Analysis.
After more than 20 years of war with Israel Hamas retains not only a heavily armed militia, a broad network of welfare programmes and deep grassroots support, but now runs a virtual state within its besieged Gaza enclave. The Islamist movement, sworn to the destruction of the...

AFGHANISTAN - Oct 19 - Victims' Identity Disputed In Taliban Ambush.
Taliban militants stop a bus traveling on Afghanistan's main highway through a wild and dangerous part of the country's south, seized about 50 people on board and killed about 30 of them. A Taliban spokesman confirmed that the militia's fighters carried out the attack but said that they had...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Oct 27 - US-Iran Scheme Has Failed.
The recent announcement by the US to open dialogue with Iran, brought worryingly to public attention the partnership between the two countries to continue the occupation of Iraq and sharing oil - the spoils of war. The truth is out in the open. Post invasion sabre rattling between a...

It's time that Don Bishoff got his due.
Byline: Don Kahle For The Register-Guard It's time we named something after Don Bishoff. He gave Eugene and Lane County a distinctive voice for nearly four decades. Those of us who remember and appreciate his contribution aren't getting any younger. Bishoff came to Eugene almost...

LEBANON - Oct 16 - Hizbullah Basks In Its Authority.
In spite of his modest title of labour minister and his spartan office in a poor neighbourhood of Beirut, Muhammad Fneish speaks with an authority bordering on overconfidence, an attitude that testifies to the power of Hizbullah, the militant Shi'ite group, in Lebanon. Fneish, a senior party official who...

Congo clashes.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [3] GOMA, Democratic Republic of the Congo -- Fierce fighting between rebels and Congo's army has forced more than a quarter million people from their homes on the grasslands of central Africa. Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda says he is fighting to force the government to...

SUDAN - July 28 - Sudanese Rally Behind Leader.
Omar Hassan al-Bashir has been accused by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court of genocide and vilified the world over as an incorrigible mass murderer bent on slaughtering his own people. But inside Sudan, his grip on power seeto be surer than ever. In the past few...

Sexual violence as a weapon of war.
"I was busy cutting wood when four armed men suddenly appeared at the other end of the field. They told me to undress and to volunteer myself to one of them. I refused. Then they took me, spreading my legs out and tying them, one to the bottom of...

The price of diplomatic silence.
But Israel, which has always relied on US protection, has struck out on its own, making its own agreements with neighboring countries, without consultation with the US. A six-month ceasefire was negotiated with Hamas in the Gaza Strip brokered by Egypt. It may not hold, but it will at...