Full Coverage: Middle East

29.09.2007 Fleeing violence, drought, and unemployment, a growing number of Somali and Ethiopian immigrants are attempting to escape across dangerous waters, often encountering death at the hands of smugglers, the sea, or Yemeni forces, reports the UN.

28.09.2007 UNITED NATIONS, Sep 27 (OneWorld) - UN officials and human rights activists warned Israel Thursday against its plans to close its borders with the West Bank over the next several days.

27.09.2007 Until Israel gives further word the West Bank border passings will be open only for humanitarian emergencies due to the "significant terror threat" during the Jewish holiday Sukkot, which lasts a week.

26.09.2007 Campaigners hope leaders will heed the call of 1 million Palestinians and Israelis making a loud demand for peace.

26.09.2007 The Egyptian government has brought criminal charges against a group providing legal assistance to victims of torture and other human rights abuses. International human rights advocates are encouraging people around the world to respond to this "alarming attack" by writing to the Egyptian Minister of Social Solidarity.

25.09.2007 The Iraqi refugee crisis is reaching breaking point, with help from the international community "seriously inadequate", says a new Amnesty International report.

24.09.2007 As Iraqis leave their war-torn homeland in droves, the pressure of refugee resettlement has shifted from Iraq’s neighbors to industrialized countries farther afield, new statistics show.

21.09.2007 Israel is hovering on the verge of implementing additional sanctions on the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip, including a cut in fuel supplies and further restrictions on the flow of goods and people. Such a move would violate the laws of war, a human rights watch dog reports.
From: Human Rights Watch

20.09.2007 A social justice organization is launching a new campaign to press for the $720 million the United States spends each day in Iraq to be redirected to fund human needs at home and "real solutions" in Iraq.

18.09.2007 An estimated 1.2 million Iraqis have met violent deaths since the 2003 invasion, according to a new study.
From AlterNet

14.09.2007 PROVIDENCE, Sep 13 (OneWorld) - Observers of the situation in Iraq lashed out at the Bush administration Thursday ahead of the president's prime time address to the nation.

13.09.2007 Half the children in Sderot, an Israeli town bordering the Gaza Strip, are clinically traumatized due to the Qassam rocket attacks that frequently hit in the mornings. Artist and blogger Gilad Lotan explains.

12.09.2007 NEW YORK, Sep 11 (OneWorld) - Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the United States' two closest allies in its so-called "war on terror," violated international law this week when a key political opposition leader was forcibly flown out of one country and into to the other, a leading human rights watchdog has charged.

11.09.2007 Efforts in Iraq have achieved "progress" and reached a "turning point" many times over the past four and a half years, says the Council for a Livable World about a key military report to Congress this week.

11.09.2007 Cognizant that the next political storm may arrive any day, Gazans take advantage of the calm to spend a day at the beach.
From: New America Media

07.09.2007 An exhaustive report says that indiscriminate and irresponsible airstrikes by Israel -- not Hezbollah shielding -- caused the bulk of civilian casualties in last year's war in Lebanon.
From: Human Rights Watch

05.09.2007 A new Web site launched Tuesday, featuring the first-person accounts of U.S. veterans returned from Iraq.
From: warcomeshome.org

05.09.2007 LOS ANGELES, Sep 4 (OneWorld) - Trained as a machine gunner, 32-year-old Jorge Reyes Jr. served 10 years in the U.S. Army and had considered a career in the armed services. But after a tour as a rear gunner on hum-vees in Iraq, he decided to leave the military when his term was up, and is now on his way to college.

02.09.2007 Make the most of The Yacoubian Building: some Egyptian MPs tried to get it banned and in Kuwait the censor’s scissors cut it from three hours to 90 minutes. Daniel Nelson reports on a filmic slice of life from Cairo.