MIDEAST: Fleeing Lebanese Speak of Indiscriminate Bombing

People fleeing the bombing of Lebanon say the Israelis are targeting civilian neighbourhoods and vital infrastructure, and not just Hezbollah centres.

MIDEAST: Israel Trying to Force a New Balance

When Israeli planes bombed two runways at Beirut airport in the early hours of Thursday morning, signalling the start of a major aerial assault, the immediate trigger had been an attack the day before by Hezbollah militants who had crossed the Lebanon border into Israel, killed three Israeli soldiers and snatched two more.

MIDEAST: Refugees Speak of Catastrophic Bombing

Refugees fleeing Beirut in the face of Israeli air attacks are speaking of "haphazard bombings" and a crisis situation developing in the city.

MIDEAST: Lebanese Tremors Rock Syria

Syrians are outraged over Israeli air strikes in Lebanon that have killed 27 civilians and closed down Beirut's international airport.

EGYPT: Journalists Challenge New Press Law

Many journalists and opposition leaders are opposing a new law approved by parliament this week. They say the law fails to protect editors and reporters from imprisonment for so-called press violations.

POLITICS-MIDEAST: Bush Faces Major Choice Amid Escalation

The sudden opening Wednesday by Lebanon's Hezbollah militia of a second front in Israel's ongoing campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza presents the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush with an escalating crisis that, until now, it has preferred to ignore.

POLITICS: U.N. Action in Gaza, North Korea Stalled by Veto Threats

The 15-member Security Council, the only U.N. body wielding power to impose mandatory sanctions on the organisation's 192 member states, is unable to help contain two ongoing crises primarily because of threatened vetoes by China and the United States.

MIDEAST: Israel Returns From Gaza With Little

Even as Israeli troops, backed by armoured vehicles and Apache attack helicopters, thrust into northern Gaza, political leaders were insisting the foray was temporary and military officials were wondering whether the operation had any hope of achieving its stated goal - ending rocket fire by Palestinian militants into Israel.

POLITICS-MIDEAST: Growing Calls for U.S. to Step In

Amid worsening violence between Palestinian fighters and the Israeli military in Gaza, calls are mounting here for the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to take a stronger role in ending the escalating conflict.

MIDEAST: Egypt Steps In Doubtfully

Egypt has dispatched a delegation of security experts to the Gaza Strip in an attempt to defuse rising tension. The Israeli military is poised to re-invade the territory following the abduction of one of its soldiers.

POLITICS: Israel Fears High Price for U.S. Strike on Iran

Israel has seldom been as quiet on Iran as in the last three months.

MIDEAST: Speedy Return To An Impasse

Ismail Haniyeh had not been seen since an Israeli soldier was kidnapped last Sunday by Palestinian militants from a military base close to the Israel-Gaza border. Fearing he might be targetted for assassination by Israel, the Hamas Prime Minister scratched his public appearances.

MIDEAST: Abduction Upsets a Plan

Heckled by hardline parliamentarians, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tried to strike a defiant pose. Despite the spiralling violence in the Gaza Strip, from where Israel withdrew unilaterally last year, he insisted he would press ahead with his plan for a unilateral pullback in the West Bank.

EGYPT: Parliament Comes Down on Judiciary

Parliament has passed a law that critics say will keep the judiciary under control of the executive.

MIDEAST: Barrier May Separate A Little Less

A decision by Israel's new defence minister to review the route of the West Bank separation barrier, in order to limit settlement expansion and ease the daily lives of Palestinians, is likely to impact on the delineation of the border that ultimately separates Israelis and Palestinians.

MIDEAST: Hamas’ Suitcase Economy

Mahmoud Zahar says he will not be deterred in bringing suitcases stuffed with millions of dollars in cash into the Gaza Strip when he returns from his travels abroad. "We are going to continue to bring money in through Rafah crossing," he said recently, referring to the Gaza-Egypt border terminal.

MIDEAST: Killings Spark New Confrontation

The death of seven Palestinian civilians have become the latest front in the public relations battle between Israel and the Palestinians, with each side trying to convince the world of its version of what transpired on the afternoon of Jun. 9 on a beach in northern Gaza.

MIDEAST: Holocaust Memories Hover Over Sudanese Refugees

Some 200 Sudanese refugees who have crossed the border from Egypt into Israel seeking asylum are posing a thorny moral dilemma for a country that was born out of the ashes of the Holocaust.

POLITICS: Caterpillar Pressured Over “Weaponised Bulldozers”

The parents of a U.S. peace activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer built by the global machinery giant Caterpillar confronted the company Wednesday for the first time and urged shareholders at its annual meeting to end sales of "weaponised bulldozers to Israel".

MIDEAST: Still Some Food in the Garbage

Children rummage through garbage cans for discarded food for their one meal during the day. Families wait to buy discount-priced vegetables left unsold in the evening. These are not locally exaggerated accounts of the situation in Palestinian areas, but an official account by the World Food Programme.

MIDEAST: Hamas Faces a Presidential Revolution

Mahmoud Abbas does not fall into the category of outgoing, charismatic leaders with a penchant for bold political initiatives. Gray, circumspect and technocratic are the adjectives often chosen to describe him.