Middle East Times


INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Abbas savors landslide victory as Israel urges decisive action

THE ELECTED: Palestinian presidential candidate Mahmoud Abbas celebrates his campaign with a supporter after the close of voting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday.(REUTERS)

Mahmoud Abbas was declared the overwhelming victor of the Palestinian presidential elections on Monday as Israel urged the moderate former premier to get tough with militants if progress is to be made in the Middle East peace process.

Egypt's most-wanted Islamist to face trial

The alleged mastermind of an assassination plot against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is in Egyptian custody and will be put on trial, a cabinet minister said in remarks published on Sunday.

Regional Roundups

A selection of news briefs from around the region.

Baghdad deputy police chief gunned down, two US soldiers killed

ASSASSINATED: Relatives gather in Baghdad on Tuesday for the funeral of Brigadier General Amer Ali Nayef, the second-ranking police commander in the capital, after he and his son, also a policeman, were killed by gunmen as they left their home on Monday.(REUTERS)

Gunmen killed Baghdad's deputy police chief on Monday in the second assassination of a senior Iraqi official in days, as two US soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb ripped through their armored personnel carrier.

Gaza tunnel-digger tells all

Inside one of the modest half-built houses in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, the 'Middle East Times' met with R, a full-time tunnel-digger with a memory full of tales about his 10-year experience in tunneling under the Israeli-Egyptian-Palestinian

UN peacekeeper among dead in Lebanon-Israel border violence

BORDER VIOLENCE: An Israeli army self-propelled artillery gun fires across the Lebanese frontier on Sunday.(REUTERS)

Three people, including a French UN peacekeeper, were killed on Sunday in a flare-up of violence between Israeli troops and Lebanon's Hizbullah militia in the volatile border area between the two countries.

Israel's bedouin soldiers walk fine line

A few weeks ago, a bomb hidden in a tunnel beneath an army outpost near Rafah in the Gaza Strip was detonated, killing five soldiers and injuring another six.

How the hell did this happen?

How the hell did I get into this goddamned mess? I wake up in the morning and can't believe it. What, I, Arik Sharon, am waging a war against the settlers? I, who put them there in the first place? I, who drafted the map of the settlements long before the

Religions grapple with tsunami disaster

DEVASTATION: An aerial view of an unidentified village, which was devastated by the tsunami disaster, on Aceh''s west coast on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.(REUTERS)

As the world tries to make sense of Asia's tsunami disaster and its massive toll on humanity, clerics of all religions are grappling with an age-old theological question that challenges even the most faithful believers: How could God let this happen?

Before the next catastrophe

Let's imagine for a moment that the huge tidal waves had hit the western shores of Europe, that more than 100,000 English, Irish, Dutch, Belgian, French, Spanish and Portuguese had fallen victim to the tsunami, and that the east coast of the United States

Gulf states slammed for 'shameful' tsunami aid

Oil-rich Gulf Arab states have pledged a mere $70 million to victims of the tsunami disaster despite reaping seven times as much in oil revenues daily.

Scientists lift veil on other causes of Great Waves

A tsunami in Scotland? Canada? New Jersey? Such places hardly seem targets for killer waves.

UN nuclear watchdog investigating Egypt for atomic experiments

The UN nuclear watchdog is investigating Egypt for small, undeclared nuclear experiments that could be related to atomic weapons development.

Family of five shot dead in Pakistan 'honor killing'

Four men have shot dead their sister, her husband, infant son and two others for marrying a man of her choice, in the latest brutal "honor killing" in Pakistan.

Cousins, forced marriages and blind children

Habib Zada is a photographer but his two children, one-year-old Zaki and six-year-old Harez, will never see his pictures.

Iran claims 'victory' over 'National Geographic'

Iran's foreign minister has boasted of scoring a "victory" over 'National Geographic' after the US magazine agreed to remove a reference to the "Arabian Gulf" and stick with the "Persian Gulf" in its atlas.

Kuwait thwarts domestic attacks on 'friendly forces'

The Kuwaiti army said on Monday that it had arrested a number of soldiers who were planning to attack "friendly forces" in the emirate, two weeks after the United States warned of the increased possibility of militant attacks.

One year later, Flash plane crash still a mystery

Bereaved families commemorated the first anniversary on Monday of the crash of a Flash Airlines jet into the Red Sea, which killed all 148 people on board, but one year on the cause of the tragedy remains unknown.

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

REGIONAL NEWS

Sudan ex-rebels prepare to set up provisional capital

Arab media meet hears calls for reform

Kuwait hunts down Al Qaeda suspects after gunfight

Audits show UN mismanagement of Iraq oil program

More REGIONAL NEWS >

YOUR WORLD

Einstein fights to revive a flagging science

Catastrophes that have crippled tourism

Philippines make arrests over Catholic procession bomb plot

Mandela saluted for openness about son's Aids death