Middleeast

An Iraqi government commission said Monday that it would bar six newly elected parliament members from office, accusing them of having been members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. The move, if upheld by a panel of judges, would take away at least two seats from the secular Iraqiya list, currently the largest bloc in the upcoming parliament, and risk tainting the election results in the eyes of the many minority Sunni Arabs who voted for the slate. If the candidates are banned, it could rob the Iraqiya bloc of its plurality in the new 325-member parliament.

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.

A tiny brick house. A disputed neighborhood. And a Solomon-style court ruling that has placed two sets of strangers -- with nothing in common but hatred -- under the same flat roof. Since December, Israelis have resided in the front part of a house where Palestinians have long lived. All that separates them is a bedroom wall, a sealed door and, lately, the police, who visit regularly to break up the fights. The Jewish occupants accuse the Palestinians of throwing rocks through the windows and wielding sticks.

Rescuers searched a lake in Morocco on Saturday for the man who oversees one of the world's largest state-owned wealth funds after he disappeared in an air accident. A glider carrying Ahmed bin Zayed al Nahyan, the managing director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, crashed Friday into the lake 20 miles southeast of the Moroccan capital, Rabat, state news agencies reported. The glider's pilot was rescued and is in good condition, the reports said. But the search for Nahyan, whom Forbes named the 27th-most powerful person in the world last year, continued.

The families have lived in these cramped blocks in the heart of old Baghdad for decades. Their ties wind along the boulevard called Kifa Street like the dozens of thin generator wires that run from building to building. When Hazem abu Ahmed was a boy, his father died and his mother supported him by washing onions for restaurants. The small apartment on Kifa Street would fill with the stinging odor of onions and he would cry. He met his oldest friend, Hadi, when they were children.

George Ishak has been battling the political repression of the Egyptian government for years, so it seemed odd recently when he mentioned, perhaps with a bit of slyness, that he was praying for the good health of President Hosni Mubarak. Ishak hasn't gone soft. His concern is rooted in opposition strategy, not a sudden pang of empathy for Mubarak, who is in Germany recovering from gallbladder surgery. The president's absence has reminded Ishak and his countrymen of their deep unease over who will eventually replace the man who has ruled the nation since the days when short skirts were as prevalent as veils.

Two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian militants were killed Friday in a gun battle in the Gaza Strip, heightening fears that violence in the region is returning to levels not seen for more than a year. The clash followed a recent uptick in Palestinian rocket attacks against southern Israeli cities and towns, including one last week that killed a Thai farmworker. The fighting Friday caused Israel's first military deaths in Gaza since January 2009, shortly after it concluded a 22-day assault against Hamas, the militant group that controls the seaside enclave.

A secular rival edged Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Shiite alliance in final election results announced Friday, but instead of deciding who will govern Iraq as tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers head home, the virtual dead heat set up a test of raw power in the courts, in parliament and on the streets. Despite declarations from U.S. and United Nations officials that the elections had been fair, Maliki said he would go to court to demand a manual recount in parts of Baghdad and northern Iraq.

As the highest-ranking commander of nearly 8,000 Palestinian security troops, Maj. Gen. Diab Ali is accustomed to being top gun. But the salutes often stop when he leaves the military base and travels through the West Bank. Experience has taught the general to leave his gun behind and trade the uniform for civilian clothes, lest some young Israeli checkpoint guard decide to hold him for questioning or block his way. "It avoids problems," said Ali, commander of the National Security Forces of the Palestinian Authority.

Another controversial housing project in East Jerusalem has received approval to break ground despite strong U.S. objections, officials said Wednesday. The 20-unit project, funded by U.S. businessman Irving Moskowitz, cleared its chief planning hurdles in July but received the final go-ahead March 18, when the developer paid project fees to the city, officials said. Some speculated that the timing of the fee payment and the subsequent announcement -- which occurred Tuesday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to meet President Obama at the White House -- seemed designed to exploit recent U.S.-Israeli tensions over Jewish expansion in East Jerusalem.