ISRAEL: Mr. Security versus Mrs. Clean Analysis by Peter HirschbergJERUSALEM - Members of Kadima face a vexing choice ahead of the ruling party's leadership primary next month: Do they support Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, who may have the best chance of cobbling together a new governing coalition, or do they back Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni because polls show that Kadima under her leadership would significantly outperform a Mofaz-led Kadima in a general election? MORE >>
RIGHTS-MOROCCO: Firing Squads Silent - But Death Hovers By Abderrahim El OualiCASABLANCA, Morocco - Morocco's death row prisoners -- some 150 inmates -- are living in sub-human, "life-threatening conditions", according to leading NGOs and rights activists. MORE >>
Q&A: Hezbollah's Triumph Is Blowback for Israeli Policy Interview with journalist and author Deborah CampbellNEW YORK - Since the Israel-Lebanon 34-day war two years ago, and particularly after the Doha accord in May which restored Hezbollah to the Lebanese government and essentially gave it the veto power it demanded, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been the most popular figure anywhere in the Arab world. MORE >>
RIGHTS-US: Arar Faces Uphill Legal Battle By William FisherNEW YORK - After suffering a series of stinging defeats of its detention policies in four years of Supreme Court decisions, the George W. Bush administration may be in for yet more bad news. MORE >>
IRAQ: U.S. Officials Admit Worry over a ‘Difficult’ al-Maliki By Gareth PorterWASHINGTON - U.S. officials privately admit being concerned that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki has become "overconfident" about his government’s ability to manage without U.S. combat troops, according to an Iraq analyst who just returned from a trip to Iraq arranged by U.S. commander General David Petraeus. MORE >>
POLITICS-US: One-Fifth of Iraq Funding Paid to Contractors By William FisherNEW YORK - As a new report forecasts that the 190,000 private contractors in Iraq and neighbouring countries will cost U.S. taxpayers more than 100 billion dollars by the end of 2008, an under-the-radar Florida court case suggests that U.S. President George W. Bush -- a staunch contractor supporter -- is preparing to throw security contractors such as Blackwater under the political bus. MORE >>
IRAQ: 'Provincial Saddam' Goes, Finally By Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail*BAQUBA - The surprise removal of the Diyala police chief has brought new hope of a more secure future. MORE >>
MIDEAST: Gaza and West Bank in Muddied Separation By Mel FrykbergRAMALLAH, West Bank - Over a hundred Fatah fighters loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement fled to the West Bank from Gaza last week, fearing for their lives at the hands of Hamas, the Islamic movement which took over the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after it routed Fatah forces. MORE >>
IRAQ: U.S. Blamed for Increasing Iranian Influence By Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail*BAQUBA - Haider returned from Iran recently, with enough money to pay for his wedding and a new car. He was trained to join Badr, the armed wing of the Dawa Party of U.S.-backed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. MORE >>
MIDEAST: Little Hope of Peace After Olmert By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-OmraniCAIRO - With Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's recent resignation announcement, the self-proclaimed Jewish state is headed for new leadership. Egyptian commentators, though, entertain few hopes that Olmert's successor -- whoever he or she may be -- will temper Israel's hard-line approach to the peace process. MORE >>
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