Middle East

Salam Fayyad

Palestinian push for an independent state causes Israeli alarm

Netanyahu to denounce Prime Minister's drive to sidestep Israel and secure support from UN Security Council

Inside Middle East

Iraqi 'was beaten and sexually abused'

Monday, 16 November 2009

Lawyer says new claims point to 'systematic abuse' of detainees by British soldiers

British soldiers sexually abused us, claim Iraqis

Sunday, 15 November 2009

Graphic torture allegations emerge as lawyer warns of hundreds of legal cases

Toxic munitions 'may be cause' of baby deaths and deformities in Fallujah

Sunday, 15 November 2009

Evidence was growing this weekend that babies born in the Iraqi city of Fallujah – scene in 2004 of one of the few set-piece battles of the invasion – are exhibiting high rates of mortality and birth defects.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews protest Intel Sabbath work

Saturday, 14 November 2009

More than a thousand devout Jews are protesting in Jerusalem against plans by computer chip maker Intel to operate on Saturdays.

Iran creates new spy agency to fight protests

Friday, 13 November 2009

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has created a powerful new intelligence organisation to try to quell any further public unrest in the wake of June's disputed election, an exiled Iranian opposition group said yesterday.

New law defuses Iraqi ballot row

Monday, 9 November 2009

Iraq's parliament yesterday passed a long-delayed election law paving the way for a national vote in January after overcoming a potentially explosive row over the disputed city of Kirkuk, lawmakers said.

World Focus: Without Abbas, does doomsday loom?

Saturday, 7 November 2009

When Western diplomats considered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's announcement that he did not want to stand for re-election yesterday, they must have asked themselves the famous question attributed to Metternich about the death of a rival, "What did he mean by that?"