Gourt > Regional > Middle East (2554)
The Middle East is a historical and cultural subregion of Africa-Eurasia traditionally held to be countries or regions in Southwest Asia together with Egypt. In other contexts, the region can include other parts of North Africa and/or Central Asia.
Characteristics
In the Western world, the Middle East is generally thought of as a predominantly Islamic Arabic community defined by frequent war. However the area encompasses many distinct cultural and ethnic groups, including the Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Azeris, Berbers, Chaldeans, Druze, Greeks, Jews, Kurds, Maronites, Persians and Turks. The main language groups include: Arabic, Armenian, Assyrian (also known as Aramaic and Syriac), Hebrew, Persian, Kurdish and Turkish. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern and the derived noun is Middle-Easterner.
Most Western definitions of the "Middle East" — in both established reference books and common usage — define the region as 'nations in Southwest Asia, from Iran (Persia) to Egypt'. Egypt, with its Sinai Peninsula in Asia, is often considered part of the 'Middle East', although most of the country lies geographically in North Africa. North African nations without Asian links, such as Libya, Tunisia and Morocco, are increasingly being called North African — as opposed to Middle Eastern (Iran (Persia) to Egypt-Asia) — by international media outlets.
One widely used definition of "Middle East" is that of the airline industry, maintained by the IATA standards organization. This definition — as of early 2006 — includes Bahrain, Egypt, Iran (Persia), Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestinian Territory, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. * This definition is used in world-wide airfare and tax calculations for passengers and cargo.
More on [ Middle East ]
North Africa :: Regions
Central Asia :: Regions
Mediterranean :: Regions
The Economist: Middle East and Africa
Yemen's war: Pity those caught in the middle
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:39:48 -0000
A bitter local conflict threatens to spread across the regionMUHAMMAD REDWAN and his family were being hammered from all sides. In early August, rebels from Yemen’s Houthi clan took over his village in the rugged mountains of the Malahid district, near the border with Saudi Arabia. First they harassed him, telling him not to listen on his television to music that “contradicted the values of Islam”. Then they told him he was “praying in the wrong way”— with arms raised, as is the custom elsewhere in Yemen. But then he got squeezed from another side, when Saudi armed forces, entering Yemen from across the border, issued warnings by loudspeaker. “If you want to stay alive, leave your homes immediately,” they blared. A 35-year-old smuggler, Mr Redwan took the hint. After a three-day journey of 100km (62 miles)—by donkey, in a truck and finally by foot—he, his wife and six children managed to reach Mazrak Camp, south-west of the regional capital, Saada. This is where more than 10,000 recently displaced Yemenis now languish in misery. The UN-run camp cannot cope with the thousands of people who are arriving every week. Tens of thousands of other displaced people have recently sought refuge in villages and towns scattered across a swathe of northern Yemen. ...
Congo's constitution: Democracy under threat
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:39:48 -0000
Is Congo’s President Joseph Kabila flirting with dictatorship?AFTER 32 years of rapacious dictatorship under Mobutu Sese Seko and nearly a decade of chaos following his demise in 1997, Congo’s elections in 2006 marked the first time the people of the former Belgian colony had gone to the polls in a free and fair vote for four decades. It was a rare moment of hope for a better future. But the latest signs are less auspicious. In recent parliamentary sessions, it emerged that President Joseph Kabila had called for a special constitutional review commission to consider amending Congo’s four-year-old charter. Among various suggestions, it may ask for presidential terms to be extended from five to seven years and perhaps for term limits to be junked altogether. Another idea being touted is for the president to become head of the Superior Council of Magistrates, the country’s most powerful judicial body. But the constitution specifically forbids amendments in all of those areas.In the past three years the 38-year-old president has shown increasingly little interest in living up to the democratic promise that impressed the West when he won at the polls in 2006. Not that such hopes lasted very long. Just a few months after he was sworn in, he brought the opposition to heel by defeating fighters loyal to Jean-Pierre Bemba, who came second in the presidential contest, in deadly street battles in the capital, Kinshasa. Soon afterwards he clamped down on parliament’s largest opposition group, which is led by Mr Bemba, who is anyway due next year to stand trial for war crimes at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. ...
Hope and worry in Zambia: Less poor, less free
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:39:48 -0000
The president is making the country’s well-wishers anxious WHEN Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia) got independence from Britain in 1964, it was one of Africa’s richest and most developed countries. It has vast copper-ore deposits and some of the best land and most copious water in the continent. Yet now, largely due to poor leadership, it is one of the poorest. Under President Levy Mwanawasa, who ran the place from 2002 until he died a year ago, things began to look up. But after a year in the job his successor, Rupiah Banda, is beginning to raise fears, especially among foreign investors and donors, that his country may be returning to some of its bad old ways. One reason is that Mr Banda, who was foreign minister under Zambia’s founding president, Kenneth Kaunda, has been chumming up with Mr Kaunda’s disgraced successor, Frederick Chiluba. Apart from the successful privatisation of the mines, Mr Chiluba’s ten-year reign from 1991-2001 is remembered mainly for its economic mismanagement and corruption. In 2007, in a civil case brought by Zambia’s government before London’s High Court, Mr Chiluba was found guilty of embezzling GBP46m (then $95m) of public funds. The ruling has yet to be enforced in Zambia. ...
Sierra Leone's corruption problem: A mortal enemy
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:39:48 -0000
The government is having some rare success in trying to eradicate an old soreIN MOST African countries, the fight against corruption is deemed important but hardly a matter of life and death. In Sierra Leone it is exactly that. In 1991 the country descended into one of Africa’s most terrible civil wars. It lasted a decade or so, killed tens of thousands of people and spawned a new lexicon of words and images that shocked the world: “blood diamonds”, drugged-up child soldiers, warlords and militiamen amputating the hands of their victims for doing nothing worse than voting. At the end of it all, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission appointed by the government decided that one of the war’s main causes had been the rampant corruption that had infested every level of government in the preceding decades. If Sierra Leone was to avoid a repeat of the 1990s, corruption was the biggest vice to be eradicated. ...
Race and power in South Africa: Trouble at the grid
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:03:39 -0000
A race row over electricity UNTIL the end of last month, Eskom, the state-owned power company, was mainly known for its inefficiency and incompetence. Power cuts have been maddeningly common throughout the country. But now the company has been engulfed by another, much more South African, sort of row, about race. On October 30th rumours first circulated that the board had asked Jacob Maroga, Eskom’s chief executive, who is black, to step down. A month earlier a group of senior employees at the cash-strapped utility were reported to have sent an anonymous letter to the minister for public enterprises, demanding his removal. On November 5th it was reported that Mr Maroga had not been pushed after all, but had resigned after a clash with the board’s chairman, Bobby Godsell, who is white. ...
The leadership of Palestine: Will he jump?
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:03:39 -0000
The Palestinians look both divided and leaderlessAFTER five hapless years as the Palestinians’ president, Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) suddenly declared on November 5th that he would not seek re-election in January, when the Palestinian territories are due to hold general and presidential polls. On the face of it, his decision was a blow to the cause of peace. Even before he succeeded Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004, Mr Abbas stood out as a man of peace who preferred negotiation to violence, whereas Mr Arafat, at least in most Israeli eyes, had always juggled the two. After Mr Abbas steps down, who will take over? And in which direction might the new man go? But within hours of Mr Abbas’s declaration confusion had set in. For a start, it soon became unclear whether Mr Abbas really would step down. He has often threatened to resign. Angered by a recent decision of the American administration to rescind its previous vaunted insistence that Israel’s government should completely stop building and expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the core of a would-be Palestinian state, Mr Abbas may have been seeking to win concessions as his price for staying in office—and for returning to the negotiating table. ...
L.A. Times - Middle East
Egypt recalls envoy from Algeria over soccer violence
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
The move follows attacks on Egyptian fans after Algeria's victory in a World Cup qualifying match in Sudan. Egypt has recalled its ambassador to Algeria after Egyptian soccer fans were attacked by their Algerian counterparts following the two countries' playoff match in Sudan in the 2010 World Cup qualifications, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced Thursday.
Iraq vice president vetoes new election law
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
Move could disrupt plans for a January vote and for troop withdrawals. The Sunni official says the law didn't provide enough seats for refugees. One of Iraq's vice presidents vetoed the country's new election law Wednesday, throwing into fresh doubt the feasibility of holding crucial national balloting in January and possibly disrupting the withdrawal next year of U.S. troops.
Nuclear fuel won't go abroad, Iranian says
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
Comments by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki may be a dismissal of a U.S.-backed plan, or an attempt to haggle. Iran's foreign minister vowed Wednesday that his nation wouldn't allow any of its enriched uranium supply out of the country, the most definitive statement so far on an international proposal to exchange the bulk of Iran's nuclear material for fuel rods fitted for a Tehran medical reactor.
Jerusalem housing plan draws U.S. fire
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
The White House, which is trying to foster peace talks, says it is 'dismayed' by an Israeli housing panel's approval of a plan to build 844 new homes in a part of Jerusalem claimed by Palestinians. Israel's plan to add 844 homes to a part of Jerusalem claimed by Palestinians drew sharp international protest Tuesday as U.S. officials denounced it as a blow to their already troubled effort to restart peace talks.
Egyptian mummies show signs of heart disease
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
A study finds evidence of hardened arteries in nine out of 16 ancient mummies, suggesting that modern diets and lifestyle aren't exclusively to blame for the disease. CT scans of Egyptian mummies, some as much as 3,500 years old, show evidence of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, which is normally thought of as a disease caused by modern lifestyles, researchers said Tuesday.
U.N. report questions Iran's credibility on nuclear plant
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
The IAEA says satellite photos show construction on the facility near Qom began five years earlier than Tehran contends it did. The latest United Nations report on Iran's nuclear program questions Tehran's credibility regarding a recently disclosed facility built into a mountain near the holy city of Qom.
NPR Topics: Middle East
Obscured By War, Water Crisis Looms In Yemen
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:56:00 -0500
News from Yemen has been dominated recently by an escalating rebellion along the border with Saudi Arabia. But the country has been making news for decades because of its severe overuse of a rapidly disappearing water supply, the result of natural and political causes.
Iran Rejects U.N. Proposal To Export Uranium
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:27:00 -0500
Under the deal, Iran would send low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enriching and then to France to be converted into fuel rods, which would be returned to Iran. This would reduce the stockpile of material that Iran could enrich to a higher level and possibly use to make nuclear weapons.
U.S. Slams Israeli Housing Plan For East Jerusalem
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:19:00 -0500
Under the plan, 900 more housing units would be built in a Jewish neighborhood in the part of Jerusalem that Palestinians claim. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the steps "could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations" and that the issue of Jerusalem "must be resolved through negotiations between the parties."
5 Arrested After Iran Election Sentenced To Death
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:57:00 -0500
Iran began a mass trial in August of more than 100 prominent opposition figures and activists, accusing them of a range of charges from rioting to spying and plotting what Iran's clerical rulers have depicted as a foreign-backed plot to oust them from power.
Iran Nuke Plant At Advanced Construction Stage
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0500
A report from the International Atomic Energy Agency provides the first look inside a previously secret uranium enrichment facility in Iran. The facility's existence became known two months ago, and recently IAEA inspectors got to go inside. So far, the site lacks the essential technology to enrich uranium. Iran says it won't be ready for another two years.
Fighting In Yemen Escalates As Saudis Enter Fray
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500
The Yemeni government's battle against Shiite rebels in the north has drawn in the Saudi military, in a rare use of its armed forces. The conflict intensified in part because of divisions within the Yemeni army.
UN News Centre - Middle East
Palestinian children mark 20th year of UN rights treaty with video testimony
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500
Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugee children in United Nations schools in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria have been clicking away with flip cams to create the region's first ever online video yearbook to mark the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
UN and Iraq agree on plan to boost governance, socio-economic development
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500
The United Nations and Iraq have agreed on the basics of a new development partnership to strengthen Iraqi governance, social services and economic growth over the next five years.
Lebanon: UN force commander confers with prime minister on security in south
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500
The military chief of United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon today met separately with Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to discuss the security situation in the south of the country.
Following Iraqi presidential veto, Ban hopes elections can be held promptly
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced the hope today that Iraq would move forward on holding national elections slated for January after the Presidency Council's decision to veto the electoral law.
Potential Israeli settler violence threatens 250,000 Palestinians - UN report
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500
Nearly 250,000 Palestinians in 83 communities on the West Bank are at risk of heightened violence in so-called "price tag" revenge attacks that Israeli settlers may launch against a large-scale attempt by Israel to evacuate outposts it considers illegal, a United Nations report warned today.
Ban deplores Israeli decision to expand Jerusalem settlement
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deplored the Israeli Government's decision today to expand Jerusalem's Gilo settlement, stressing that it was built on Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.
NYT > Middle East
U.S. Fears Iraqis Will Not Keep Up Rebuilt Projects
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:17:25 -0000
After spending $53 billion for relief and reconstruction in Iraq since 2003, the U.S. is concerned that Iraqis won’t be able to maintain the facilities once the Americans have left.
This Time, Soccer Stirs Egyptian Riot, Not Bread
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:24:41 -0000
History has proven there are two subjects that will move Egyptians into the streets in riotous numbers, crashing windows, battling each other and defying an army of club-wielding riot police.
Frustration as Iran Stalls on Deal
By STEVEN ERLANGER Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:23:04 -0000
Officials from six countries and the European Union expressed disappointment that Iran had not accepted a deal to export most of its enriched uranium.
In Draft Resolution, United Nations Rebukes Iran for Rights Violations Since Election
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:17:10 -0000
A measure, which is almost certain to pass in the General Assembly, denounces a rise in violence, torture and limits to free speech.
Dismissal of Case for Guard in Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:23:12 -0000
The Justice Department intends to drop manslaughter and weapons charges against a security guard from the company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide who was involved in deadly Baghdad shootings.
Memo From Jerusalem: Mideast Peace Talks Hang in Balance Over Abbas
By ETHAN BRONNER Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:55:56 -0000
The Israeli security establishment is alarmed over the possible departure of President Mahmoud Abbas, whom it considers a true moderate.
Subscribe to Middle_East RSS feed 
Yemen's war: Pity those caught in the middle
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:39:48 -0000
A bitter local conflict threatens to spread across the regionMUHAMMAD REDWAN and his family were being hammered from all sides. In early August, rebels from Yemen’s Houthi clan took over his village in the rugged mountains of the Malahid district, near the border with Saudi Arabia. First they harassed him, telling him not to listen on his television to music that “contradicted the values of Islam”. Then they told him he was “praying in the wrong way”— with arms raised, as is the custom elsewhere in Yemen. But then he got squeezed from another side, when Saudi armed forces, entering Yemen from across the border, issued warnings by loudspeaker. “If you want to stay alive, leave your homes immediately,” they blared. A 35-year-old smuggler, Mr Redwan took the hint. After a three-day journey of 100km (62 miles)—by donkey, in a truck and finally by foot—he, his wife and six children managed to reach Mazrak Camp, south-west of the regional capital, Saada. This is where more than 10,000 recently displaced Yemenis now languish in misery. The UN-run camp cannot cope with the thousands of people who are arriving every week. Tens of thousands of other displaced people have recently sought refuge in villages and towns scattered across a swathe of northern Yemen. ...
Congo's constitution: Democracy under threat
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:39:48 -0000
Is Congo’s President Joseph Kabila flirting with dictatorship?AFTER 32 years of rapacious dictatorship under Mobutu Sese Seko and nearly a decade of chaos following his demise in 1997, Congo’s elections in 2006 marked the first time the people of the former Belgian colony had gone to the polls in a free and fair vote for four decades. It was a rare moment of hope for a better future. But the latest signs are less auspicious. In recent parliamentary sessions, it emerged that President Joseph Kabila had called for a special constitutional review commission to consider amending Congo’s four-year-old charter. Among various suggestions, it may ask for presidential terms to be extended from five to seven years and perhaps for term limits to be junked altogether. Another idea being touted is for the president to become head of the Superior Council of Magistrates, the country’s most powerful judicial body. But the constitution specifically forbids amendments in all of those areas.In the past three years the 38-year-old president has shown increasingly little interest in living up to the democratic promise that impressed the West when he won at the polls in 2006. Not that such hopes lasted very long. Just a few months after he was sworn in, he brought the opposition to heel by defeating fighters loyal to Jean-Pierre Bemba, who came second in the presidential contest, in deadly street battles in the capital, Kinshasa. Soon afterwards he clamped down on parliament’s largest opposition group, which is led by Mr Bemba, who is anyway due next year to stand trial for war crimes at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. ...
Hope and worry in Zambia: Less poor, less free
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:39:48 -0000
The president is making the country’s well-wishers anxious WHEN Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia) got independence from Britain in 1964, it was one of Africa’s richest and most developed countries. It has vast copper-ore deposits and some of the best land and most copious water in the continent. Yet now, largely due to poor leadership, it is one of the poorest. Under President Levy Mwanawasa, who ran the place from 2002 until he died a year ago, things began to look up. But after a year in the job his successor, Rupiah Banda, is beginning to raise fears, especially among foreign investors and donors, that his country may be returning to some of its bad old ways. One reason is that Mr Banda, who was foreign minister under Zambia’s founding president, Kenneth Kaunda, has been chumming up with Mr Kaunda’s disgraced successor, Frederick Chiluba. Apart from the successful privatisation of the mines, Mr Chiluba’s ten-year reign from 1991-2001 is remembered mainly for its economic mismanagement and corruption. In 2007, in a civil case brought by Zambia’s government before London’s High Court, Mr Chiluba was found guilty of embezzling GBP46m (then $95m) of public funds. The ruling has yet to be enforced in Zambia. ...
Sierra Leone's corruption problem: A mortal enemy
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:39:48 -0000
The government is having some rare success in trying to eradicate an old soreIN MOST African countries, the fight against corruption is deemed important but hardly a matter of life and death. In Sierra Leone it is exactly that. In 1991 the country descended into one of Africa’s most terrible civil wars. It lasted a decade or so, killed tens of thousands of people and spawned a new lexicon of words and images that shocked the world: “blood diamonds”, drugged-up child soldiers, warlords and militiamen amputating the hands of their victims for doing nothing worse than voting. At the end of it all, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission appointed by the government decided that one of the war’s main causes had been the rampant corruption that had infested every level of government in the preceding decades. If Sierra Leone was to avoid a repeat of the 1990s, corruption was the biggest vice to be eradicated. ...
Race and power in South Africa: Trouble at the grid
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:03:39 -0000
A race row over electricity UNTIL the end of last month, Eskom, the state-owned power company, was mainly known for its inefficiency and incompetence. Power cuts have been maddeningly common throughout the country. But now the company has been engulfed by another, much more South African, sort of row, about race. On October 30th rumours first circulated that the board had asked Jacob Maroga, Eskom’s chief executive, who is black, to step down. A month earlier a group of senior employees at the cash-strapped utility were reported to have sent an anonymous letter to the minister for public enterprises, demanding his removal. On November 5th it was reported that Mr Maroga had not been pushed after all, but had resigned after a clash with the board’s chairman, Bobby Godsell, who is white. ...
The leadership of Palestine: Will he jump?
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:03:39 -0000
The Palestinians look both divided and leaderlessAFTER five hapless years as the Palestinians’ president, Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) suddenly declared on November 5th that he would not seek re-election in January, when the Palestinian territories are due to hold general and presidential polls. On the face of it, his decision was a blow to the cause of peace. Even before he succeeded Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004, Mr Abbas stood out as a man of peace who preferred negotiation to violence, whereas Mr Arafat, at least in most Israeli eyes, had always juggled the two. After Mr Abbas steps down, who will take over? And in which direction might the new man go? But within hours of Mr Abbas’s declaration confusion had set in. For a start, it soon became unclear whether Mr Abbas really would step down. He has often threatened to resign. Angered by a recent decision of the American administration to rescind its previous vaunted insistence that Israel’s government should completely stop building and expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the core of a would-be Palestinian state, Mr Abbas may have been seeking to win concessions as his price for staying in office—and for returning to the negotiating table. ...
L.A. Times - Middle East
Egypt recalls envoy from Algeria over soccer violence
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
The move follows attacks on Egyptian fans after Algeria's victory in a World Cup qualifying match in Sudan. Egypt has recalled its ambassador to Algeria after Egyptian soccer fans were attacked by their Algerian counterparts following the two countries' playoff match in Sudan in the 2010 World Cup qualifications, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced Thursday.
Iraq vice president vetoes new election law
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
Move could disrupt plans for a January vote and for troop withdrawals. The Sunni official says the law didn't provide enough seats for refugees. One of Iraq's vice presidents vetoed the country's new election law Wednesday, throwing into fresh doubt the feasibility of holding crucial national balloting in January and possibly disrupting the withdrawal next year of U.S. troops.
Nuclear fuel won't go abroad, Iranian says
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
Comments by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki may be a dismissal of a U.S.-backed plan, or an attempt to haggle. Iran's foreign minister vowed Wednesday that his nation wouldn't allow any of its enriched uranium supply out of the country, the most definitive statement so far on an international proposal to exchange the bulk of Iran's nuclear material for fuel rods fitted for a Tehran medical reactor.
Jerusalem housing plan draws U.S. fire
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
The White House, which is trying to foster peace talks, says it is 'dismayed' by an Israeli housing panel's approval of a plan to build 844 new homes in a part of Jerusalem claimed by Palestinians. Israel's plan to add 844 homes to a part of Jerusalem claimed by Palestinians drew sharp international protest Tuesday as U.S. officials denounced it as a blow to their already troubled effort to restart peace talks.
Egyptian mummies show signs of heart disease
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
A study finds evidence of hardened arteries in nine out of 16 ancient mummies, suggesting that modern diets and lifestyle aren't exclusively to blame for the disease. CT scans of Egyptian mummies, some as much as 3,500 years old, show evidence of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, which is normally thought of as a disease caused by modern lifestyles, researchers said Tuesday.
U.N. report questions Iran's credibility on nuclear plant
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
The IAEA says satellite photos show construction on the facility near Qom began five years earlier than Tehran contends it did. The latest United Nations report on Iran's nuclear program questions Tehran's credibility regarding a recently disclosed facility built into a mountain near the holy city of Qom.
NPR Topics: Middle East
Obscured By War, Water Crisis Looms In Yemen
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:56:00 -0500
News from Yemen has been dominated recently by an escalating rebellion along the border with Saudi Arabia. But the country has been making news for decades because of its severe overuse of a rapidly disappearing water supply, the result of natural and political causes.
Iran Rejects U.N. Proposal To Export Uranium
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:27:00 -0500
Under the deal, Iran would send low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enriching and then to France to be converted into fuel rods, which would be returned to Iran. This would reduce the stockpile of material that Iran could enrich to a higher level and possibly use to make nuclear weapons.
U.S. Slams Israeli Housing Plan For East Jerusalem
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:19:00 -0500
Under the plan, 900 more housing units would be built in a Jewish neighborhood in the part of Jerusalem that Palestinians claim. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the steps "could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations" and that the issue of Jerusalem "must be resolved through negotiations between the parties."
5 Arrested After Iran Election Sentenced To Death
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:57:00 -0500
Iran began a mass trial in August of more than 100 prominent opposition figures and activists, accusing them of a range of charges from rioting to spying and plotting what Iran's clerical rulers have depicted as a foreign-backed plot to oust them from power.
Iran Nuke Plant At Advanced Construction Stage
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0500
A report from the International Atomic Energy Agency provides the first look inside a previously secret uranium enrichment facility in Iran. The facility's existence became known two months ago, and recently IAEA inspectors got to go inside. So far, the site lacks the essential technology to enrich uranium. Iran says it won't be ready for another two years.
Fighting In Yemen Escalates As Saudis Enter Fray
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500
The Yemeni government's battle against Shiite rebels in the north has drawn in the Saudi military, in a rare use of its armed forces. The conflict intensified in part because of divisions within the Yemeni army.
UN News Centre - Middle East
Palestinian children mark 20th year of UN rights treaty with video testimony
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500
Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugee children in United Nations schools in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria have been clicking away with flip cams to create the region's first ever online video yearbook to mark the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
UN and Iraq agree on plan to boost governance, socio-economic development
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500
The United Nations and Iraq have agreed on the basics of a new development partnership to strengthen Iraqi governance, social services and economic growth over the next five years.
Lebanon: UN force commander confers with prime minister on security in south
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500
The military chief of United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon today met separately with Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to discuss the security situation in the south of the country.
Following Iraqi presidential veto, Ban hopes elections can be held promptly
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced the hope today that Iraq would move forward on holding national elections slated for January after the Presidency Council's decision to veto the electoral law.
Potential Israeli settler violence threatens 250,000 Palestinians - UN report
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500
Nearly 250,000 Palestinians in 83 communities on the West Bank are at risk of heightened violence in so-called "price tag" revenge attacks that Israeli settlers may launch against a large-scale attempt by Israel to evacuate outposts it considers illegal, a United Nations report warned today.
Ban deplores Israeli decision to expand Jerusalem settlement
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deplored the Israeli Government's decision today to expand Jerusalem's Gilo settlement, stressing that it was built on Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.
NYT > Middle East
U.S. Fears Iraqis Will Not Keep Up Rebuilt Projects
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:17:25 -0000
After spending $53 billion for relief and reconstruction in Iraq since 2003, the U.S. is concerned that Iraqis won’t be able to maintain the facilities once the Americans have left.
This Time, Soccer Stirs Egyptian Riot, Not Bread
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:24:41 -0000
History has proven there are two subjects that will move Egyptians into the streets in riotous numbers, crashing windows, battling each other and defying an army of club-wielding riot police.
Frustration as Iran Stalls on Deal
By STEVEN ERLANGER Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:23:04 -0000
Officials from six countries and the European Union expressed disappointment that Iran had not accepted a deal to export most of its enriched uranium.
In Draft Resolution, United Nations Rebukes Iran for Rights Violations Since Election
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:17:10 -0000
A measure, which is almost certain to pass in the General Assembly, denounces a rise in violence, torture and limits to free speech.
Dismissal of Case for Guard in Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:23:12 -0000
The Justice Department intends to drop manslaughter and weapons charges against a security guard from the company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide who was involved in deadly Baghdad shootings.
Memo From Jerusalem: Mideast Peace Talks Hang in Balance Over Abbas
By ETHAN BRONNER Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:55:56 -0000
The Israeli security establishment is alarmed over the possible departure of President Mahmoud Abbas, whom it considers a true moderate.
L.A. Times - Middle East -
Headlines from Los Angeles Times
Middle East and Africa - Middle East and Africa
UN News Centre - Middle East - A world of news from the world organization.
Frontline Endgame- Part 6: Endgame? |
