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Inside the Middle East
December 17, 2012
Posted: 618 GMT

A look back at the highlights of 2012 covered on Inside the Middle East.

Want to see more?  Follow the show on Facebook for all the latest from 'Inside the Middle East.'

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Filed under: Abu Dhabi •Algeria •Bahrain •Culture •Dubai •Egypt •Inside The Middle East •Iran •Iraq •Israel •Jordan •Kuwait •Lebanon •Morocco •Oman •Saudi Arabia •Sports •Tunisia •Turkey •UAE •Women •Yemen


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May 10, 2012
Posted: 1103 GMT
Rima Maktabi with renowned Iraqi oud aficionado Naseer Shamma at his music school in Cairo.
Rima Maktabi with renowned Iraqi oud aficionado Naseer Shamma at his music school in Cairo.

Inside the Middle East team is in Cairo this week as the show celebrates its 100th episode with a special look at education, focusing on the ways Egypt, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates are developing their future generation of leaders.

Check out these behind-the-scenes photos on our Facebook page.

From Egypt's bustling capital, Cairo, to the coastal city of Alexandria, Rima Maktabi meets several young Egyptians who explain the challenges of studying – or simply learning how to read – in a nation currently undergoing a rocky transition to democracy.

The program then travels to Beirut, and learns why most Lebanese students are not taught some of the basic history of their nation's 15-year civil war.

In Cairo and Abu Dhabi we meet up with the world famous Iraqi musician Naseer Shama, a man devoting his life to teaching young people the history and melodies of the oud, a traditional Middle Eastern guitar heard in most songs across the region.

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Filed under: Egypt •Iraq •Lebanon •UAE


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January 21, 2011
Posted: 916 GMT

Here are the latest images from yesterday's bloodshed in Iraq where at least 32 people were killed and 150 others were wounded in two explosions targeting Shiite pilgrims in Karbala, about 60 miles (100 km) south of Baghdad. The attack in Karbala came as tens of thousands of Shiite pilgrims are making their way to the city for Arbaeen, a religious observation. It follows 40 days of mourning for Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed who was felled in a 7th century battle in the Iraqi city. It was the latest of several terrorist attacks across Iraq this week that have killed at least 118 people and wounded 450 others.

PHOTO: MOHAMMED SAWAF/AFP/Getty Images. Members of Iraq's security forces gather on the site of an explosion in Karbala on Thursday as a spate of attacks across Iraq killed dozens, most of them in twin suicide car bombings in the holy city of Karbala.
PHOTO: MOHAMMED SAWAF/AFP/Getty Images. Members of Iraq's security forces gather on the site of an explosion in Karbala on Thursday as a spate of attacks across Iraq killed dozens, most of them in twin suicide car bombings in the holy city of Karbala.
PHOTO: MOHAMMED SAWAF/AFP/Getty Images. Iraqi paramedics wheel an injured man into Karbala hospital emergency room after the deadly bombing in Karbala.
PHOTO: MOHAMMED SAWAF/AFP/Getty Images. Iraqi paramedics wheel an injured man into Karbala hospital emergency room after the deadly bombing in Karbala.
PHOTO: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images. Iraqi security forces stand guard Thursday as pilgrims walk on a main highway linking Baghdad to the shrine city of Karbala.
PHOTO: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images. Iraqi security forces stand guard Thursday as pilgrims walk on a main highway linking Baghdad to the shrine city of Karbala.

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Filed under: Iraq


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January 2, 2011
Posted: 1033 GMT

Some Christians in Iraq's capital were considering leaving, following a wave of bombings targeting members of their religion that left two dead and 16 others wounded.

Explosives were left outside and in the gardens of 14 homes in Baghdad..
Explosives were left outside and in the gardens of 14 homes in Baghdad..

"I am 60 years old and I gave a lot to this country, but this tough situation is like a message asking me to leave my country," said Kiyour Kizarab, the male head of a Christian family whose house was targeted Thursday in central Baghdad. "If these attacks will continue, and the government can't stop them, then I don't think we will have a future here."

The strikes appeared to be coordinated because they all took place within an hour, an Interior Ministry official said. Explosives were left outside and in the gardens of 14 homes in six neighborhoods across Iraq's sprawling capital.

Among the homes targeted by improvised explosive devices was one Muslim dwelling that was picked because it had a Christmas tree inside, the male head of the family, Ibrahim Sharba, told CNN. Read more...

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Filed under: Christianity •Iraq •Religion


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December 6, 2010
Posted: 918 GMT

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Filed under: Iraq •Video


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November 30, 2010
Posted: 942 GMT
Passengers wait at ticket counter at Baghdad International Airport (Getty Images )
Passengers wait at ticket counter at Baghdad International Airport (Getty Images )

It’s really impressive to look up at the flight board at Baghdad International Airport these days – Abu Dhabi, Amman, Beirut, Istanbul, Cairo, Tehran are a few of the available daily trips.

I remember the days when commercial flights were limited to the one or two Royal Jordanian ones that were usually overbooked and getting out on one of those was always an “inshalla” – “God willing” scenario.

I also remember the days when you would glance around the airport and your average passenger would be the tattooed private security guy , the journalist, or the Iraqi member of parliament who would spend more time in Amman than in Baghdad.

Today, it was a handful of the usual suspects and a different crowd -  mostly Iraqi refugees, families who have packed their lives into one suitcase per person and set off on their journey to new homes.

As I queued up to get a coffee, a young Iraqi man approached me – I had met him a few years ago through work, he is now a refugee.

He asked me if I was going to the US – he was, along with his family.

Where are you going I asked – “Indiana” he said with a bit of a confused look, like he was not sure if I had heard of it. I told him I had visited Indiana a few years ago; “is it nice?” he asked.. I said yes, but very cold in the winter, we both laughed– Iraqis are more immune to the scorching heat of their country, not the harsh winters of the Midwest.

Why are you leaving I asked – he smiled and said “why would I stay? ...What should I stay for?” a familiar answer I have been hearing a lot lately from Iraqi colleagues, friends and people we meet—it’s also an answer that says it all and there was no reason to follow-up on that... I wished him luck as he walked away.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Filed under: Christianity •Iraq •Islam


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November 29, 2010
Posted: 1055 GMT
WikiLeaks document: Saudi King Abdullah told an Iranian official: 'You as Persians have no business meddling in Arab matters.'
WikiLeaks document: Saudi King Abdullah told an Iranian official: 'You as Persians have no business meddling in Arab matters.'

By Tim Lister, CNN

(CNN) - U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by the website WikiLeaks and published by newspapers in the United States and Europe on Sunday reveal considerable anxiety among the Gulf states about Iran's nuclear program, with the Bahrain's king warning, "The danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it."

The cables, many marked "Secret," were among several hundred thousand obtained by WikiLeaks and published by newspapers Sunday.

They reveal great concern among Arab states about Iran's regional ambitions. One cable describes a meeting between Saudi King Abdullah and White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan and other U.S. officials in March 2009.

According to the cable, the king told the Americans what he had just told the Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki. "You as Persians have no business meddling in Arab matters," the Saudi monarch was quoted as telling Mottaki. "Iran's goal is to cause problems," he told Brennan. "There is no doubt something unstable about them." Read full story...

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Filed under: Bahrain •Egypt •Iran •Iraq •Oman •Saudi Arabia •U.K. •U.S.


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November 10, 2010
Posted: 717 GMT
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November 1, 2010
Posted: 1655 GMT
Mourners outside the Sayidat al-Nejat Church in Baghdad.(Mohammed Tawfeeq/CNN)
Mourners outside the Sayidat al-Nejat Church in Baghdad.(Mohammed Tawfeeq/CNN)

As the sun set over Baghdad, shocked onlookers stood by, watching a truck laden with debris drive away from the Our Lady of Salvation Catholic church.
 
Silvana Maro stood outside her home near the church, eyes filled with tears, in such shock she could hardly speak. She was a survivor, now plagued by the vivid memory of what she had lived through.
 
Mass was in process when the attackers stormed in.
 
“There was gunfire, grenades.  Shrapnel was flying from all sides.  We scattered and threw ourselves to the ground, we didn’t know what would happen to us” She whispered softly, choking on her words.
 
“They said if anyone lifts their head we will shoot.  My cousin moved slightly.  They shot him, his brains exploded all over”.
 
Anna Hannow held her aunt’s bloodied purse, the stench of death still fresh.  Her aunt was eighty years old.
 
“They shot her in the face, there was nothing left of her face” She told us.
 
As the sun set a coffin was carried in.  A woman sobbed, comforted in vain by another onlooker. Iraqi forces kept the media and bystanders away.
 
There was a time when Christianity and Islam co-existed peacefully in Iraq, but the Christian community here has not been spared the ravages of the country's sectarian warfare.  Over the years their numbers have dwindled with more choosing to leave every week.

For some staying is the only option.  Others choose to do so out of conviction, refusing to allow violence and threats to drive them from the country they call home.
 
The attack on Sunday was the first of its kind.  According to the a senior official with the Ministry of Interior, the insurgents first targeted the Baghdad Stock Exchange and blew up two car bombs as a diversion, to draw in the Iraqi unit manning the checkpoints close to the church.
 
As mass was in full progress – with some 120 worshippers – the attackers, some wearing suicide vests, stormed the building and wreaked carnage. Dozens were killed.
 
The Islamic state of Iraq, an umbrella organization that includes al Qaeda claimed responsibility. Their demand was the release of prisoners in Iraq and Egypt.  Their statement said the hostage taking was a direct warning to the Egyptian Coptic Church, a response to the case of two Egyptian women allegedly abducted by the Coptic Church after they converted to Islam.
 
A young man who survived said “They brought us the real Halloween”.
 
The faces of those we met reflected the extent of the horror their words could not express.

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Filed under: Christianity •Iraq


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October 23, 2010
Posted: 1528 GMT

London, England (CNN) - Classified military documents published on the WikiLeaks site increase the civilian death toll of the Iraq war by 15,000, anti-war activists said at a news conference Saturday.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spoke at a press conference in London Saturday
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spoke at a press conference in London Saturday

"We have seen that there are approximately 15,000 never previously documented or known cases of civilians who have been killed by violence in Iraq," WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange said.

Those cases raise the civilian death toll in Iraq to 122,000, said Iraq Body Count, an-anti-war group.

Assange and others appeared at a news conference on Saturday in London, England, to discuss the release of nearly 400,000 classified military documents from the Iraq war by his whistle-blower website WikiLeaks.

Assange said the massive leak aims to reveal hidden truths about the Iraq war.

"The attack on the truth by war begins long before war starts and continues long after a war ends," Assange said.

"In our release of these 400,000 documents about the Iraq war, the intimate detail of that war from the U.S. perspective, we hope to correct some of that attack on the truth that occurred before the war, during the war and which has continued on since the war officially concluded."

CNN was offered access to the documents in advance of the release but declined because of conditions that were attached to accepting the material. The New York Times and The Guardian, the British newspaper, were among a handful of organizations provided early access to the papers. Read full story

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Filed under: Human Rights •Iraq •U.S.


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