Sixteen years after the Middle East peace process was launched in Madrid the much anticipated peace conference finally got underway Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland. But it did so not without skepticism over the chances of its success and whether it would be a milestone in peacemaking or if its failures would bring dire consequences.

The much anticipated Middle East peace conference finally gets underway Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland, but not without skepticism for the chances of its success, and fear of its failures and the consequences such failures would bring.

What the Arab papers said November 27:

Opposition to the Annapolis Middle East conference was growing in the region Monday amid fears that the Maryland meeting would deepen internal divisions and crises, making the achievement of Arab-Israeli peace more remote and complicated.

What the Arab papers said November 26:

What would be the most logical target Iran would strike in case of a U.S. or Israeli attack on its nuclear sites?

In a desolate northwest corner of Iraqs Anbar province nearly 2,000 victims of Iraqs sectarian divide live in a squalid encampment of tents and garbage. Just a short walk away from the camp is the Syrian border, and a chance for safety, a new life. But they cant cross. Bureaucratic hurdles on both sides of the border stand in the way.

Syria said it will attend Tuesdays U.S.-hosted Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, however, Damascus will be represented by its deputy foreign minister rather than the countrys top diplomat, a source close to the foreign ministry told AFP on Sunday.

The Islamic group Hizb-ut-Tahrir is going from strength to strength in southern Kyrgyzstan, where many analysts say it is winning the struggle for hearts and minds despite an official ban on its activities.

An Egyptian Christian woman has been jailed for three years because her fathers brief conversion to Islam 45 years ago made her legally a Muslim while her official papers said she was Christian, her lawyer has said.

Egyptian bloggers, long at the forefront of exposing rights abuses, are planning an online festival of torture videos to run alongside the 31st Cairo Film Festival, local media have reported.

One of President Emile Lahouds last official acts before leaving the Lebanese presidential palace by midnight Friday, as demanded by the countrys constitution, was to task the Lebanese army with the responsibility of maintaining law and order. As the Lebanese army began to deploy Friday, Lahoud left the presidential palace without a new tenant as still no successor was named.

The Anne Frank Foundation weighed in on a row over the fate of a diseased tree that the child writer gazed on as she hid from Nazi occupation, saying the chestnut was a security risk.

A rising tide of travelers seeking out the new frontier of Egyptian tourism is threatening priceless rock art preserved for millennia in one of the most isolated reaches of the Sahara.

What the Arab papers said November 23:

Sanctions on Jenin may have eased, but life for Palestinians living here is just as hard as it ever was. The easing of the international economic embargo has not changed reality; Jenin continues to battle poverty, malnutrition and unemployment.

Arab leaders were scurrying in Egypt Thursday to formulate a united Arab position at the U.S.-sponsored Middle East conference in Annapolis next week that would justify their participation at the meeting.

A Saudi woman sentenced to six months in jail and 200 lashes despite being gang raped has vowed to challenge the ruling in a case that has received wide publicity, embarrassing the Saudi government.

What the Arab papers said November 22:

The much anticipated Middle East peace conference will convene in Annapolis Tuesday bringing together for the first time Israelis and Saudi leaders, at least officially.

The invitations by Washington to Israel and the Palestinians to a peace conference in Annapolis Nov. 27 has pushed the Palestinian leadership into a corner by expecting them to negotiate without having met their demands, thereby raising doubts that any agreements would lack legitimacy.

What the Arab papers said November 21:

The U.S. military has entered into what is, perhaps, the most difficult phase of the long war in Mesopotamia to date.

Pakistans President Pervez Musharraf came under renewed pressure Sunday from the Bush administration to end emergency rule and engage the opposition in dialog.

Hundreds of refugees gather in an underground parking lot near what is left of the three-storey building destroyed by Israel earlier in the week. Most of the residents in the car park are from areas that have seen the brunt of Israels attacks in the south.

Rana was unsure about the man who had proposed to her after an arranged meeting; so she decided to test him before making any commitments.

Lebanon has postponed the presidential election for a fourth time as rival political leaders continue to negotiate for a consensus candidate within a November 24 deadline that ends the term of the incumbent president.

Cambodias Khmer Rouge court opened its first public hearing Tuesday, in what many see as a landmark moment for a country trying to come to terms with the brutal 1970s regime.

What the Arab papers said November 20:

In October another Sudanese refugee was shot and killed along Egypts Sinai desert border as he tried to cross into Israel. His death was merely a statistic to Egyptians and international observers, yet it highlights the fact that Egypt is not the final stop for Sudanese refugees biding their time with their northern neighbor.

U.S. forces in Iraq are using a high-resolution, thermal/infrared sensor system that turns night into day and helps protect troops as well as bring security to towns and cities.

Hopes for an agreement in Lebanon on the choice of the next president dimmed Monday after French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, expressed pessimism over new obstacles that could further delay the vote for a new head-of-state before the incumbent president ends his term Saturday.

What the Arab papers said November 19:

Israel has been providing intelligence and satellite images to the U.S. about a secret Syrian nuclear program for several months, according to media reports. Discussions between Israel and the United States took place last summer regarding a possible strike. But when Israel found the matter so pressing that when they realized the U.S. was not ready to act, on September 6 they attacked a Syrian nuclear site. Hence the question: what is Syria really up to or more to the point what is Iran up to?

The U.S. government has done little to address the grave danger faced by those who embrace the American presence in Iraq. Currently no infrastructure exists to aid Iraqi employees once organizations withdraw from Iraq, and the process of obtaining refugee status to resettle in the United States is sluggish at best.

Turkish police used force Saturday to dispel hundreds of supporters of Kurdish groups who demonstrated in the city of Van, in southeastern, Turkey, along the border with Iraq.

Palestinian factions said a clash that erupted in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon Friday was just an isolated incident involving two feuding families, but it nevertheless highlighted the Palestinian factional tension in a country that is also bogged down by a serious political crisis.

The Saudi ambassador to Londons allegedly colorful shopping habits have been revealed in an embarrassing expenses claim including guns, karaoke machines and "party night" girls, a report said Friday.

What the Arab papers said November 16:

The inevitable question poised on the lips of everyone as a mild autumn gently begins to set upon the Greater Washington area is whether the United States is likely to initiate another war in the Middle East before the George Bush and Dick Cheney ticket runs out in January 2009.

A September 2007 poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion revealed 57.1 percent of Palestinians oppose at various degrees the participation of their leadership in the Annapolis peace conference U.S. President George W. Bush hopes to convene later this month. But the majority favor a peace deal with Israel.

Despite what the international nuclear watchdog agency qualified as "substantial progress" in revealing the nature and extent of its secretive – and highly controversial -- nuclear program, Washington vowed to seek further U.N. sanctions against Tehran.

Civil rights activists in Tajikistan fear the government is pushing for more restrictive legislation on religious practice, in the same way it did with a law on non-government groups earlier this year.

What the Arab papers said November 15.

In his "Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art," Scott McCloud traces the origins of pictographic narratives to the Pyramids of Egypt. So it is only fitting that "Cairo," the graphic novel by G. Willow Wilson, with art by M.K. Perker, is set in that most modern of cities that combines the best and worst of East and West.

Lebanese presidential elections have been rescheduled once again, this time moved from November 12 to 21, which will give Lebanese politicians time to come to terms.

Voices from Tehran are rising against the Iranian presidents defiant approach with the West as threats of international sanctions looms.

Ash Sharq Al Awsat (London): Moscow assures America: Irans missiles will not reach you before 2020 – Russia said Iran does not pose a threat to the United States in the near future. Russias chief of the armed forces, General Yury Baluyevsky, said Iran cannot develop inter-continental missiles that could reach America before 2020.

As insurgent and terrorist violence in western Anbar province continues to fall, a small band of U.S. Marines at al-Asad Air Base are increasingly drawing their beads on bands of oil smugglers who nip across the border to Syria to sell purloined oil or who hawk refined fuel from Syria on the Iraqi black market.

In Sep. 2004 former U.S. Marine Corps Captain Brian Steidle arrived in the whirlwind of Darfur as one of three military observers for the African Union. In Feb. 2005, he left with over 1,000 photos and a profound sense of frustration over the AUs incapacity to stop the violence. Since then, he has made it his personal mission to light the fire of awareness in the minds of the global community in the hopes of ending the violence in Darfur.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was in Beirut Tuesday to speak to rival politicians on the need to break a political deadlock on electing a new president before a November 24 deadline threatens to take the crisis to a more dangerous level.

What the Arab papers said November 13.

Unknown to the locals of Cairos Dokki district a young Iraqi man who lived among them would, decades later, become loved and hated by millions of people worldwide.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians marked the third anniversary of Yasser Arafats death in Gaza Monday with more inter-Palestinian bloodshed, underscoring a division that the late Arafat had relentlessly tried to avert since the 1993 interim peace accords with Israel and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in the Palestinian territories.

Whatever words you choose to describe it, be it female genital mutilation, female circumcision, female cutting - let us start by naming it barbaric. I wonder and question a parents logic, their rationale, to consent to their child being held down, or put to sleep, enabling another person to perform an abominable act upon her person – an act that can lead to infection and, sometimes, leads to her death.

Latin diva Jennifer Lopez has finally announced what anyone who saw recent photos of her strongly suspected: she is pregnant.

Ahmad Raza Khan Qasuri is a close adviser to President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, a former member of Parliament, and one of those who helped draft Pakistans constitution after independence. When the constitution was being deliberated in the floor of the House in 1973, Qasuri was the youngest Member of Parliament.

A close associate to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will be released from house arrest within hours.

Nine Iranians who were held in Iraq returned home Friday after they were released from US custody, a move that might ease the increasing tensions between Tehran and Washington over Irans nuclear program and perhaps reduce the level of threats and counter-threats against each other.

An outbreak of cholera has swept a camp housing Ugandas rebel Lords Resistance Army, infecting its leader Joseph Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti and scores of fighters.

Ash Sharq Al Awsat (London): Sarkozy convinced Bush of Syria’s participation in the Annapolis conference – French President Nicolas Sarkozy presented his US counterpart George W. Bush a secret French report affirming Syria’s sincere intentions for peace with Israel. The report shows that Damascus agreed to reduce its role in the Lebanese presidential election; Sarkozy told Bush that Syrian President Bashar Assad told him he was ready to persuade Arab countries to take part in the Annapolis Mideast peace conference if Syria is invited.

A Kurdish member of Turkeys parliament acknowledged Friday that her husband is a militant of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the armed separatist group fighting the Ankara government.

Two Egyptian villages are in mourning. six of their youth drowned on their way to Italy and Greece through Turkey.

Israel escalated its campaign Thursday against the winner of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the international nuclear watchdog, by describing him as a “danger to world peace” and calling for his dismissal for what it says are his policies towards Iran’s nuclear program.

Britains top police officer batted away calls for his resignation Thursday after a watchdog said he tried to block a probe into the killing of a man officers mistook for a would-be suicide bomber.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday announced his country has reached a milestone target for producing enough centrifuges that the West fears could make enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb in a year.

Thousands of migrant builders in Dubai remained on strike Wednesday, including many at the worlds tallest building, the emirates construction giant Arabtec acknowledged.

Benazir Bhuttos call for mass unrest against President Pervez Musharrafs emergency rule has not dissuaded analysts and rivals from suspicions that she is still angling for a power-sharing deal.

{boldd} Islamic militants have seized more than two-thirds of a key tourist valley in northwest Pakistan, despite a state of emergency imposed to tackle extremism, police and residents said Wednesday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that she would urge a diplomatic solution to the Iranian crisis in talks with US President George W. Bush this week.

Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir resumed talks with his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki Wednesday, the final day of a visit focused on peace efforts in the troubled east African state.

Iraqs Kurdish regions Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani Wednesday urged Kurdish rebels to declare a ceasefire "and think of another solution" to achieving their goal of a Kurdish state.

Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Wednesday urged the police to keep up its crackdown on social vice that has also targeted un-Islamic dress.

Nine Iranians held in Iraq on suspicion of aiding the anti-US insurgency will be freed within a week, but 11 others deemed a security threat will remain in captivity, the US military said Wednesday.

Headlines from the Arab press, November 7.

UPDATE: Pakistani police tear-gassed supporters of Benazir Bhutto in Islamabad Wednesday, minutes after the former premier called for mass demonstrations against a state of emergency.

Interpol will decide Wednesday on whether to drop arrest warrants against five leading Iranians wanted by Argentina for their alleged role in a 1994 bombing that killed 85 people.

A Yemeni court Wednesday sentenced 30 Yemenis to between two and 15 years in prison for planning and carrying out attacks for Al Qaeda.

Iran has reached a key target of 3,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday, vowing to ignore UN resolutions calling for a halt to Tehrans sensitive nuclear work.

Pakistani police Wednesday vowed to stop a planned rally by Benazir Bhutto, setting up a showdown between the former premier and President Pervez Musharraf over his imposition of a state of emergency.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai Wednesday declared three days of national mourning after 41 people were killed, six of them lawmakers, in the countrys deadliest suicide bombing.

A controversial visit by Spains royal couple, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, to two Spanish-controlled enclaves claimed by Morocco has stirred anti-colonialist sentiments in this North African country, as thousands of angry demonstrators Tuesda

The protest sign was plain enough, black ink on white poster board. But the message Jamel Numan was carrying amid 200 of Americas Iraqi Kurds rallying outside the White House Monday was both simply blunt and highlighted the overlooked complexity o

A class action lawsuit has been filed by 150 Israeli citizens against Islamic officials who allegedly destroyed ancient Jewish artifacts on the Temple Mount.

A political graphic novel called Iraq: Operation Corporate Takeover is to be unveiled during the London international comics convention.

A suicide attack inside a sugar factory in northern Afghanistan killed and wounded around 50 people, with six members of the national parliament among the dead, government officials said.

The US military said Tuesday it will release nine Iranians detained in Iraq in recent months on suspicion of aiding the anti-American insurgency and helping Shiite militias.

The European Commission Tuesday urged EU-hopeful Turkey to relaunch its political reform program after "limited progress" this year.

A Kurdish rebel leader Tuesday urged Turkey to negotiate with his Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), while Ankara stressed that military action against PKK bases in northern Iraq remained on the table.

Headlines from the Arab press, November 6.

Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki has gone on a rare walkabout in central Baghdad in the latest sign of the improving security situation in the war-ravaged Iraqi capital.

A dissident Iranian ayatollah criticized the judiciary Tuesday over a recent spate of student arrests, as another student leader was reportedly detained by the authorities.

Pakistans sacked chief justice urged people to "rise up" against President Pervez Musharrafs emergency rule Tuesday, as police cracked down on fresh protests in defiance of an international outcry.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak cajoled the government into social action at the end of his ruling partys annual conference Tuesday, but left question marks over his successor.

Israeli President Shimon Peres is to visit Ankara next week and become the first head of the Jewish state to address the Turkish parliament, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday.

Iran opened two consulates in northern Iraq Tuesday in a bid to improve ties with the Kurdish region, one in a building that was raided by US forces in January.

Israel and Syria have missed many chances to revive stalled peace negotiations, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said in an interview published Tuesday.

Pope Benedict XVI was to hold an historic audience with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia Tuesday, on the first visit to the Vatican by a monarch from the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom.

authorities have arrested a student leader, Ali Azizi, who is a senior member of the main Islamic students association, his mother told the ISNA news agency Tuesday.

Two years ago police discovered the battered body of Nadia Anjuman, a young Afghan poet already known in literary circles for her poignant poems about the misery of being a woman in Afghanistan.