Middle East

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The intrepid Anne Barnard and Karim Shoumali at the NYT have a piece on how Saudi-supplied TOW anti-tank weapons to rebels in Hama and Idlib are creating a US-Russian proxy struggle in northwest Syria (the CIA is actually the source of the weapons, with Saudi intelligence […]

Balkans

3 Memes: Twitter debates as Russian support for Syria intervention Doubles

contributors

By Anna Shamanska | ( RFE/RL) | – – Support among Russians for military intervention in Syria has more than doubled, to 31 percent in early October from 14 percent in September, according to independent pollster Levada Center. The increase comes with coverage of air strikes filling Russian state airwaves, press, and the Internet, and […]

Israel/ Palestine

Palestine: Of course, it is an intifada: This is what you must know

contributors

By: Ramzy Baroud | (Ma’an News Agency) | – – When my book ‘Searching Jenin’ was published soon after the Israeli massacre in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, I was quizzed repeatedly by the media and many readers for conferring the word ‘massacre’ on what Israel has depicted as a legitimate battle against camp-based […]

Iraq

The Mideast’s New Cold War: Why Russia won’t Defeat Iraq’s Extremists

contributors

By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Since the announcement of a new military alliance including Russia, locals have been trading arguments. Could Iraq become the stage for a new “Cold War”? And how effective can this coalition really be? For many Iraqis, the news that came last week of an alliance […]

Israel/ Palestine

Elderly Palestinian man confronts Israeli soldiers over shooting at Youth, before collapsing

contributors

Lauren Hampshire | (ODN Video News Report/ ITN) | – – An elderly Palestinian man confronted a group Israeli troops after they clashed with Palestinian youths in Hebron, before he collapsed on the street. Report by Lauren Hampshire. ODN: “Elderly Palestinian man confronts armed Israeli soldiers before collapsing”

Israel

Israeli settlers carry out attacks in East Jerusalem, West Bank

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli settlers on Saturday carried out a number of attacks on Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, witnesses told Ma’an. In western Hebron, locals said that settlers attacked Palestinian homes near the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arbaa. Settlers reportedly attacked the homes […]

Kurds

Who Bombs a Peace Rally? An Unprecedented 95 Dead in Turkey capital as Accusations fly

contributors

Written by John Lubbock | ( Globalvoices.org Twin bombings hit a peace rally organised by leftist groups in Ankara on the morning of October 10 in what has proven the deadliest bomb attack in Turkish history. The interior ministry initially announced a death toll of 30 people. The health ministry updated the figure to 86 […]

Russia

Putin’s Syria Strikes Irk some among Russia’s 16 mn. Muslims, Raise Risks

contributors

By Tom Balmforth | RFE/ RL MOSCOW — With its soaring minarets and golden dome, the huge new mosque that President Vladimir Putin opened in Moscow late last month was welcomed by Muslims as a sign of their greater acceptance in mostly Christian Russia. Days later, some worshippers voiced dismay over the Kremlin’s campaign of […]

Featured

Tunisian Nobel Recognizes role of Labor Unions, the Left in Democratic Transition

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – How many American news reports about the Nobel Peace Prize given to the Tunisian Quartet that pushed the country toward democracy and compromise will mention that two of the four organizations so honored are national labor unions of workers? A third was an attorneys’ guild. The […]