Middle East

World News

Where Does The Dream Of Democracy Stand In Egypt?

7:25am January 27, 2014

Three years ago, the popular uprising in Egypt was considered a democracy movement. But now the military is in control of the government and the freely-elected president is in jail. To discuss the state of Egypt, Steve Inskeep talks to Issandr El Amrani of the International Crisis Group.

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Nehida Bne Menneh stands amid the rubble of her home in a small Palestinian herding camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It was destroyed for being in an area Israel long ago declared a closed military zone.

World News

Palestinian Herders Pick Up The Pieces After Homes Destroyed

2:14pm January 26, 2014

by Emily Harris

Up a barren, narrow valley in the West Bank hills, a small community of herders raises sheep and goats. But it is also an Israeli military zone. NPR's Emily Harris visited the community one day, and returned the next to find their flimsy homes bulldozed by Israeli court order.

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Three Years Later, Tahrir Protesters Drained And Defeated

8:17pm January 25, 2014

by Leila Fadel

On Jan. 25, 2011, millions of Egyptians took to the streets of Cairo to demand President Hosni Mubarak step down. Now those who led the revolution have all but disappeared, and iconic Tahrir Square is a bitter place for many — a reminder of a momentary high in a battle they say they have lost.

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Syria Grants Rare But Scripted Glimpse To Western Journalists

7:53pm January 25, 2014

Negotiations between the Syrian government and Syrian opposition leaders continue in Geneva this weekend. Guest host Kelly McEvers talks to Frederik Pleitgen of CNN, who is in Damascus, reporting about the current situation on the ground in Syria.

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Nuclear Inspectors Enter Iran, With Eyes Peeled For Cheating

7:58pm January 20, 2014

by Geoff Brumfiel

This week in Iran, international inspectors are stepping up surveillance of the country's nuclear program. The inspections are at the heart of a landmark deal that freezes Iran's uranium enrichment in exchange for billions of dollars in relief from sanctions, but they are just a first step.

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Iran To Take First Step Toward Long-Term Deal

6:42pm January 19, 2014

On Monday, the nuclear deal between six world powers and Iran officially kicks in. But this agreement is just a first step in a long negotiation process. NPR's Arun Rath talks to Karim Sadjadpour, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, about what to expect from additional disarmament talks.

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Sharon, flanked by Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (left) and Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon, reads a statement during the weekly Cabinet meeting at Sharon's office, on June 13, 2004, in Jerusalem.

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Ariel Sharon, Whose Life And Career Shaped Israeli History, Dies

12:09pm January 15, 2014

by Mike Shuster

The former prime minister, who had been in a coma after suffering a massive stroke in 2006, died on Saturday. Sharon's career spanned the birth of the nation and most of its essential turning points. Israelis had a love-hate relationship with him that was beginning to soften only shortly before his death.

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Kerry: 'No Other Alternative' To Ending Violence In Syria

6:50pm January 12, 2014

by Michele Kelemen

Secretary of State John Kerry is in Paris preparing for a long-delayed peace conference on Syria next week. He's urging the Syrian opposition to negotiate with a regime they've been trying to topple. The war in Syria has raged for three years and has befuddled the international community.

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Ariel Sharon's Death Sparks Strong Emotions Across Middle East

6:40pm January 11, 2014

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon died Saturday at the age of 85. Israelis mourned the death of the celebrated politician and army general. But Palestinians reacted differently to the death of the controversial leader, who pushed for Jewish settlement of Palestinian territories.

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The flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, flutters on the dome of an Armenian Catholic Church in the northern rebel-held Syrian city of Raqqa on Sept. 28, 2013. At first, Syrian rebels and civilians welcomed the experienced Islamist fighte

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As Rebels Fight Rebels, Grim Reports From A Syrian City

10:29pm January 08, 2014

by Deborah Amos

Syria's civil war keeps getting more complicated. In the latest twist, fractious rebel groups have united to fight extremists linked to al-Qaida. Both sides oppose the Syrian government, but for now they are pointing their guns at each other and a nasty battle is taking place in the northern city of Raqqa.

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