Middleeast

Chisel, scrape, chisel, scrape. Blow the dust. Chisel, scrape. The band saw hums. Wood curls spill from the planer, putty and lacquer men smooth and polish, upholsterers tighten copper-colored springs, trucks loaded with painted chairs race over streets and sandpaper boys hurry through alleys, dusted, like ghosts. The seaside echoes with work. Furniture work. It moves fast and begins with raw wood passed from craftsman to craftsman until it is cut, carved and glued into tables, chairs and cabinets that match the decor of the palace of an Italian count or the boudoir of a naughty French queen.

Iran has dramatically shifted its public tone toward the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, dropping its previous deference while harshly criticizing the agency's latest report and its new director-general as an incompetent and biased lackey of the West. On Sunday, Iran's supreme leader and highest authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, lashed out at the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iran's nuclear program and adherence to the international Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, in a move that could signal a further deterioration of cooperation between the agency and the Islamic Republic.

Iraq achieved a respectable turnout at the polls over the weekend as 62% of registered voters cast ballots, according to the country's electoral commission. The figure exceeded expectations. Some Western officials had predicted that 55% to 60% of the 19 million eligible Iraqis would go to the polls. Turnout in Baghdad was relatively disappointing: Only 53% of voters cast ballots in the capital, whereas the predominantly Sunni Arab province of Salahuddin saw a turnout of nearly 75%, according to the Independent High Electoral Commission.

With more than 80% of the votes tallied in Iraq's parliamentary elections and the race still neck and neck, hopes that the country might move beyond its deep Shiite-Sunni divide appear to be fading in a stew of sectarian politics. Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, who once campaigned as a nationalist leader responsible for restoring security to all Iraqis, is now falling back on his Shiite Muslim religious identity to position himself against challenger Iyad Allawi, a secular Shiite popular with the minority Sunni Arab population.

Although pirates last year made many more attempts to board ships in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia, the number of successful seizures was about the same as in 2008, according to the U.S.-organized multinational maritime force here. The figures suggest that new "defensive driving" tactics adopted by many commercial shipping companies are helping ward off attackers, naval officials said. There were 198 attempts at piracy in the vast region last year, a 62% increase from 2008, but only 44 attempts were successful.

'Daddy, don't you confess!" she implored over the phone, the outburst of an impulsive teen. The jailers listening in quickly ended the conversation. But 15-year-old Scheherazade's rash words ultimately meant more to her imprisoned father than she could imagine. It was the first time in weeks she had spoken to her father, Saeed Laylaz, a prominent Iranian economist and liberal journalist jailed days after disputed elections last year. For nearly two months, his wife and two children had no idea where the 44-year-old had been taken or even whether he was still alive.

The camera zooms in on the face of an actor portraying a captive Israeli soldier as he reads a prepared statement. "My captors are treating me well," says the anxious young man, who is meant to remind viewers of Gilad Shalit, a soldier held by Islamist militants for more than three years. "They are letting me drink and giving me food." A rifle barrel slowly peeks into the picture frame, and he quickly adds, "Kosher food." The camera pans back to reveal that the kidnappers are not Palestinian terrorists, but Orthodox Jewish settlers, who are holding the soldier until the government allows them to continue building homes in the West Bank.

It started in the Green Zone, with Iraqi soldiers ordering restaurants to stop serving alcohol and confiscating bottles from politicians at checkpoints. Then, mysterious signs began appearing across the rest of Baghdad declaring alcohol sinful and warning of damnation for those who drink. Finally, the crackdown came. Phalanxes of soldiers and police officers descended on the nightclubs, cabarets and bars that had proliferated across the capital in the last two years and symbolized for many a return to normality.

Dubai is a clever blend of audacity and architecture, a shiny monument to the egos and ambition that turned a tiny emirate into a Middle East financial giant. Russian oligarchs stroll along man-made islands shaped like palm trees, and sheiks race down a ski slope built inside a shopping mall. Lacking the oil reserves of the emirate's neighbors, Dubai's ruling family created a parallel economic reality fueled by real estate, international investment and the art of the possible. The emirate was fashioned into a sleek cityscape of startling images: Islam balanced against the seduction of Western capitalism, and tribal traditions brushing the fleeting trends of globalization.

The American parents sit stoically in a sky-lit courtroom, listening to testimony about how an Israeli military bulldozer crushed their daughter to death seven years ago. They hear about the dangerous game of chicken played for several hours that winter afternoon in 2003, between bulldozers and international activists trying to protect Palestinian homes, before Rachel Corrie disappeared under a creeping mound of dirt. Now her parents, calling an Israeli investigation that found no fault a "whitewash" and suspecting that the bulldozer driver deliberately ran over their daughter, are pursuing a civil lawsuit against the government.