POLITICS: Islamic Radicals Rise Via the Ballot Box

"You want democracy - and we will give you democracy," was the taunting comment by a Hamas supporter, as he joined thousands of demonstrators celebrating the stunning victory of the radical Islamic party in Palestinian elections last week.

MIDEAST: Hamas Up Against Economic Rocks

The economic situation in the Palestinian territories following the rise to power of the armed group Hamas is rapidly growing bleak on news that the Israeli government plans to deny payments for civil servants, and that this may be followed by foreign aid cuts.

POLITICS: Hamas Ascendance Was Years in the Making

The reaction in the United States to the surprise victory by Hamas in last week's Palestinian elections appears to have ignored the role that Washington played in bringing the radical Islamist group to power.

SYRIA: Assad Keeps Footing Amid Political Tremors

Despite a U.N. probe into his possible role in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and a public challenge to his rule by a prominent Syrian politician in exile, Syrian President Bashar Assad appears likely to endure for the foreseeable future, according to experts here.

FINANCE: Donors Threaten Aid Cut After Hamas Win

International donors whose funds sustained the Palestinian Authority for much of its life, and who are now alarmed at the win of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, could cut off their aid, effectively threatening to bankrupt the future Hamas-led authority.

MIDEAST: ‘Israel Will Work at Ignoring Hamas’

It took acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert more than 12 hours to respond.

POLITICS-MIDEAST: Hamas Upset Rattles Bush Strategy

The stunning victory of the Islamist Hamas party in parliamentary elections Wednesday in the Palestinian Authority (PA) poses stark new challenges to U.S. President George W. Bush's hopes of advancing an Israeli-Palestinian peace process and promoting democracy throughout the Arab Middle East.

MIDEAST: Hamas Victory Casts Shadow on Peace

The Palestinian militant group Hamas has won an apparent victory in parliamentary elections. The win shocked the ruling Fatah party and has raised concerns about the future of the peace process, and about Palestine relations with an international community that regards Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

MIDEAST: All Eyes Are On Hamas

Wednesday's parliamentary elections in the Palestinian areas are fraught by a combination of lawlessness in the region, complaints about Israeli interference in the electoral process, and the spectre that controversial militant group Hamas may win in the polls.

MIDEAST: Political Activity Rises Around Sharon’s Stillness

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's massive stroke Jan. 4, and the likely brain damage that medical experts describe as effectively writing him out of the political landscape, has ushered in an unknown era for his political party, and in relations with the Palestinians and the greater Middle East.

MIDEAST: Sharon’s Health Worries Egyptians

The recent admission of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon into a Jerusalem hospital after suffering a massive stroke has left Egyptians wondering what effects this will have on the relationship between Egypt and Israel.

MIDEAST: A Stroke Affects a Region

For a full week, Israel's usually garrulous, confrontational politicians have been declaring on radio and TV that now is not the time to talk politics. Not while Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is fighting for his life in a Jerusalem hospital after suffering a major brain hemorrhage.

POLITICS-US: Sharon’s Demise Gives Analysts the Jitters

Nearly a week after a massive stroke effectively removed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon from Israeli politics, the outlook in Washington is mostly worried and pessimistic.

POLITICS-US: The House That Jack Built Tumbles Down

Tuesday's guilty plea by Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials threatens to unravel a network of right-wing lobbyists and lawmakers whose rise since the early 1990s was fueled as much by cash and influence-peddling as by ideological conviction.

CHALLENGES 2005-2006: Sharon Keeps Them Guessing

The events that unfolded inside Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's official vehicle on the evening of Dec. 18 could turn out to be a key element in deciphering what Israelis and Palestinians can expect in the course of 2006.

POLITICS: Israelis Grow Troubled by Bush Priorities

Despite their mutual enthusiasm for ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Israel and the United States appear increasingly at odds over what to do about the larger Middle East region.

EGYPT: Voters Kept Away in Last Round

The final round of voting Thursday was marred by widespread clashes between voters and security forces, and reports of intimidation.

POLITICS: Arabs Unimpressed by Bush Democracy Drive

Despite a modest decline in hostility toward the United States, opinion in the Arab world appears to have hardened over the past year, according to the latest in an annual series of surveys of six Arab countries released here Wednesday by the Arab American Institute (AAI).

MIDEAST: Bombing Scatters Political Questions

The Israeli rescue services had hardly finished evacuating the dead and injured from the scene of the suicide bomb blast in the coastal town of Netanya that killed five people on Monday, and already the speculation was under way.

WTO-SPECIAL: Egypt Cottons On To Its Interests

Like other countries in the region, Egypt has much to sell but runs into barriers. And like others, it wants something to emerge from the trade ministers meeting in Hong Kong later this month to break those barriers - amidst doubts that this will happen.

POLITICS: The Most Elusive Word

When a Sri Lankan lawyer, Rohan Perera, was elected to chair the U.N. Ad Hoc Committee on Terrorism about eight years ago, a Western diplomat jokingly told him he was going to be "chairman for life"- because "the United Nations will never agree on a legal definition of terrorism".