All Middle East
- FocusTen years after invasion, Iraq remains dangerously divided
In the new Iraq, old sectarian fears remain. Around Baghdad's Green Zone, the fortified seat of government, concrete walls pulled down a year ago are going back up.
- Tunisia's Al Nahda unveils new cabinet in latest bid to placate critics
Eager to tamp down political instability, Tunisia's ruling Al Nahda party announced a new cabinet today that it hopes will allow the party to focus on political reform and the economy.
- Despite UN peacekeeper capture, Syrian aid groups say dangers are overblown
Syrian rebels' detention of 21 UN peacekeepers has set off alarm bells for international aid groups, but local organizations say that such incidents are rare and short-lived.
- Youth villages give Israeli immigrant children a place to belong
Israel's youth villages, first created in the country's earliest years for Holocaust survivors, are now tasked with integrating children from places as disparate as Ethiopia and Russia.
- US aid spending unlikely to change, despite $8 billion wasted in Iraq
A US government report found widespread waste in the $60 billion reconstruction effort in Iraq. But development experts think waste in US aid spending is here to stay.
- How more than $8 billion in US taxpayers' money went to waste in Iraq
A report on US spending in Iraq released today found that of the $60 billion spent there, at least $8 billion, or 13.3 percent of it, was wasted.
- Syrian rebels seize UN peacekeepers in Golan
Syrian rebels are holding about 20 UN peacekeepers who monitor the Israel-Syria border in an attempt to force the withdrawal of Syrian Army forces from a nearby village.
- In some parts of Yemen, 'the free south lives'
Yemen was reunified more than two decades ago, but some parts of the formerly independent south never really accepted rule from Sanaa – and momentum to reverse unification is building.
- Anger courses through Nile Delta and Suez Canal, spelling trouble for Egypt's Morsi
President Mohamed Morsi and his supporters often write off Cairo protests as the work of elites, but that accusation doesn't hold water in the industrial heartland, now rocked by protests.
- Israel takes heat for de facto segregation on new West Bank buses
Israel's government inaugurated two new buses in the West Bank that are effectively Palestinian-only. Critics say it's an attempt to separate Israeli settlers from Palestinian neighbors who commute side-by-side.
- Aleppo takes first step toward post-Assad governance in Syria
Syria's Aleppo Province elected a local council this weekend, replacing an interim local government and taking a step toward restoring some semblance of order to the war-torn province.
- The Cyrus Cylinder, symbol of Persian tolerance, heads to US
The 2,600 year old Cyrus Cylinder, a promise of tolerance from the ancient Persian King, is heading to the US for the first time.
- In Egypt, Kerry gets an earful from the opposition
The rise of the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Egypt was something the US has long feared. But in Cairo today, Secretary of State John Kerry was told that Egypt's secular-leaning opposition sees the US as an ally of the Islamist movement.
- Better than expected, but still not enough: Can Hadi hold Yemen together?
President Hadi, charged with restoring stability to Yemen after the 2011 uprising, has made some progress in his first year, but disruptive political forces could still tear Yemen apart.
- Lebanon erects string of watchtowers on Syrian border
Lebanon is struggling to maintain control over its border region as Syrian rebels and the Syrian Army increasingly treat the area as just another battlefield in the civil war.
- Winners in Israel's game-changing election unlikely to lead charge for peace
Israel's recent parliamentary election has reconfigured the political landscape, but domestic issues are nudging the peace process to the bottom of the agenda.
- Syrians are receiving US aid - they just don't know it
The widespread perception among Syrians that the US has abandoned them is untrue, but US aid is rarely branded as such and it is still far short of what is needed.
- Egypt quietly stifles NGOs by cutting off foreign cash flow
Cairo is using a law that requires government approval of all foreign funding of domestic nongovernmental organizations to block the delivery of grants, forcing NGOs to curb their work for lack of funds.
- Iran hails 'softer' and 'smarter' approach to its nuclear program
Iranian nuclear negotiators said a revised proposal from six world powers to limit its nuclear work was 'more realistic' than previous proposals and offered to continue talks next month.
- Israel wields Bible's soft power as far afield as Brazil
Israel is ramping up its outreach to the growing numbers of evangelical Christians, particularly in the Global South, in order to build popular support for state policies.