Full Coverage: Middle East

08/31/2006 Architect Raed Jarrar was questioned and forced to change clothes at New York's JFK airport earlier this month because other passengers were apparently concerned about the Arabic script on his t-shirt. Here is his story.
From: Raed in the Middle blog

08/30/2006 UN officials, scientific experts, and Mediterranean environment ministers have agreed on an international action plan to clean up last month's oil spill that has become Lebanon's worst-ever environmental disaster.

08/29/2006 Il gran giorno della manifestazione è arrivato. Pur con tutti i se e i ma possibili e (forse) auspicabili la convocazione di Assisi si è svolta. A poche ore dalla conclusione un dato appare chiaro, netto e condivisibile: la pomposa e roboante comunità internazionale(l'ONU, l'Unione Europea e quant'altro li segue) non può ancora una volta rimanere inerte, deve muoversi. Mai nei suoi decenni di storia l'Europa ha realizzato una grande iniziativa di vera politica estera. Nel 1995 il mai troppo compianto Alexander Langer espressamente scrisse "L'Europa muore o nasce a Sarajevo". Il convitato rimase di pietra. Sabra e Chatila, Rwanda, Sarajevo, Tuzla, Sebrenica, tanti i momenti in cui l'ONU è rimasta spettatrice passiva, salvo poi intervenire male e tardi. Sarebbe finalmente auspicabile che si inauguri una storia diversa, che il passato non si ripeta e possa affermarsi una iniziativa seria, reale, forte, decisiva della comunità internazionale, roboante anche nei fatti e non solo nelle foreste di carta accumulata seduti nelle comode e soffici poltrone del Palazzo di Vetro. - di Alessio Di Florio

08/29/2006 Donors must focus on assisting displaced people, clearing mines, and supporting the efforts of a weak Lebanese national government, says Refugees International ahead of an international donors conference Thursday.

08/28/2006 Yhdysvaltain presidentin, George W. Bushin ja Irakin entisen presidentin, Saddam Husseinen tulisi molempien astua oikeuden eteen, toteaa natsien sotarikostuomioistuimen pääsyyttäjä. Benjamin Ferencczin mukaan kumpikin johtajista syyllistyi "aggressiivisen sodan aloittamiseen", Hussein hyökätessään vuonna 1990 Kuwaitiin, ja Bush Vuonna 2003 Irakiin.

08/25/2006 SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 25 (OneWorld) - A chief prosecutor of Nazi war crimes at Nuremberg has said George W. Bush should be tried for war crimes along with Saddam Hussein. Benjamin Ferencz, who secured convictions for 22 Nazi officers for their work in orchestrating the death squads that killed more than 1 million people, told OneWorld both Bush and Saddam should be tried for starting "aggressive" wars--Saddam for his 1990 attack on Kuwait and Bush for his 2003 invasion of Iraq.

08/25/2006 A new report by Amnesty International claims that Israel's destruction of Lebanese civilian infrastructure was an integral part of its military strategy--not "collateral damage." They are calling for an urgent inquiry into the violations.

08/25/2006 Concern is being raised in Iraq after nearly 180 professors have been killed and 3,250 have fled to neighboring countries. The news comes after reports of Iraqi lawyers also being targeted for violence.

08/25/2006 President Jacques Chirac announced that France will send 2,000 soldiers to southern Lebanon and hopes to retain command of the U.N. peacekeeping force.

08/24/2006 "I have never seen destruction like this," said UNICEF water and sanitation specialist Branislav Jekic. "Wherever we go, we ask people what they need most and the answer is always the same: water."

08/24/2006 Jewish activists opposing Israeli military aggression in Lebanon and Palestine staged "die-in" protests at New York's Penn Station as well as in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco Tuesday morning.

08/24/2006 While the mainstream media may have moved on to Lebanon, Palestine's bloggers keep bringing their people's news to the outside world: Israeli water cannons on peaceful demonstrators, a nurse watches a friend's son die, Hollywood celebs weigh in and get schooled...

08/24/2006 Israelin laajat iskut siviilikohteisiin Libanonissa heinä- ja elokuussa näyttävät olleen osa tietoista strategiaa, jonka tarkoituksena oli infrastruktuurin tuhoaminen, arvioi ihmisoikeusjärjestö Amnesty International tänään julkaisemassaan raportissa. Amnesty vaatii molempien osapuolten sotarikosten pikaista, puolueetonta tutkintaa.

08/24/2006 Two weeks after the onset of a cessation of hostilities the landscape of South Lebanon remains littered with the aftermath of the war. In response, a group of Lebanese citizens picked up brooms, shovels, gloves, and masks in their determination to "sweep up" the destruction left behind during 34 days of war.

08/24/2006 As a result of a rapid assessment mission over the past 10 days, Rick Steiner, an environmental scientist, has concluded that the Lebanon Oil Spill has caused extensive injury to the near shore environment of Lebanon. Steiner has recommended a full underwater survey of the Lebanese coast with towed Remote Observing Vehicles to assess the extent of sea bed oiling.

08/24/2006 President Bush says it is unacceptable to return to the status quo that preceded the recent war between Israel and Lebanon and that the "root causes" of that conflict need to be addressed. Helena Cobban agrees, but having studied the dynamics in the area for some 30 years longer than the president, she'd describe what was wrong before July 12 and the "root causes" quite differently.

08/23/2006 SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 23 (OneWorld) - The human rights group Amnesty International is appealing decisions by the United States government to withhold as secret information detailing the incarceration of so-called ghost detainees as part of the Bush administration's self-styled "war on terror."

08/23/2006 Some 38 lawyers in Iraq have been killed since last October, many of whom were defending women's rights or defending those accused of violating Islamic law.

08/23/2006 Amnesty International ha reso pubbliche oggi le conclusioni delle proprie ricerche, secondo le quali, nel corso del recente conflitto, Israele ha portato avanti una politica di deliberata distruzione delle infrastrutture civili libanesi, comprendente anche crimini di guerra. L’organizzazione per i diritti umani denuncia come la distruzione di migliaia di abitazioni e il bombardamento di numerosi ponti, strade, cisterne e depositi di carburante siano stati parte integrante della strategia militare israeliana in Libano, piuttosto che ‘danni collaterali’, derivanti da attacchi legittimi contro obiettivi militari.

08/22/2006 Sembra essersi formato un consenso generale sull'opportunità - necessità che l'Italia partecipi alla Forza Internazionale di Interposizione in Libano. Sui compiti e le regole di ingaggio della forza di interposizione viene promosso un appello dall'area nonviolenta del movimento per la pace - tra cui padre Alex Zanotelli - per porre al Governo Prodi varie richieste, tra cui la "preventiva sospensione" dell'Accordo di Cooperazione Militare con Israele. "E' evidente che non possono farne parte militari di un paese che non sia rigorosamente equidistante tra i due belligeranti. L’Italia ha stipulato lo scorso anno un impegnativo Accordo di Cooperazione Militare con Israele, che inficia in modo sostanziale e irrimediabile la nostra equidistanza. Il Diritto Internazionale impone, come minimo, la preventiva sospensione di tale Accordo, i cui termini dettagliati devono assolutamente essere resi noti all’opinione pubblica".