Paul Woodward Archive
Showing 1 - 10 articles of 326
Jan 31, 2010
News that Mahmoud al Mabhouh, a leading member of Hamas's military wing, the Ezzedine al Qassam Brigades, was murdered in Dubai 11 days ago, has quickly prompted speculation that Israel was behind the killing. Hamas's political leader, Khalid Meshaal said: "You may kill us, you may hurt us, but we're going to kill your claimed legitimacy and we will tear the false image you've painted in recent decades." Read Article Murder in Dubai
Jan 29, 2010
If humanitarian relief work was an Olympic event, Israel deserves a gold medal - at least that seemed to be the opinion of many Israeli commentators in the days after Haiti's catastrophic earthquake in which more than 200,000 Haitians died. After 12 days the Israeli field hospital wound up its operations and headed for home having declared its mission accomplished. Read Article Week in review: Israel and Haiti
Jan 27, 2010
In an apparent effort to direct attention away from the content of the Goldstone report which studied the conduct of the Israeli Defence Forces and Hamas in the war on Gaza a year ago, the Israeli government has described the report as anti-Semitic. The UN Relief and Works Agency reports that the houses of 325,000 people were destroyed or damaged during the war. Read Article Israel's war against Goldstone
Jan 26, 2010
Within hours of a visit by the US vice president Joe Biden, Baghdad was struck by multiple bombings in the latest major attacks as parliamentary elections approach. The attacks on Monday in which at least 36 people were killed and 71 were wounded, targeted the Ishtar Sheraton, Babylon and al-Hamra hotels, popular with both visiting businessmen and, in the case of the Sheraton and al-Hamra, journalists. Read Article Bombings rock Baghdad in the run-up to elections
Jan 25, 2010
As humanitarian aid is starting to flow, many earthquake survivors, still in desperate need, have yet to receive assistance, yet those that can are helping themselves in self-initiated camps housing 450,000 people. The official death toll from the earthquake in Haiti is now more than 150,000 and that only counts the number of bodies recovered. "Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble - 200,000? 300,000? Who knows the overall death toll?" a minister said. Read Article Desperate Haitians help themselves
Jan 24, 2010
Having chided his predecessor George W Bush for neglecting to seriously address the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the current US president has little to show for his efforts after one year in office, having made the issue one of his top foreign policy priorities. This week the Obama administration's Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell visited the region once again yet made little progress in getting peace talks restarted. Read Article Obama's stalled Middle East peace process
Jan 22, 2010
A little more than a week after Haiti was struck by a catastrophic 7.0 earthquake, the shattered nation was hit again early on Wednesday morning by a powerful aftershock with a magnitude of 6.1. Collectively stoical, survivors speak calmly of their losses. 'It is how they try to support each other, not to cry,' an interpreter said. Read Article Week in review: Haiti's struggle
Jan 21, 2010
On multiple fronts, Israeli authorities are curtailing the rights and freedoms of those perceived as critical of the state, be they journalists, human rights activists, or foreign nationals working for international nongovernmental organisations operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. On Wednesday, Jared Malsin, an American journalist working for a Palestinian news agency was deported from Tel Aviv, after being detained for eight days upon returning from a holiday in Prague. Read Article Israel constrains foreign nationals in the occupied territories
Jan 20, 2010
A United Nations report finds that in equal proportions bribery and the opium trade amount to half of Afghanistan's gross domestic product. In 2009, Afghan citizens had to pay US$ 2.5 billion in bribes. After questioning 7,600 people, the UN report found that nearly 60 per cent of those surveyed were more concerned about corruption than they were about security or unemployment. Read Article Drugs and bribery - the engines of the Afghan economy
Jan 19, 2010
As Dr Aafia Siddiqui goes on trial in a federal court in New York City her case is unknown to most Americans yet in her native Pakistan the frail neuroscientist, mother of three and reputed al Qa'eda associate, has become a cause célèbre. Last week Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said his government had engaged lawyers to defend her in the court. Read Article Dr Aafia Siddiqui goes on trial
