Full Coverage: Middle East

29.03.2007 Workers is Gaza are challenging the official Palestinian labor unions -- which are widely considered ineffective and politically motivated -- by forming their own labor committees. And their bosses are listening.

27.03.2007 A constitutional amendment would give sweeping powers of arrest to Egypt's police, grant broad authority to monitor private communications, and allow the president to bypass ordinary courts and refer terrorism suspects to military and special courts.

26.03.2007 Irakilaisten turvapaikanhakijoiden määrä kasvoi viime vuonna 77 prosentilla edelliseen vuoteen verrattuna, selviää YK:n pakolaisjärjestön UNHCR:n tilastosta. Euroopasta, Yhdysvalloista ja muista länsimaista turvapaikkaa haki yhteensä 22 200 irakilaista.

23.03.2007 Iraqis regained the top spot among asylum-seekers in the world's industrialised countries last year, but the overall trend in applications by all nationalities fell for the fifth straight year, says the UN refugee agency.

23.03.2007 A chronic shortage of safe drinking water in Iraq is threatening to push up rates of diarrhoea - already the second highest single cause of child illness and death in the country, United Nations agencies warned.
* Ban Ki-moon holds talks with political leaders during surprise visit to Iraq

20.03.2007 Somalia is the world's most dangerous country for minority communities, overtaking Iraq, says a new global survey.
+ OneWorld Guide to Somalia

19.03.2007 Britain's Prince Harry is set to receive a warm welcome from many ordinary Iraqis in Basra who are accustomed to seeing the sons of their own leaders enjoying lives of privilege.
From: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

19.03.2007 Cuatro años tras la invasión de Irak lanzada por Estados Unidos, los iraquíes se declaran cada vez más pesimistas sobre el futuro y manifiestan su rechazo a las fuerzas de la coalición y su desconfianza en su propio gobierno, según un sondeo publicado el lunes.

19.03.2007 On the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, get the scoop from one of the country's strongest women and civil society leaders. Dr. Rashad Zidan answers OneWorlders' questions about sectarian divisions, the role of women, media portrayals, and much more.

19.03.2007 As many as 50,000 turned out for an anti-war march on the Pentagon Saturday, overcoming dangerous weather and police in riot gear, who they say blocked access to the Pentagon in contravention of prior agreements.
From: A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition

19.03.2007 A summary of the situation currently facing Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons—one of the most pressing humanitarian crises in the world.

16.03.2007 A small demonstration has been staged in front of the Cuban, Egyptian and Tunisian stands at a tourism trade fair in Paris in protest against press freedom violations.
From Reporters without Borders

12.03.2007 Kurdiliikkeiden vastainen sodan uhka kasvaa Qandilin vuoristossa, joka yhdistää Pohjois-Irakin Turkkiin ja Iraniin. Sekä Turkki että Iran ovat viime kuukausina uhanneet tuhota sissiliikkeenä toimivan turkkilaisen Kurdistanin työväenpuolueen (PKK) asemat Qandilin alueelta. Irakin kurdit pelkäävät Turkin joukkojen leviävän alueelleen.

10.03.2007 SAN FRANCISCO, Mar 10 (OneWorld) - The United States' four-year-old occupation of Iraq has considerably worsened the lives of the country's women, charges a new report from an international human rights group.

10.03.2007 The Pentagon is trying to silence economists who predict that several decades of care for the wounded will amount to an unbelievable $2.5 trillion, says Andrew Stephen.
From The New Statesman

07.03.2007 Houzan Mahmoud, an outspoken Iraqi feminist, secularist, journalist, and human rights activist, has resolved to persist in her work, despite being targeted by the Iraqi Kurdistan jihadist group Ansar al-Islam.

05.03.2007 All copies of Egyptian feminist writer, activist, and medical doctor Nawal Al Saadawi's latest book, God Resigns in the Summit Meeting, have been destroyed by her publisher, who claimed the book "offended readers' religious sensitivities."

05.03.2007 Sexualized torture is a documented horror in Iraqi jails. A women's human rights group will release a report Tuesday detailing the widespread use of rape and other forms of torture against women detainees by U.S. and Iraqi forces.

05.03.2007 Recognizing the need to invest in education to stimulate its own economic growth and development, Qatar is rapidly reforming its school system and improving teaching practices.

05.03.2007 Barely a week after an Egyptian blogger was sentenced to four years for inciting hatred towards Islam, the distinguished novelist Nawal El Saadawi faces similar threats from the country’s religious establishment.