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JERUSALEM -- Israel faced rising international pressure on Tuesday to ease its blockade of Gaza, as the United Nations Security Council called its approach to isolating the coastal strip ''not sustainable'' and pro-Palestinian groups planned fresh attempts to test the closing of sea lanes around the Hamas-controlled territory. A day after an Israel military raid on an international flotilla trying to breach the blockade left nine foreign activists dead, Egypt, an important partner for Israel in keeping tight control over the flow of goods into the territory, said it would open the land border with Gaza for humanitarian purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Iran told the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency on Monday that it would begin enriching its stockpile of uranium for use in a medical reactor, prompting officials from the United States, France and Russia to call for stronger sanctions against Tehran. Late Monday in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that it had received a letter from Iran declaring its intent to begin enriching uranium up to 20 percent. The agency's statement gave no date for starting the enrichment, though Tehran said that might come as early as Tuesday. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Iran's president ordered his atomic scientists on Sunday to begin enriching their stockpile of uranium in order to power a medical reactor, a move that accelerated Iran's brinkmanship over its nuclear program by moving the country closer to producing weapons-grade fuel. The order by the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was the latest in a series of contradictory signals from Iran about its intentions regarding the country's uranium stockpile, one of the most contentious issues between Tehran and the West, which suspects the country is seeking to build a nuclear weapon. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The direct confrontation over Iran's presidential election was effectively silenced Friday when the main opposition leader said he would seek permits for any future protests, an influential cleric suggested that leaders of the demonstrations could be executed, and the council responsible for validating the election repeated its declaration that there were no major irregularities. Rather than address the underlying issues that led to the most sustained, unexpected challenge to the leadership since the 1979 revolution, the government pressed its effort to recast the entire conflict not as an internal dispute that brought millions of Iranians into the streets, but as one between Iran and outside agents from Europe, the United States and even Saudi Arabia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On one level, President Obama's speech succeeded in reaching out to Muslims across the Middle East, winning widespread praise for his respectful approach, his quotations from the Koran and his forthright references to highly fraught political conflicts. But Mr. Obama's calibrated remarks also asked listeners in a region shaken by hatred to take two steps that have long been anathema: forgetting the past and understanding an opposing view. For a president who proclaimed a goal of asking people to listen to uncomfortable truths, it was clear that parts of his speech resonated deeply with his intended audience and others fell on deaf ears, in Israel as well as the Muslim world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Christians used to be a vital force in the Middle East. They dominated Lebanon and filled top jobs in the Palestinian movement. In Egypt, they were wealthy beyond their number. In Iraq, they packed the universities and professions. Across the region, their orientation was a vital link to the West, a counterpoint to prevailing trends. But as Pope Benedict XVI wends his way across the Holy Land this week, he is addressing a dwindling and threatened Christian population driven to emigration by political violence, lack of economic opportunity and the rise of radical Islam. A region that a century ago was 20 percent Christian is about 5 percent today and dropping. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As a candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton warned that Iran might be obliterated if it launched a nuclear attack on Israel and that Jerusalem should remain Israel's undivided capital. As a senator, she voted to label Iran's Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization and to approve President Bush's plan to go to war against Iraq. So while Mrs. Clinton's selection to be secretary of state is being scrutinized across the globe -- and generally welcomed -- the view in the Middle East is more complicated. The region expects prompt attention from the incoming administration, a notion that was reinforced when President-elect Barack Obama, in his statement selecting Mrs. Clinton on Monday, specified several crises on her agenda, including the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and the tensions over Iran's nuclear program. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers information on a two-day international conference meant for bringing stability to Iraq to be held in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt on May 3, 2007.

The article reports on the condemnation of U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Amman, Jordan in November 2006 to meet with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq.

The article reports on world reactions to the results of the November 2006 midterm elections in the U.S. Most of the responses echoed that the defeat of President George W. Bush's Republican Party was a protest to the U.S. Iraq policy. Jürgen Trittin, deputy leader of Germany's Green Party, described the defeat as the bill to the White House for disaster in Iraq. Giovanni Sartori, an Italian political analyst, said that defeat would affect America's aggression policy.

The article presents news briefs related to social and political issues across the world.

The article offers news briefs related to various political and social developments in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The article presents various news briefs related to world including Railway strike in France and genocide trial for Iraq gas in the Netherlands.