastern Mediterranean poses a fresh threat to marine ecology from Lebanon to Turkey this year, due to the remnants of the oil slick caused in July when Israeli forces bombed a power plant south of Beirut..

MIDEAST: In UN Vote, U.S. Snubbed for Defending Israeli Aggression

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Friday deploring Israeli military aggression against Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories.

POLITICS: Dialogue or Sanctions – U.S. Dilemma Over Iran

The United States, which is making little headway in its attempts to impose mandatory U.N. sanctions on Iran, is facing a political dilemma as it comes under increasing pressure to initiate a dialogue with the very country it is trying to punish for its defiant nuclear programme.

DISARMAMENT: The Silent Killers in the World’s War Zones

When mortars and rockets fall silent in the world's battle zones, the killings do not necessarily end with ceasefires and peace talks.

RIGHTS: 98 Percent of Cluster Bomb Victims are Civilians

Ninety-eight percent of registered victims of cluster bombs are civilians, Handicap International, a UK-based NGO said in a report published Thursday.