Development

”The Arab world is in revolt against dictatorships,” and from Tunisia to Egypt to Yemen, women have been leading the charge for political freedoms and reforms as Emad Mekay reports.

High-powered Washington lobby firms have helped the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak secure enormous benefits in Washington. President Obama’s special envoy to Egypt, Frank Wisner, works for one such firm which has had many contracts with Egypt’s military and leading business families.

CAIRO (IPS) - “Break my heart but don’t come near my bread” goes an old Arabic proverb. Failure to observe it has often come at a high political price. Just ask Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who has now fled.

BUENOS AIRES (IPS) - With the string of announcements in South America of recognition of a Palestinian state this month, the region’s integration process showed a new interest in and capacity to reach common positions in the realm of foreign policy.

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - According to the World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization, the food insecure in Gaza are an alarming 61 percent, with another 16 percent vulnerable to food insecurity.

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - The quality of life, the economy and food security for Palestinians living in Gaza have been severely impaired by Israel’s strict four-year blockade, according to the UN. Israel says its closure regime is designed to protect Israeli citizens from attacks by militants in Gaza.

DUBAI (IRIN) - With a failing economy, rising unemployment and deteriorating power, sanitation and health facilities, the health of Gaza’s population continues to worsen, according to a recent World Health Organization (WHO) report. In contrast, modest improvements have been made in the West Bank.

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - Nine-year-old Ismail spends every afternoon herding his family’s flock of sheep and goats, a scraggly group of roughly 20 animals. They live in a shanty house district near Tel al-Howa in Gaza City, where growth is sparse to non-existent.

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - “You feel very sleepy and dizzy. You put your head down and all you want to do is sleep. Everything feels very peaceful, you are not even aware what is happening and if there is no immediate intervention you are dead within minutes,” Enaam Abu Nada told IPS.

WASHINGTON (IPS) - Amid still-unresolved tensions over Jewish settlement expansion in East Jerusalem, two major publications reported Wednesday that US President Barack Obama is seriously considering proposing later this year a US peace plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.