By Cam McGrath

Demonstrators in Cairo hold up used tear gas shells. / Cam McGrath/IPS.

CAIRO, Dec 18 (IPS) – Activists across the Middle East are reporting a mysterious toxin, possibly a banned nerve agent, in the thick clouds of tear gas used by security forces to suppress anti-government protests in recent months.

"I felt weak and [...]

By Karlos Zurutuza

The scars of war in Tripoli's Abu Salim district. / Karlos Zurutuza/IPS.

TRIPOLI, Dec 13 (IPS) – "They would call you a Gaddafist if you drove one of those 4 X 4 cars," says Bashar, emerging from one of those traffic jams in Tripoli. "Today almost every rebel commander has one."

Since the city [...]

By Cam McGrath
CAIRO, Dec 3 (IPS) – Islamists appear poised for a landslide victory in the first round of Egypt's parliamentary elections, putting them on track to secure a majority in the country's first parliament since the fall of president Hosni Mubarak.

Preliminary results leaked on Friday indicate that Islamist parties took at least 65 percent [...]

By Correspondents* – IPS/Al Jazeera
DOHA, Nov 24 (IPS) – Egypt's ruling military council has reportedly asked a former prime minister, Kamal al-Ganzouri, to form a new cabinet. But there are no signs of a let-up in the anti-military demonstrations.

Ganzouri headed the government from 1996 to 1999, under the deposed president, Hosni Mubarak (1981-2011).
The state newspaper [...]

By Julio Godoy
BERLIN, Nov 17 (IPS) – Solar thermal power plants are indispensable to meet Europe’s energy demands and to reduce greenhouse gases emissions substantially, according to a new study by a European scientific commission.

The report by the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) says solar thermal power plants can play a central role in [...]

By Karlos Zurutuza

A woman from Tawargha protests at Tripoli's Martyrs Square. / Karlos Zurutuza/IPS.

TRIPOLI, Nov 5 (IPS) – "We’ve walked all the way here to tell everybody that we are being treated like dogs," said 23-year old Hamuda Bubakar, among a couple of hundred black refugees protesting at Martyrs Square in Tripoli. "I’d rather [...]

By Karlos Zurutuza

Receptionist Habib Dwek at his hotel. / Karlos Zurutuza/IPS.

TRIPOLI, Nov 1 (IPS) – "A crossroads of history, continents and ancient empires; a place where history comes alive through the extraordinary monuments on its shores", reads a well- known tourist guidebook about Libya. It’s all still there, but the tourists aren’t there to [...]

By Karlos Zurutuza

Khaled Abdullah next to the hole in the wall of his home in Bani Walid, the last stronghold of the Gaddafi regime. / Karlos Zurutuza/IPS

BANI WALID, Libya, Oct 31 (IPS) – Suleyman and Rasool have come to the University of Bani Walid, in western Libya. If they are lucky they might [...]

By Correspondents* – IPS/Al Jazeera
DOHA, Oct 20 (IPS) – Muammar Gaddafi has been killed after National Transitional Council fighters overran loyalist defences in Sirte, the toppled Libyan leader's hometown and final stronghold.

"We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Muammar Gaddafi has been killed," Mahmoud Jibril, the de facto Libyan prime minister, [...]

By Correspondents * – IPS/Al Jazeera
DOHA, Oct 13 (IPS) – Libya's governing National Transitional Council (NTC) is holding about 2,500 detainees in the capital Tripoli alone, many of whom have been beaten and subjected to other ill-treatment and not given access to lawyers or judicial proceedings, says London-based human-rights watchdog Amnesty International.

Prisoners interviewed by the [...]

By Saaleha Bamjee

PAP member Chief Fortune Charumbira headed a fact-finding delegation to the Libyan capital Tripoli. / Saaleha Bamjee/IPS

MIDRAND, South Africa, Oct 12 (IPS) – The African Union must take the lead in helping Libya achieve peace by ensuring the formation of a unity government between pro-Muammar Gaddafi forces and the National Transitional [...]

By Saaleha Bamjee
MIDRAND, South Africa, Oct 7 (IPS) – A firm call for African Union member states to impose sanctions against Morocco until it abides by the United Nations mandate that affirms the people of Western Sahara's right to self-determination was made at the Pan African Parliament proceedings.

The Pan African Parliament (PAP), the legislative organ [...]

By Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON, Sep 21 (IPS) – As Somalia undergoes its worst famine in six decades and Yemen slides into civil war, the administration of President Barack Obama is expanding its network of bases to carry out drone strikes against suspected terrorists in both countries, according to reports published in two major U.S. newspapers Thursday.

Based [...]

By Correspondents* – IPS/Al Jazeera
DOHA, Aug 23 (IPS) – Rebels have entered the fortified compound of Muammar Gaddafi in Bab al-Azizya in Tripoli, following intense fighting with forces loyal to the Libyan leader.

The rebels "broke through the gates of Bab al-Aiziya [and] some opposition fighters managed to enter the government's stronghold in the Libyan capital," [...]

By Abderrahim El Ouali
CASABLANCA, Jul 29 (IPS) – Despite 12 years of reform, Morocco’s universities continue to fall short of expectations, with students complaining that the training they get does not meet the demands of the job market.

Professors in this North African country of 32 million people echoed their students’ grievances, adding that Moroccan universities [...]