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What the Arab papers said December 31:
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Lower and middle level officers of the Pakistani army and the Pakistani air force were involved in the killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, according to various intelligence sources, including members of Indias counter-intelligence service.
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Pakistans opposition leader and former premier Benazir Bhutto was laid to rest Friday at her family mausoleum a day after her assassination by a sniper and suicide bomber plunged the turbulent country into further turmoil and world concern over the future of a nuclear-armed Pakistan.
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What the Arab papers are saying Dec. 28:
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Suspects in the assassination of Pakistans Benazir Bhutto number in the tens of thousands. Some 800 Pakistanis have been killed by suicide bombers in the past year. Bhutto had a close brush with death Oct. 18, a few hours after returning from eight years of self-imposed exile in Dubai and London. The suicide bomber killed more than 140 people and injured 350, some a few feet from where she was sitting in a large vehicle.
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It has been a grim year for Pakistan. Since the start of 2007 the country has experienced 54 suicide terrorist attacks, including two Thursday, one of which killed Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister and leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party. Bhutto was a leading contender in January elections.
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Pakistani opposition leader and former premier Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack Thursday, plunging the nation into turmoil less than two weeks before elections.
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met on Thursday to try to clear out hurdles that have blocked peace negotiations amid Israeli plans to expand Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.
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The reported killing of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto shows the continued strength of Islamists and paralyzes Pakistans political system.
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Benazir Bhutto, the charismatic opposition leader assassinated Thursday, was the first woman prime minister of a Muslim country and an icon for democracy in Pakistan.
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What the Arab papers are saying Dec. 27:
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Brazil, Ecuador, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Morocco are just a few countries where honor killings occur. Anja Wehler-Schöck has studied the phenomenon of honor killings using the example of Jordanian society. The political scientist was interviewed by Naima El Moussaoui. Excerpts from that interview follow:
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Turkey intensified its cross-border air strikes on Kurdish rebel sites in northern Iraq Wednesday in what could become routine military operations that may further destabilize the region.
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Earlier this year, the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau projected that Yemens population will grow from 22.4 million in 2007 to 58.0 million in 2050. This means that Yemen will have a significantly larger population than Saudi Arabia, which PRB projects will grow from 27.6 million in 2007 to 49.7 million in 2050. Yemen will then be the most populous country on the Arabian Peninsula.
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Despite an aid package of $7.4 billion pledged by donor states and organizations at last weeks international donors conference in Paris, the World Bank has warned that unless Israel eases its draconian policy of closures and restrictions on movement and trade, the battered Palestinian economy could deteriorate even further.
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What the Arab papers are saying Dec. 26:
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The dampening of violence in Baghdad is viewed by many as a marker that the surge of 30,000 extra U.S. troops into the capital is achieving success in giving the central government breathing space to effect reconciliation and reconstruction efforts to win the loyalty of the people.
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Middle East peace talks have been dealt a new blow after Israel revealed it had set aside funds to expand disputed Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The news deadened any expectations that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators meeting Monday would progress in their second round of talks since re-launching the peace process in Annapolis, Maryland, last month.
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What the Arab papers said Dec. 24:
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The international community cannot afford to lose the war against terrorism in Afghanistan, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Saturday during a surprise visit to the insurgency-hit country.
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Eight people in Pakistan have tested positive for the H5N1 strain of influenza commonly known as avian flu. At least one has been confirmed dead from the disease.
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Nearly a decade after forming what is probably Iraqs first rock band, the five-member UTN1 (Unknown to no-one) have launched their first Arabic single and are determined to conquer the world.
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The crowd of Hebron settlers shouted, "Gas the Arabs" and, "Death to the Arabs" as they forced open the door of Hasham al-Azzers home which borders the neighboring settlement of Tel Rumeida, about 20 miles south of Jerusalem.
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Gaza is now a precarious perch for its people. Gaza teeters on the brink of a grand calamity. Gaza is caught between the army of Israel and the deep blue waters of the Mediterranean, with nowhere to go.
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Israel is considering the idea of constructing its largest Jewish settlement yet in East Jerusalem, a move that could ultimately change the demographic map of the holy city and threaten to derail the arduous Palestinian-Israeli peace process.
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What the Arab papers said Dec. 19:
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Reviewing the post-Annapolis environment in the Middle East Egypts ambassador to Washington told a small group of journalists gathered at his residence Tuesday that there needs to be "some substantial move forward" if the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations launched by the U.S. administration last month are to succeed. He also warned of impending disaster in Lebanon if the countrys leaders do not work together.
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"Im sorry," said the lady on the telephone, "but we cant see you today after all." I was talking to her from my hotel room in Tehran. Tourang, one of my Iranian students, had given me her aunts number before my trip to Iran.
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What happens when an Atlanta radio talk-show therapist called Spirit meets a television talk-show host from Cairo named Bothaina? Or when Mike, an Alabama cowboy trades places with Mahmoud, an Egyptian horse trainer? "The Bridge" is a one-hour reality show that documents the relationship between two Americans and two Egyptians who have never visited one anothers countries as they share their cultures and their lives.
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Turkish military forces extended their attacks against Kurdish rebels Tuesday with a limited ground incursion into northern Iraq, two days after a massive cross-border air strike passed with U.S. approval and little Western opposition.
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What the Arab papers said Dec. 18:
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The British are coming, the British are coming, I mean going…
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International donors met in Paris Monday to discuss how to much they would give to revive the paralyzed Palestinian economy, estimated by the Palestinian prime minister at more than $5 billion. But some participants are tying their support to Israel easing its draconian restrictions on the Palestinians.
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The Vatican urged Israel Monday to send out the "positive signals" Pope Benedict XVI needs to pave the way for an historic visit to the Holy Land.
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What the Arab papers said Dec. 17:
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It is not surprising that the latest controversy over Irans nuclear development, whether civilian or military, constitutes a murky puzzle. After all, this debate is most confusing because it provides a surplus of opinion, much of which is based on sheer speculation, and is regrettably deficient of facts on the ground and undisputed realities.
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The British government has lost a bid to keep an Iranian opposition group on its list of proscribed terrorist organizations, the Home Office announced.
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A network of underground tunnels used by al-Qaida in Iraq to store weapons, hide fighters, and launch attacks against U.S. forces was discovered and subsequently destroyed by coalition forces Sunday. It was the first known find of a tunnel system in the Multi-National Division - Center area.
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Saudi Arabias agriculture ministry has ordered 13,500 ostriches to be destroyed following a new outbreak of bird flu in the kingdom, the Al-Watan newspaper reported on Saturday. The outbreak of the H5N1 strain of the disease that is dangerous to humans was reported on Thursday evening at a farm in the Al-Kharj region, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Riyadh, the Arabic language daily said.
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Lebanese were in mourning Friday as hundreds attended the funeral in Beirut of a top army officer who was assassinated by a car bomb two days earlier. The bombing has also shaken the countrys fragile political and psychological foundations as it wrestles to resolve a deep political crisis without a president at the helm.
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What the Arab papers said Dec. 14:
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Will foreign pressure help save Darfur?
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The world is on the eve of a new energy order that is going to change the way that Middle Eastern suppliers and consumers around the world do their business. This is not the opinion of a radical environmentalist or even of prominent ecological activist and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will become the first Iranian sitting president to perform the Muslim Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca since Irans 1979 Islamic revolution, in another sign that relations between Tehran and its Arab neighbors are warming up.
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What the Arab papers said Dec. 13:
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Added to the hardships of Palestinians under Israeli occupation is a silently sanctioned form of violence, the so-called "honor killings," or femicide, of women who have allegedly brought sexual shame on their families.
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Now that Pakistani President Musharraf has given up control of the Pakistani armed forces, will he remain in control of that troubled country? Will there be democratization? Will the Islamists take power? Or will another military leader seize power?
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Gaza is on the brink of a medical health disaster as Israel continues to tighten its siege of the strip.
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What the Arab papers said December 12:
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As has been widely reported, a recent National Intelligence Estimate has made clear that in the considered opinion of the American intelligence community, Iran stopped work on its nuclear weapons program in 2003. The response of many American conservatives has been nearly hysterical.
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Why has India remained silent since Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf last month imposed a state of emergency and suspended the constitution? Specialists in southwest Asian affairs suggest that Indias intelligence agency was caught off guard by its neighbor after suffering "a massive failure in intelligence."
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Two powerful bomb blasts ripped through Algiers Tuesday killing possibly dozens of people in a twin operation that has the fingerprints of the North African branch of al-Qaida.
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The weapon of note in the insurgency that has wracked Iraq since the removal of Saddam Hussein is, hands down, the IED, or improvised explosive device, that accounts for more than one-half of U.S. casualties in the conflict and has killed and maimed many thousands of Iraqis.
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Four Palestinian militants were killed across the Gaza Strip Tuesday as Israel launched its largest operation in months in the south of the Hamas-run territory.
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What the Arab papers said Dec. 11:
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Iran and Syria remain very much in Washingtons cross hairs – Iran for its flirtation with nuclear weapons and Syria for what the administration says is Damascus support of terrorism.
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The international censure following an Israeli decision to expand a Jewish settlement in Arab East Jerusalem has not stopped the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations, but it is expected to undermine a Palestinian side already weakened by internal rifts and growing skepticism.
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A media watchdog organization has named imprisoned Eritrean reporter Seyoum Tsehaye as its Journalist of 2007 to punctuate the bad state of press freedom in that country.
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What the Arab papers said December 10:
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Despite last weeks National Intelligence Estimate absolving Iran of its nuclear transgressions, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates warned the Islamic republic that it is not yet off the hook. Instead, Gates called for increased sanctions and greater diplomatic pressure.
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Iraq at the end of 2007 is a far different place from the beginning of the year.
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Iran, initially scheduled to be represented at the Manama conference by its foreign minister, Manoucher Mottaki, decided at the last moment not to attend the conferece where Gates was to deliver the keynote address.
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Bahrains foreign minister Friday called for a "nuclear free zone in the Gulf."
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Lebanese political rivals have again failed to agree on convening a parliamentary session Friday to elect a president and postponed the vote for a seventh time, despite their agreement on a single candidate.
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The lives of 10,000 Palestinians trapped within West Bank enclaves - cut off from Israel to the west by the Green Line and separated from the West Bank proper to the east by the barrier - have been ruined socially and economically, with their education disrupted and their livelihoods destroyed or seriously damaged.
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What the Arab papers said December 7:
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Not since the Team A-Team B debate over the Soviet threat of the 1970s has an intelligence estimate played such a major role in U.S. foreign policy.
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The U.S. reversal on Irans nuclear weapons program has exposed a breaking of ranks within a waning administration, with U.S. intelligence and military professionals asserting themselves on issues of war and peace, analysts said.
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U.S. military officials are taking a cautious approach in assessing the security conditions in Iraq as the top American general in the country said that despite the progress made, the military was still far from celebrating victory.
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Israeli archaeologists say they have unearthed a palace complex dating back to the first century A.D. in an Arab neighborhood just outside the walls of Jerusalems Old City.
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Israeli police said Thursday they will recommend charges be brought against three journalists who traveled without state permission to "enemy states," Lebanon and Syria.
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Israel said on Thursday that it has protested to Egypt for opening a border crossing with Gaza for the first time since the Hamas takeover to allow Muslim pilgrims to leave on the annual Hajj.
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The top American general in Iraq, David Petraeus, expressed satisfaction Thursday at the progress made in Iraq but said the military was still far from any victory dance.
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What the Arab papers said December 6:
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After two months of intense debate, the Christian community in Lebanon has made a fence-straddling presidential nomination. It is too early, however, to expect an end to the current political crisis even if parliament approves the candidate.
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An assessment by the U.S. intelligence community that Iran had halted a drive for nuclear weapons four years ago continued to resonate Wednesday, with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad describing the report as a "great victory" for his country and ignoring U.S. President George W. Bushs insistence that Tehran continued to pose a nuclear threat.
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What the Arab papers said December 5:
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Combine prostitution and slavery and you have one of the biggest legal headaches facing Israeli society today.
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A U.S. intelligence report that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 has come as a relief to Tehran, which welcomed the report as a confirmation from its own foes that Irans nuclear program is completely peaceful.
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What the Arab papers said December 4:
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Military efforts to establish peace and working agreements with Sunni Muslim tribes in Iraqs Anbar province in the fight against al-Qaida terrorists and homegrown insurgents is an integral part of the U.S. counter-insurgency strategy in Iraq. One place where it is clearly working at the moment is a city along the Euphrates river, just 30 miles from the Anbari capital of Ramadi.
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The Cairo press referred to last September as "Black September." A total of 11 journalists receiving prison sentences for charges that varied from insulting the ruling party National Democratic Party to insulting the president.
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The U.N. World Food Program has announced that it will scale up efforts to provide basic food assistance to the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees in Syria and called on the international community to support its growing operation there.
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The wide gap dividing rival Lebanese political leaders was narrowing Monday over a compromise candidate to fill a vacant presidency that has left a power vacuum in the country since November 23, but more complicated negotiations are expected to further delay an election set for December 7.
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What the Arab papers said December 3:
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While Lebanon is without a president for now, it looks like a favorite is quickly emerging: Lebanon army chief and Damascus ally General Michel Sleiman. If he were to be elected, the winner would not only be Syria, but more importantly Hezbollah.
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Amid peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians over how to divide land, there is another conflict bubbling just beneath the surface; this one is over water, a precious resource in the Middle East.
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Two British peers on a mercy mission to Sudan spent a second day pressing talks with top officials in Khartoum on Sunday, pushing scrambling to secure the early release of a Briton – a female teacher – who was jailed for allegedly insulting religion.
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Iraqs President Jalal Talabani is lamenting the death of popular Iraqi actor Rasim al-Jumaili who lampooned him wickedly in a television series, and has offered to pay the funeral expenses.
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The relative calm in Iraq suffered a setback Saturday when dozens of suspected al-Qaida fighters raided a Shiite village north of Baghdad killing at least 14 people including women and children, according to local police and medical officials.
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When Ali Sadiqs car engine started acting up, he knew he was in trouble. Engine problems are bad enough under normal circumstances, but in Baghdad Ali faced an additional hurdle: he couldnt fix his Mercedes because he is a Shiite.
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Seven-year-old Ali Husseins toy is an old tire, which he pushes back and forth in a pond of dirty water.
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What the Arab papers said November 30:
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The killings of Iraqi and Afghan civilians by coalition troops responding to terrorist attacks have prompted charges of war crimes from the political left, while veterans organizations speak in passionate defense of the men and women in uniform. This can be expected.
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Official and popular Arab reactions to the Annapolis Middle East conference, which launched long-delayed Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations and brought the largest number of Arab states together with Israel, highlight a wide Arab-Israeli chasm making peace in the Middle East a distant dream.
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What the Arab papers said November 29:
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Twenty-one-year-old Naal al-Kurdi who was undergoing treatment for cancer and hepatitis at Gazas Shifa hospital died while the Israeli High Court ordered the state to reexamine its decision refusing the transfer of 11 Palestinian patients from Gaza into Israel for treatment.
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What the Arab papers said November 28:
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UPDATED: Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to push for a peace deal by the end of 2008, but on little else following the Middle East peace offensive launched in Annapolis Tuesday by U.S. President George W. Bush.
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There has long been in the West a highly romantic view of the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. This view has been fostered by numerous 19th and 20th century books authored primarily by well-connected British political agents, soldiers, and travelers, as well as by David Leans 1962 Academy Award-winning movie, "Lawrence of Arabia."
