MIDEAST: Iran Walks Razor’s Edge in Israel-Lebanon Conflict

Despite Iran's strong rhetoric condemning Israel's military onslaught against Lebanon, Tehran, which is accused by the U.S. of supplying weapons to Hezbollah, has become cautious in supporting its most flourishing investment abroad.

MIDEAST: Israel Under Pressure for Ceasefire

Israel agreed to a 48-hour hiatus in aerial strikes in Lebanon Monday after its bombardment of a building in the south Lebanese village Qana killed 54 people, at least half of them children.

MIDEAST: ‘If You Haven’t Left, You’re Hezbollah’

The Israeli attack on Qana has taken the biggest toll of the war, but it is only one of countless lethal attacks on civilians in Lebanon.

MIDEAST: Oil Spill Hits Lebanon

Israeli air strikes on an electricity plant have released oil that has now spread over much of Lebanon's coastline.

MIDEAST: Humanitarian Crisis Building Up

As the humanitarian crisis deepens in Lebanon, life-saving relief supply needs to get there soon, aid experts say.

POLITICS: U.N. Sanctions on Iran Recede Further

Russia and China, two permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, have dismissed media speculation that they had reached an informal deal with the United States and its European allies on threats to impose sanctions on Iran.

MIDEAST: No Early End to Conflict in Sight

With U.S. and European leaders unable to agree on the conditions for a ceasefire, the Israeli cabinet authorising the call-up of tens of thousands of reservists, and Hezbollah still firing dozens of rockets into Israel every day, an end to hostilities did not look near as Israel's offensive against the Shia organisation in Lebanon entered its 16th day Friday.

POLITICS: Lebanon, False Note in Rice’s Piano Diplomacy

The sole discordance to United States top diplomat Condoleezza Rice's virtuoso piano performance for Asia's foreign ministers, on Thursday night, was the chorus of ''Get Out Rice'' and ''Stop the Genocide in Lebanon'' chanted by demonstrators outside the hall.

MIDEAST: Israelis Accused of Using Illegal Weapons

The Israeli military is using illegal weapons against civilians in southern Lebanon, according to several reports.

MIDEAST: EU Helps Evacuate Workers

The European Commission has launched a two-pronged Middle East initiative: to fund evacuation of developing country nationals in Lebanon, and help out salary-starved Palestinian health workers.

MIDEAST: Death Toll Could Be Twice the Official Figure

Lebanese doctors, aid workers and refugees are all reporting that the official number of dead in Lebanon is far lower than the actual.

MIDEAST: Sunni-Shia Split Fades as Israel Presses Campaign

Hopes by the George W. Bush administration for the emergence of an implicit Sunni-Israel alliance against an Iranian-led "Shia Crescent" have faded over the past week as Arab public opinion has become increasingly united by outrage over the Jewish state's continuing military campaign in Lebanon and Washington's refusal to stop it, according to Middle East experts here.

MIDEAST: Fractured Govt Leads Devastated Country

Amidst the rapidly worsening situation in Lebanon, the government finds itself too weak and divided to deal either with the Israel or with Hezbollah.

POLITICS-US: Mideast Figures High in Battle Over Bolton

One year after Democrats succeeded in blocking Senate confirmation of John Bolton as Washington's ambassador to the United Nations, the White House has once again thrown down the gauntlet, demanding that its least diplomatic diplomat be confirmed in the post for the balance of President George W. Bush's term.

POLITICS-US: Christian Right Steps Up Pro-Israel Lobby

Over the past two decades, as the Christian Right has grown in political power in the United States, there has been a parallel growth in support for Israel. Organisations made up of conservative evangelical and Jewish leaders have been founded, and millions of dollars have been raised and donated to charities in Israel.

MIDEAST: Hezbollah Could Be Gaining Strength

The continuing Israeli bombing of south Lebanon and south Beirut might just have strengthened the Hezbollah.

MIDEAST: Crisis Brings Rice, Not Peace

U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has come and gone, but the conflict in Lebanon continues. Most Lebanese believe she had little to say for them through her talks with leaders of the region.

MIDEAST: Israel Has Its Refugees, Too

Avner Pomeranetz does not sound particularly concerned by the barrage of 26 Katyusha rockets that slammed into his home town of Kiryat Shmona on Israel's northern border over the weekend. Nor by the fact that he has to remain in town by order of the army, and cannot travel south out of range of the rockets, because as a pharmacist he is considered to be providing an essential service.

POLITICS: Damascus Now Seen As Pivotal in Mideast Crisis

Mocked just months ago as a fool and a lightweight compared to his legendarily shrewd father, Syrian President Bashar Assad appears increasingly to have become the "go-to guy" in resolving the two-week-old war between Hezbollah and Israel.

MIDEAST: Refugees Have Only Their Anger

Among hundreds of thousands of refugees scattered across city parks, schools and abandoned buildings in Beirut, new and chilling words have been doing the rounds.

SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Lebanon, Terrorism Equal Concerns for ASEAN

Israeli military operations in Lebanon and global terrorism were prime concerns as the 39th ministerial meeting of the ten-member ASEAN regional grouping got off to a start in the Malaysian capital on Tuesday.