BEIRUT - Lebanon is caught in political gridlock in the face of sustained opposition to the U.S.-backed government. The government is refusing to give in to opposition demands for more representation. The government says it is there to stay; so do the protestors....
BAGHDAD - Iraqis blame the U.S. occupation for the failure of two parallel security plans drawn up by U.S. forces and Iraqi troops that failed dramatically with the bombings last week that killed more than 300 people in Baghdad. Under the security plans, additional...
BINT JBEIL, Lebanon - Eight months after Israeli attacks left devastation across many villages in southern Lebanon, reconstruction comes with mounting anger toward both Israel and the central Lebanese government. The war that raged between Israel and Hezbollah July 12...
BASRA - Oil-rich Basra in the south of Iraq is getting caught up in an increasingly more fierce battle between warring Shi'ite groups. Basra, the second largest city in Iraq with a population of 2.6 million, is the capital city of the southern Basra province, and...
DAMASCUS - The massive influx of Iraqi refugees into Syria has brought rising prices and overcrowding, but most Syrians seem to have accepted more than a million of the refugees happily enough. "I'm looking at it this way," 35-year-old Amri Alaby told IPS....
DAMASCUS - Syria's decision to accept Iraqi refugees streaming into the country has brought the government of President Bashar Assad more power within Syria and the region, but at significant cost. The ministry of interior in Syria estimates the total number of Iraqi...
DAMASCUS - Refugees from Baquba, Iraq, who have now found shelter in Damascus describe their hometown as a "dead city" where armed men roam the streets and al-Qaeda reigns. Baquba, capital of Iraq's Diyala province, is located 50 km northeast of Baghdad on the Diyala...
DAMASCUS - Refugees from Iraq scattered around Damascus describe hellish conditions in the country they managed to leave behind. "I used to work with the Americans near Kut (in the south)," Sa'ad Hussein, a 34-year-old electrical engineer told IPS. "I...
BASRA - The eruption of demonstrations in the south of Iraq this week could rob the occupation forces of what was considered a critical bastion of support. The southern areas of Iraq have long been said to be secure, and people there peaceful towards the occupation...
DAMASCUS - Salim Hamad, 33, glances at the sprawling buildings of the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus and sees business. He has set up a small tea shop at the camp. "I left everything behind," he told IPS. "I have no idea what became of my house."...
