IPS correspondents bring you independent perspectives on what is happening in Iran, Iraq and across the Middle East.

MIDEAST: Israelis Target Medical Teams
By Mel Frykberg
JELAZON, West Bank (IPS) – Fourteen-year-old Muhammad Nayif’s mother broke down as she spoke to IPS. Nayif died after being shot three times in the chest by Israeli soldiers Monday night. Palestinian medical personnel who tried to reach the critically injured boy near the Jelazon refugee camp north of Ramallah were threatened at gunpoint by Israeli soldiers and shot at.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48326

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ENVIRONMENT: Desert Winds Stir New Hope
By Cam McGrath*
CAIRO (IPS/IFEJ) – With oil and gas reserves running dry, the most populous country in the Arab world is eyeing wind power as a solution to its looming energy crunch.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48377

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IRAQ: Stormy Times as U.S. Withdraws
Analysis by Helena Cobban
WASHINGTON (IPS) – Political violence in Iraq killed 456 Iraqis in August, the highest monthly death toll since July 2008. And with the U.S. showing no sign it plans to reverse the troop withdrawal that is now well underway, numerous struggles for power are shaping up inside Iraq. They involve both competing factions within the country and also, perhaps more ominously, several neighbouring countries.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48336

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MIDEAST: Business Seeks Ways Past Political Impasse
By Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH (IPS) – Business between the Palestinian Authority and Israel is growing despite the political impasse over Israel’s refusal to cease illegal settlement building in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian West Bank.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48360

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US-ISRAEL: New Settlements Plan Heightens Tensions
By Daniel Luban
WASHINGTON (IPS) – The White House reprimanded the Israeli government Friday over reports that Israel plans to build hundreds of new housing units in West Bank settlements, the latest in a series of showdowns between Washington and Jerusalem over settlement construction.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48338

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MIDEAST: Israelis Destroy Boats, and Lives
By Eva Bartlett
GAZA CITY (IPS) – Until Monday, Omar and Khaled Al-Habil were the owners of a 20m fishing trawler staffed by five or six fishermen at a time, but employing around 18 in cycles. But that morning the vessel came under heavy Israeli navy machine-gun fire, and then shelling. The trawler caught fire. “It’s destroyed, completely destroyed,” says Al-Habil.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48314

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MIDEAST: Stolen Room Offers a Split View
By Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
OCCUPIED EAST JERUSALEM (IPS) – In the early morning sunlight, the smoky window of the plush new apartment reflects back a golden tinge from the Dome of the Rock that stands at the heart of Islam’s third holiest shrine.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48350

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ISRAEL: Madonna Applauded for her Silence
By Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
TEL AVIV (IPS) – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-il, Hitler, the Holocaust, ecological disasters, poverty in Africa, wars around the world, Obama and Martin Luther King: the appropriate images were all there, an overwhelming backdrop on the huge stage for the Queen of Pop’s rendition of her song, ‘Get Stupid’ in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park. It was all calculated to conjure up all the right emotions, the right side to be on in all global challenges.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48319

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DON’T MISS IPS EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.

U.S. President Barack Obama has inherited wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a tanking economy, and global crises like climate change. IPS reports on the implications of the new administration not just for U.S. citizens, but for the world.
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/us_elections2008/index.asp

For more IPS reporting on the Middle East – www.ipsnews.net/middle.asp
Iraq: Beyond the Green Zone – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/iraq/
Iran: The Parthian Shot – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/iran/
Holy Land/Unholy War – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/israel_palestina/
Afghan Divide – www.ipsnews.net/afghanistan/
Bush’s Legacy – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/warII/

IPS coverage of terrorism – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/terrorism/

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