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Sectarian violence erupts anew in Iraq
At least 15 people were killed Saturday in Baghdad and Anbar provinces, police said, in what appeared to be a continuation of sectarian violence.
cnn.com (5 hours ago)
Ex-Iran President Seeks Comeback Against Odds
Fed up with Iran’s stumbling economy, most Iranians yearn for policies that stimulate business while lowering prices.
nytimes.com (1 day ago)
World Briefing | Middle East: Angry Egyptian Police Close Gaza Crossing
Egyptian police officers blocked the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip on Friday to protest the kidnapping of seven of their colleagues by Islamist gunmen, witnesses said.
nytimes.com (1 day ago)
Rights Group Says It Finds Proof of Torture in Syria
Human Rights Watch said Friday that visits to two Syrian security centers contained proof of widespread, arbitrary detentions and torture by the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
nytimes.com (1 day ago)
At Least 66 Killed in Bomb Blasts in Iraq
The attacks made Friday one of the bloodiest days this year, as the country struggles to contain sectarian violence.
nytimes.com (1 day ago)
U.N.: Over 1.5 million Syrian refugees
The number of Syrian civilians who have fled their country to escape the civil war has passed 1.5 million, the U.N. refugee agency said Friday.
cnn.com (1 day ago)
Bomb explodes outside Sunni mosque north of Baghdad
At least three people were killed and 15 others were wounded when a bomb exploded as worshipers left a Sunni mosque in the Iraqi city of Baquba on Friday, police and health officials said.
cnn.com (1 day ago)
U.S. soldier sentenced for killing comrades in Iraq
A U.S. Army sergeant was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole for gunning down five fellow service members at a combat stress clinic in Iraq.
cnn.com (2 days ago)
Gaza hopeful grabs 'Arab Idol' spotlight
A college student from Gaza crosses to Egypt and jumps a wall to get to his audition for the Middle East's "Arab Idol." Fans are rallying behind Mohammed Assaf, one of the remaining candidates in the singing contest
cnn.com (2 days ago)
Soldier Gets Life Without Parole in Iraq Killings
Sgt. John Russell was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole for the 2009 killings of five fellow service members at a combat stress clinic in Iraq.
nytimes.com (2 days ago)
Peacekeepers in Golan Abducted but Released
Armed men broke into a United Nations outpost in a buffer zone separating Israel and Syria to kidnap the three military observers, the group’s peacekeeping chief said on Thursday.
nytimes.com (2 days ago)
Pressure of War Is Causing Syria to Break Apart
As the war expands in scope and brutality, it appears Syria is so badly shattered that no single authority is likely to be able to put it back together any time soon.
nytimes.com (2 days ago)
At War Blog: Why National Guard and Reservist Suicide Numbers May Be Misleading
One aspect of suicide statistics that is often overlooked is the number of National Guard and Reserve members who commit suicide when they are not on active duty.
nytimes.com (2 days ago)
Obama, Turkish PM discuss how to end Syria's civil war
The leaders of Turkey and the United States are huddling in Washington on Thursday over how to handle the Syrian civil war, the raging conflict that has left an estimated 80,000 people dead and a few million displaced -- despite more than two years of diplomacy to halt the bloodshed.
cnn.com (2 days ago)
Region's tourism safety concerns
The Middle East's tourism sector is expected to triple its growth rates over the next few years despite the Arab Spring.
cnn.com (2 days ago)
Energy riches of the Levant basin
With an estimated 122 trillion cubic feet of gas, the Levant basin could change the economic landscape of the region
cnn.com (2 days ago)
Buckets of KFC smuggled under border
A confluence of a hankering for fried chicken and hard times in the smuggling business means buckets of KFC are showing up on tables in Gaza.
cnn.com (2 days ago)
Op-ed: Impact of heart-eating video
The horrifying video of a Syrian rebel leader apparently eating the heart of a dead government soldier, which has been circulating this week on the internet, has caused a storm of instantaneous outrage and disgust on social media such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
cnn.com (2 days ago)
Syria’s civil war: The hard men on both sides prevail
A BLACK flag flies over the governor’s headquarters in Raqqa, a city of 250,000 people in Syria’s north-east which is the biggest so far that the rebels have captured wholesale from President Bashar Assad’s regime. It is also a base for Jabhat al-Nusra (Victory Front), an extreme armed opposition group in Syria with...
economist.com (2 days ago)
Syria’s chemical weapons: The other red line
FOR all the agonising in Western capitals about whether to channel weapons to “moderate” rebel militias in Syria and the renewed attempts to find a diplomatic solution to the civil war, one issue above all others is dominating the thinking of military planners, intelligence agencies and their political masters: the...
economist.com (2 days ago)
Iran’s election: A candidacy conundrum
FOR five days Iran’s interior ministry opened its doors to the people, inviting presidential hopefuls to register for the election on June 14th. The fingerprints of the candidates, most of them establishment figures, were stamped on forms, while would-be reformists stayed away. But minutes before the deadline, on...
economist.com (2 days ago)
Religious politics in Israel: Who’s a Jew?
We’re as Jewish as you WHEN is a Jew not a Jew? When he’s a Karaite. Or so says Israel’s chief rabbinate, which, after 65 years of relative harmony with an ancient Jewish sect, is reopening an old and bitter schism. In recent months, rabbis working for Israel’s ministry of religion have deemed Karaite marriages...
economist.com (2 days ago)
Arabs and Jews in high-tech Israel: Bring them together
ON A biblical outcrop overlooking the Jezreel valley near Nazareth, Israel’s largest Arab town, a state-of-the-art complex has opened its doors to high-tech companies. “We’ll be famed for computing as well as Jesus,” quips Ramez Jaraisi, mayor of the city where Christ grew up.Stef Wertheimer, an octogenarian Israeli...
economist.com (2 days ago)
Zambia: Sata pack
A VISITOR led blindfold to the Levy Junction Mall in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, might think he had pitched up in a middle-class suburb in Johannesburg. The pristine shopping centre is filled with South African retailers from Pick n Pay, a grocery chain, to Mugg & Bean, a coffee shop. The traders on Mwumba Road, a...
economist.com (2 days ago)
Terrorism in Nigeria: Bigger guns
WHAT is the best response when facing a regional insurgency and your troops are fanning the flames with violent raids that leave as many civilians dead as insurgents? President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria seems to think it is to send in even more troops. On May 14th he declared a state of emergency in three...
economist.com (2 days ago)
Turkey: Obama's key to Syria?
Almost every American ally in the Middle East is desperately calling out for help, and we are ignoring them. Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain -- and behind closed doors, even Egypt -- want American involvement in Syria to stop the blood bath.
cnn.com (2 days ago)
Tribal fighters clash with Iraqi army
Iraqi security forces raided a farm belonging to a prominent Sunni tribal leader Thursday, he and two other tribal leaders said, prompting fears that sectarian tensions could escalate in Iraq's restive al-Anbar province.
cnn.com (2 days ago)
Alleged al Qaeda bomb plotter to remain jailed
An alleged al Qaeda member accused of plotting to bomb France's embassy was ordered Tuesday to remain in jail, a development that comes as U.S. authorities asked its citizens in Egypt to remain alert due to possible civic unrest and violence.
cnn.com (2 days ago)
Car bomb targets outdoor market in Baghdad
A car bomb exploded Thursday in an outdoor market in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, killing three people, police said.
cnn.com (2 days ago)
Arrests in connection with Turkey blasts
Four people were arrested Wednesday in connection with blasts in a southern Turkish town that killed about 50 people, the semi-official Anadolu news agency reported.
cnn.com (2 days ago)
