Middle East

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Cable Cut Takes Egypt Offline
 Cable Cut Takes Egypt Offline 
Dec 20, 2008 8:09 AM CST

Cable Cut Takes Egypt Offline

Broken connection off Sicily affect most of country

(Newser) - Egypt suffered a large-scale Internet outage after cables in the Mediterranean were cut, the Communications Ministry said yesterday. Three Internet cables were cut off the coast of the Italian island of Sicily yesterday morning, the ministry said. The cause of the cut was not immediately known. Throughout Egypt, the Internet...

Opposition in Israel Makes Hard Right Turn

Likud party, forecast to win election, chooses hawkish candidates

(Newser) - Benjamin Netanyahu, whose Likud Party is leading polls ahead of February’s Israeli election, promises to continue peace talks if elected—but after primaries this week, the former PM will be heading a ticket including extreme right-wingers who have advocated withdrawal from the United Nations, or cutting off water and...

Bush Touts Mideast Legacy
 Bush Touts Mideast Legacy 
Dec 5, 2008 4:24 PM CST

Bush Touts Mideast Legacy

(Newser) - President Bush is optimistic about his legacy in the Middle East, saying the region is a “more hopeful and more promising place than it was in 2001,” the Washington Post reports. Bush does acknowledge some missteps: “As with any large undertaking, these efforts have not always gone...

Iraq OKs US Troops for 3 More Years

Pact gives Iraqis more oversight over American presence

(Newser) - Iraq's parliament today passed a security pact with the US that lets American troops stay in the country for 3 more years. The ruling coalition's Shiite and Kurdish blocs as well as the largest Sunni Arab bloc backed the "yes" vote, the AP reports. The parliament speaker said an...

Gulf War Illness Is Real: Study
 Gulf War Illness Is Real: Study 
Nov 17, 2008 3:55 PM CST

Gulf War Illness Is Real: Study

Research contradicts previous government denials

(Newser) - Gulf War syndrome is real, and "few veterans have recovered or substantially improved with time," according to a scientific study commissioned by Congress. Nearly a quarter of the 700,000 troops who served in the first Gulf War suffer from neurological problems related to exposure to chemicals during...

Disney Takes Aim at Family-Friendly Mideast

Company seeks to tap into Arabic appetite for family-friendly films

(Newser) - Disney has decided it's a big world after all, the Financial Times reports. The company is making its first Arabic-language movie, aiming to tap into demand for family-friendly fare in the Middle East. The Last Storyteller will be produced somewhere in the Middle East and distributed in Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon,...

Gore: 5 Steps to Save Planet
 Gore: 5 Steps to Save Planet 

OPINION
Nov 9, 2008 12:11 PM CST

Gore: 5 Steps to Save Planet

Nobel laureate calls on Obama, new Congress to act now

(Newser) - The road to energy efficiency is paved with the same solutions needed to fix the economic crisis, Al Gore writes in a New York Times op-ed. Dismissing proposals for domestic drilling, the climate crusader says, “We simply cannot any longer base the strategy for human survival on a cynical...

Bush Won't See Mideast Deal During Term

In region, Rice aims to keep process on track for Obama's team

(Newser) - Israel and the Palestinians won’t likely reach a peace agreement by the 2009 deadline set at the Annapolis negotiations a year ago, the White House said today. The Bush administration began to question the feasibility of the deadline when a corruption scandal ousted PM Ehud Olmert and set the...

Blair Banks $20M in First Year as Ex-PM

Feat beats Clinton, but UN wonders if he's doing his peace job

(Newser) - Tony Blair took in around $20 million since stepping aside as British PM last October, the Times of London reports, six times what he’d made in his entire life and more than double Bill Clinton’s take in his first year out of office. Some at the UN have...

All-American Harleys Take Off in Mideast

Lebanon bike tour celebrates iconic rides

(Newser) - It may seem incongruous, but in a region rife with anti-American sentiment, the all-American symbol has found a home: Harley-Davidsons are on the rise in the Middle East, even in conservative countries like Saudi Arabia. The hogs’ popularity was marked this month by Lebanon’s first-ever Harley-Davidson tour, which saw...

Petraeus' Iraq Strategy Is Ill-Suited to Afghanistan

Counterinsurgency expert may need to learn a few new tricks to quell Taliban rebellion

(Newser) - Gen. David Petraeus faces an uphill battle in replicating the successes of the Iraq surge in Afghanistan, Michael Evans writes in the Times of London, “because the economic, social and political conditions are so different.” Afghanistan doesn’t have nearly the natural, fertile resources, and neither the US...

Clerics Shake Up Islamic Finance
Clerics Shake Up Islamic Finance
GLOSSIES
Sep 24, 2008 9:49 AM CDT

Clerics Shake Up Islamic Finance

Concern bonds violate Sharia causes crisis despite stable market

(Newser) - Of the challenges facing Western financial markets, fear of divine intervention isn’t one. The Middle East’s booming debt market is considered one of the most stable in the world, but investors there are getting a taste of “religious interpretation risk,” Portfolio reports. Islamic scholars are declaring...

About-Face on Libya Signals Hope for Iran, N. Korea: Rice

Secretary hails historic trip as US officially renews ties with former foe

(Newser) - Iran and North Korea, take heed: America’s reconciliation with Libya proves that Washington has no permanent enemies, Condoleezza Rice said today. The secretary of state, meeting in Tripoli with onetime international pariah Moammar Gadhafi, said her historic trip “demonstrates that when countries are prepared to make strategic changes...

Hijackers Free 87 Hostages in Libya

Continue to hold crew after commandeering jetliner in Sudan

(Newser) - Hijackers began releasing the 87 passengers today at a remote desert airfield in southern Libya, reports the AP, a day after they took control of a Sudanese 737 jetliner as it took off from Darfur. The hijackers continued to hold eight crewmembers. Sudan officials called the hijacking an "irresponsible...

Arab Investors Interested in GM's Hummer Brand

As US sales slide, GM looks overseas to unload gas-guzzler unit

(Newser) - There may soon be more Hummers heading to the Persian Gulf, this time as two Gulf Arab investors signal interest in buying GM's troubled brand of SUV—modeled on the military vehicle. Analysts have expected the gas-guzzler to be tough to unload, but low fuel prices, economic prosperity, and Hummer’...

Ahmadinejad Says Israel to Be 'Removed Soon'

Iranian president's comments meant to reassure hardliners

(Newser) - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel “a germ of corruption” to be “removed soon” in comments on his presidential website today, the AP reports. While the outburst is nothing new for the Iranian leader, the posts were probably meant to reassure hawks enraged by the vice president’s comments last...

Hey Saudis, Let the Women Play!
 Hey Saudis, Let the Women Play!
Opinion
Aug 14, 2008 10:42 AM CDT

Hey Saudis, Let the Women Play!

Time for the IOC to enforce it's no discrimination rule

(Newser) - The most beautiful sight in the Olympics' opening ceremony came when Egypt’s 26 female competitors strode into the stadium, writes Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian Muslim, in the Washington Post. Women also carried flags for Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, filling Eltahawy with pride. And then came Saudi Arabia—...

Israeli PM to Step Down in 2 Months

Olmert's move may threaten peace effort, national stability

(Newser) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced today he will resign in September, throwing his country into political turmoil and raising doubts about progress for US-backed Mideast peace efforts. Olmert's brief address included harsh criticism of police investigations of corruption allegations against him. He said he was choosing the public good...

GOP's Offshore Drilling, Dems' Afghan Surge Both Bad Ideas

Both are blindly touting poor policy: Friedman

(Newser) - Democrats and Republicans alike are beating empty campaign slogans, and both need to take a look at their real-world implications, writes Thomas L. Friedman in the New York Times. Republicans who insist that offshore oil drilling will solve the world's problems sound like "someone back in 1980" pushing for...

Next, Thicket of Arab-Israeli Conflict Awaits Obama

Dem to meet key Jordanian, Palestinian, Israeli figures; street expects little change

(Newser) - With the war leg of his foreign tour behind him, Barack Obama must next navigate the Middle East peace process. He’ll meet with top Israeli and Palestinian leaders tomorrow, the New York Times reports, and will visit the rocket-bombarded town of Sderot. US Jewish voters will be particularly attentive...

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