West Asia

Palestinian groups have recently suggested a ceasefire, in exchange for a cessation of Israeli violence. Ehud Olmert responded with a conciliatory speech, cleverly timed with President Bush's arrival to Jordan on November 29 for a two-day conference with top Iraqi officials.

As we walked briskly toward the demonstration, my fixer, Hasan, called over his shoulder, "Stay close. If anyone asks where you're from, tell them you're Canadian."

"God is greater than Israel and America," was the echoing cry of tens of thousands of Palestinians, who descended into the graveyard in grief stricken Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip. They congregated in yet another familiar scene to bury their loved ones, killed by Israel's brutal war against the Palestinians.

As troops and planes headed toward Afghanistan in October 2001, few people questioned the reasons for military engagement.

Green Left Weekly 

"We need to change the way we run the oil sector in Iraq. We need to engage with the major oil companies who will bring in investment as well as technology", Barham Saleh, deputy PM in Washington’s puppet Iraqi government, told journalists on the sidelines of a September 10 US-led International Compact for Iraq conference in the United Arab Emirates.

Associated Press reported "Saleh said Iraqi leaders were nearing agreement on a long-awaited hydrocarbon law that would allow potentially huge investments by foreign companies in Iraq’s oil sector", which was nationalised in 1972 and is currently administered by the oil ministry and two state-owned oil companies. read more