September, 2005

• 4 September

  Gaza begins 1st school year occupation free

  GAZA CITY — Palestinian children started their school year Saturday hoping that Israel’s withdrawal from the war-weary Gaza Strip meant they were free of the military raids that made their student days a nightmare. One million pupils returned to schools across the West Bank and Gaza, as Israel was putting …

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• 4 September

  UN investigator to go to Syria over Hariri murder

  BEIRUT (AP) — Under intense pressure to cooperate with a UN probe into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, Syria on Saturday invited the world body’s chief investigator to Damascus to meet Syrian authorities within days. But in a move sure to turn the heat further up …

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• 4 September

  Palestinian Elections pose challenges for secular liberals

  OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — With January 25, 2006 set as the new date for Palestinian parliamentary elections, most talk has been about what the ruling Fateh faction can do to stop the apparently inexorable rise in popularity of the opposition Hamas Islamists. Indeed, the delay in holding the elections originally slated …

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• 4 September

  New Orleans gets more troops, mass evacuations

  NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) — President George W. Bush ordered more troops to help evacuate and secure New Orleans on Saturday as rescuers moved thousands of desperate refugees out of the city and shut down two huge shelters that had become the scene of murder, rape and chaos. Under fire for …

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August, 2005

• 31 August

  ‘Bibi’ seeks to lead Likud, replace Sharon

  OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday that he would challenge Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for leadership of the ruling Likud Party and replace him as premier, setting off a bitter fight that could shake up Israeli politics and paralyse Mideast peacemaking. Appealing to his hawkish supporters, Netanyahu lashed …

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• 31 August

  Displaced in West Darfur still facing threats that keep them from returning home

  EL GENEINA — The killings and burning of homes has diminished since terrified villagers in West Darfur state fled to camps for the displaced and African Union soldiers arrived to protect them. But a campaign of intimidation blamed on semi-nomadic “Arabs” known as the Janjaweed continues, and has cut so …

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• 31 August

  Constitution dangerously short of US goals — experts

  WASHINGTON (AFP) — Iraq’s new draft constitution falls dangerously short of initial US goals and will likely fuel an increase in violence in the war-battered country, American analysts said. “It’s not a good path we are on right now,” said Flynt Leverett, of the Brookings Institution think tank here. “You …

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• 31 August

  Nuclear deadline sets stage for showdon on Iran

  VIENNA — Iran is almost certain not to heed a UN call for it to stop nuclear fuel work by next Saturday, setting the stage for a showdown on what the United States says is a secret Iranian drive to make atom bombs. “New York is the key now,” a …

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• 31 August

  Fresh violence and rhetoric unlikely to torpedo momentum for Mideast peace

  OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A lethal arrest raid, a suicide bombing, fresh land expropriations, a threatening Hamas video: So far, that’s the follow-up to Israel’s historic Gaza pullout. Rather than seize the moment to jump-start negotiations, Israelis and Palestinians appear to be falling into a familiar pattern of violence and rhetoric. …

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• 31 August

  Election jolts politics, if not Mubarak rule

  CAIRO — Five years ago, sociologist and activist Saadeddin Ibrahim broke a taboo by publicly criticising Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Hours later, he was in jail. “Everybody said that was the red line I crossed,” said Ibrahim, who wrote in a magazine article that leaders of Arab republics, including Egypt, …

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