Israel sued over dead US activistA court case brought by the family of Rachel Corrie, a US protester killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in 2003, opens in Israel.
Q&A: Israeli ArabsThe BBC News website looks at the complex position of the 20% of Israeli’s population that are of Palestinian Arab descent.
Agencies rush aid to Gaza [...]

Lebanese stage mock wedding to urge civil marriage (Reuters via Yahoo! News) Lebanese women in white gowns and men in suits staged a mock wedding in central Beirut’s main thoroughfare on Thursday, calling on authorities to pass a law that would legalize civil marriage.
AL chief: Lebanon’s participation in Libya’s summit still under discussion (People’s [...]

Iran Offers to Exchange Low-Grade Uranium But on Iranian Territory (Payvand Iran News) The head of Iran’s atomic energy agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, is making a new proposal for the exchange of Tehran’s low-grade uranium with the West, Wednesday, offering to carry out the exchange at once and on Iranian soil. -VOA
Iran calls on [...]

Iraq’s election adds to sectarian divide (Los Angeles Times) Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is relying on his Shiite Muslim religious identity to gain an edge over Iyad Allawi, a secular Shiite whose loss would be a huge setback to Sunni Arab voters. With more than 80% of the votes tallied in Iraq’s parliamentary elections [...]

Memo From Cairo: Political Levers Lock Into Gear in Election Year Egypt s parliamentary elections are months away, but arrests of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood group have already begun.
Iranians Defy a Ban in a Display of Dissent Iranians [...]

Followers of Sadr Emerge Stronger After Iraq Elections (New York Times) Documents and interviews show an unprecedented discipline that has thrust the Sadrists to the brink of perhaps its greatest political influence in Iraq.
8 al-Qaeda commanders arrested in Wasit, Iraq (Press TV) Iraqi security forces have arrested eight senior military commanders with links to [...]

Tehran Halts Travel By Poet Called ‘Lioness Of Iran’ (NPR) Simin Behbahani, Iran’s most prominent poet, was about to board a flight to Paris when police seized her passport. Behbahani, 82 and nearly blind, has not been charged with any crime. Many fear her treatment may signal a rise in repressive tactics by Iran’s government. [...]

Moody’s reports: Stable outlook for Lebanese banking system (Zawya) 17 March 2010 The credit outlook for the Lebanese banking sector is stable, reflecting the buoyant performance of the local economy in 2009, improvement in Lebanese politics and relative stability in the region, says Moody’s Investors Service in its new Banking System Outlook on Lebanon.
Lebanese [...]

Memo From Cairo: Political Levers Lock Into Gear in Election Year Egypt s parliamentary elections are months away, but arrests of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood group have already begun.
Frustration Grows in Iraq at Slow Pace of Vote Tally [...]

Turkish-Swedish row over genocide label – United Press InternationalAnkara also canceled a March 17 summit between the nations and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ’s corresponding visit discuss on the basis of current research,” Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said in a statement posted on a
Turkish Premier Says Turkey, IMF [...]