It is astonishing that despite the huge gaps between the maximum that Israel is willing to concede and the minimum that the Palestine Authority could accept as the basis of a final settlement of the conflict, governmental leaders, especially in Washington, continue to pull every available string to restart inter-governmental... More

　　10. "There has been significant progress in tamping down the insurgency in Afghanistan." 　　9. Afghans want the US and NATO troops to stay in their country because they feel protected by them. 　　•Fact: In a recent poll, only 36% of Afghans said they were confident that US troops could provide... More

　　A number of recent incidents discriminating against Israel’s Palestinian minority have prompted Israeli Knesset (parliament) members to debate whether Israel is becoming increasingly racist. 　　Ronit Sela from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (Acri) has no doubts. "Israel’s democracy is under threat as an increasingly large racist element raises... More

　　Foreign forces in occupied Afghanistan have caused more than $100 million damage to fruit crops and homes during offensive in southern Kandahar province, a government delegation said on Tuesday. 　　In November, the Afghan Rights Monitor (ARM), a human rights group, reported widespread damage to hundreds of houses in the same... More

　　New York City's former mayor, Ed Koch, has taken time off from his new career as a film critic to offer a valentine to Rep. Peter King (R-NY), the new chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, for scheduling hearings on the "dangers posed" by Muslim Americans. 　　Koch's support for... More

　　At the Bourj el Barajneh refugee camp in southern Beirut, a centre for the elderly serves as an oasis from the overcrowded, filthy conditions outside its metal doors. 　　On a recent Thursday morning, a group of men and women in their 60s and 70s gathered around a table to color... More

　　Turkey has given information about the Mavi Marmara attack in its interim report, indicating, "it is a central principle of international law that when a state violates its international obligations, it has a duty to make reparations for the wrongs committed and provide for compensation." 　　Turkey submitted its interim report... More

　　The Palestinian Authority (PA) has shown operational willingness to cooperate with Israel to kill its own people, the Palestine Papers indicate. 　　Among the documents are notes, handwritten in Arabic, revealing an exchange in 2005 between the PA and Israel on a plan to kill a Palestinian fighter named Hassan al-Madhoun,... More

　　The Arab League's (AL) secretary general has warned that Arab states are on the brink of revolution, calling for an Arab “renaissance.” 　　"The Tunisian revolution is not far from us," Amr Moussa told 20 Arab leaders and other representatives gathered in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on... More

　　Israel has called on the United States and Europe to curb their criticism of president Hosni Mubarak "in a bid to preserve stability in Egypt" and the wider Middle East, an Israeli newspaper reports. 　　The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Monday that the foreign ministry, in an urgent special cable,... More

　　Minimally explored in all the coverage of the momentous Egyptian uprising taking place over the last 12 days are the Israeli connections. 　　A central and critical reality is that it is US tax money that has propped up Hosni Mubarak’s despotic regime over the past 30 years, and that this... More

　　The gung-ho nuclear industry is in deep shock. Just as it and its cheerleader, the International Atomic Energy Agency, were preparing to mark next month's 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident with a series of self-congratulatory statements about the dawning of a safe age of clean atomic power, a series... More

　　Muslim citizens of the United States face growing discrimination in daily life, manifesting itself in violence, vandalism and arson, a US congressional panel has been told. 　　Speakers on Tuesday said that evidence of anti-Muslim bigotry included inflammatory remarks made by elected public officials. 　　"We continue to solicit and receive the... More