Middle East

Inside Middle East

Iranian woman 'freed' from being stoned to death

Friday, 10 December 2010

Kim Sengupta: Reports suggest death sentence threat has been lifted after international outcry.

Speed guns replace AK-47s on the pacified streets of Jenin

Friday, 10 December 2010

Blue-shirted Palestinian police officers with a German-supplied radar gun were busy last week on a road in the northern city of Jenin. Until three years ago, when a law and order campaign was launched, Jenin was the most lawless city in the West Bank and no one then imagined it could become a venue for speed traps.

Lebanon holds its breath over leaked revelations

Friday, 10 December 2010

Julian Assange may claim that WikiLeaks' disclosure of US documents is for the good of the world, but in Lebanon they have had an incendiary effect. The Hezbollah party is using the cables as proof of UN involvement with Washington – and thus, by extension, with Israel – and politicians are desperately denying that they gave intelligence information to the Americans about Hezbollah's secret communications system.

Lockerbie bomber 'expected to die within days'

Thursday, 9 December 2010

Sepcualation about health of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi 'is just that' says monitoring council.

Blame game begins after Middle East talks fail again

Thursday, 9 December 2010

Palestinian negotiators yesterday blamed Israel – and to a lesser extent the US – for the latest serious setback for efforts to reach a peace deal while Israeli officials insisted they would nevertheless try hard to achieve an agreement.

Argentina joins Brazil in recognising a Palestinian state in occupied zone

Wednesday, 8 December 2010

Israel expressed disappointment with Argentina's recognition of a Palestinian state in territories Israel occupied in 1967.

More nuclear talks agreed for 2011

Wednesday, 8 December 2010

Nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers ended yesterday with an agreement to meet again early next year, indicating that Tehran may be willing to address concerns about its atomic programme. But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned that unless UN sanctions are lifted, the six – the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – face failure in the next round.

Hopes for peace deal fade as US abandons settlement freeze talks

Wednesday, 8 December 2010

The Obama administration's efforts to achieve a a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians suffered a serious blow last night with an admission by Washington that it had abandoned efforts to agree a new moratorium on the building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Israeli moderates outraged as rabbis target non-Jews

Wednesday, 8 December 2010

Over 40 prominent Israeli rabbis – some of them public servants – yesterday targeted the country's million-plus Arab minority with a religious edict warning their congregations not to rent property to non-Jews.

Tourists tell of shark panic as 'sea turned red'

Tuesday, 7 December 2010

Shocked holidaymakers largely shunned the beaches of the luxury resort Sharm el-Sheikh yesterday after a shark killed an elderly German tourist 20 metres from the shore.

Video: Israeli fire under control after four days

Monday, 6 December 2010

The last of the flames subside in the worst fire in Israel's history.

Iran begins nuclear talks with world powers

Monday, 6 December 2010

Iran began talks about its nuclear programme with six world powers today.

Criticism mounts over Israel's 'unpreparedness' for wildfire

Monday, 6 December 2010

Israel's hard-pressed emergency services appeared close to bringing the worst wildfire in the country's history under control last night as political leaders sought to fend off mounting criticism of the country's unpreparedness for such a disaster.

Saudi Arabia is 'biggest funder of terrorists'

Monday, 6 December 2010

Saudi Arabia is the single biggest contributor to the funding of Islamic extremism and is unwilling to cut off the money supply, according to a leaked note from Hillary Clinton.

Israel's top policewoman dies from forest fire burns

Monday, 6 December 2010

Israel's top policewoman, who had clung to life for four days after her patrol car was trapped in a burning Israel forest, today died of her wounds as the last of the flames subsided in the worst fire in Israel's history.

We can mine our own uranium, says Iran

Monday, 6 December 2010

Iran claimed yesterday it could now use domestically mined uranium to produce nuclear fuel, giving the country complete control over a process the West suspects is geared toward producing weapons.

Iraq considers Riyadh regime a bigger threat than Iran

Monday, 6 December 2010

Senior figures in the Iraqi government view Saudi Arabia as a greater threat to their country's security than Iran, according to WikiLeaks' latest release.

Israeli officials under fire as deadly blaze rages

Sunday, 5 December 2010

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government faced calls for consequences over a huge four-day-old forest fire that has killed 41 people and been called the worst in Israel's history.

Israel calls in foreign help as fire rages on

Sunday, 5 December 2010

David Randall: Eight countries send water-planes and equipment as thousands are evacuated.

Wildfires that Israel is unprepared to fight

Saturday, 4 December 2010

Donald Macintyre: Israel was still struggling to contain one of the biggest disasters in its history.

Bombs kill eight Iranian pilgrims near Baghdad shrine

Saturday, 4 December 2010

Authorities say bombings near a revered Shiite Muslim shrine in northern Baghdad have killed eight Iranian pilgrims.

17 killed in Baghdad bombs

Saturday, 4 December 2010

Seventeen people were killed in bomb attacks across Iraq's capital, Baghdad, today, including Iranian pilgrims near a revered shrine and shoppers at a Shia neighbourhood market, authorities said.

Al-Qa'ida planned to kill Saudis with poisoned gifts

Saturday, 4 December 2010

Al-Qa'ida militants now in detention planned to kill Saudi government and security officials and media workers by sending poisoned gifts to their offices, an interior ministry official said today.

Israeli prison guards killed in 'worst ever' forest fires

Friday, 3 December 2010

Dozens of prison guards perished yesterday after their bus caught fire and overturned as the deadliest blaze in Israel's history ravaged the north of the country.