IRAQ: The Brady Bunch they're not

Was it a family feud or a family murder?

Mystery still surrounds the reported massacre Nov. 25 of 11 members of an Iraqi journalist's family. Relatives who say they are among those claimed dead swear they are alive and well and that the journalist, Dhia Kawaz, invented the story in order to get money and sympathy from charity groups.

The sympathy part worked. Within hours of the reported killings, Reporters Without Borders and Iraqi media representatives were condemning what appeared to be another case of Iraqi journalists being targeted for their work.

Still, something seemed odd.

LEBANON: Lovin' a man in uniform

Is a solution for Lebanon's political crisis finally on the horizon? 

Today Lebanon's feuding political factions came closer to an agreement over electing the country's army commander as president, bringing hope for an end to a week-long presidential vacuum and an alleviation of political tension in the country.

Key opposition figures said that they supported the election of Gen. Michel Suleiman to Lebanon's top post, a day after members in the ruling majority announced their readiness to vote for the army chief and amend the constitution to that effect.

President Emile Lahoud stepped down last week, leaving the country in a fragile void after parliament failed to convene and elect his successor. Western-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government took over the president's powers. The opposition, supported by Iran and Syria, tacitly accepted the move but warned it regarded the government as illegitimate.

ISRAEL: The 'big one' that wasn't

As if people in this conflict-ridden region don’t have enough to be jittery about — an earthquake scare?

Thousands of Palestinians were evacuated from schools and offices today after rumors of an impending earthquake caused panic in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. According to one version of the rumor, a small tremor hit the area shortly before noon (untrue) and a potentially devastating aftershock was expected (also untrue, so far).

The source of the rumor remained as much of a mystery as the missing temblor. But as with almost every story here, the episode carried a political element.

One version held that Palestinian authorities had spread word of an impending quake in order to deter protesters in the West Bank town of Hebron, where police have clashed twice this week with demonstrators opposed to the Middle East peace conference in Annapolis. There was counter-speculation that Palestinian Authority officials were being blamed for the scare as a way to discredit them and the nascent peacemaking efforts.

The Israeli news website Ynet was reporting that the rumor took off after Palestinian education officials ordered schools to make earthquake-preparedness plans. It said word soon spread that the expected quake would measure 7 or higher on the Richter scale.

The Geophysical Institute of Israel, which monitors seismological activity, said the rumor was unfounded, and that officials don’t try to predict quakes.

Earthquakes, even big ones, have been known to hit here. At least two minor quakes could be felt in parts of Israel and the West Bank in recent weeks, renewing speculation that the region was due for a much bigger one sometime soon.

Meantime, we’ll try to stay focused on what’s happening on the ground, not under it.

— Ken Ellingwood in Jerusalem and Maher Abukhater in Ramallah, West Bank

EGYPT: Politicized faith

Egypt’s top Muslim religious leaders have recently elicited a huge uproar across the country by issuing fatwas and making statements that reinforced the common conception that they advance a version of Islam that suits the interests of the ruling regime.

Sexy models take Lebanon

In a high-end hotel in downtown Beirut, fearful of a new wave of assassinations, Lebanese lawmakers are holed up awaiting to complete a pivotal political mission, the election of a new president.

But many eyes in the Arab world these days are focused on another group confined to fancy digs. In an upscale villa atop a nearby mountain, a television show brings together the Arab world's hottest models and trendiest fashion designers to compete on a popular new reality television show called Mission Fashion.

IRAQ: Onward butter soldiers

Yes, you hear about strange things in Baghdad. Peruvian security guards singing Frank Sinatra in the Green Zone. A sheik who prided himself on being a dead ringer for Sean Connery.

Once a friend attended a Friday sermon in Baghdad, where the cleric told his congregation he had found proof of America's wickedness and started to recite a text that had been passed on to him. "Asia's crowded and Europe's too old. Africa is far too hot and Canada's too cold and South America stole our name. Let's drop the big one. There'll be no one left to blame us."

My friend thought he knew the words and then realized the preacher was reciting the 1970s song "Political Science" by Randy Newman.

But last week, I had my own encounter with the bizarre. On line for Thanksgiving dinner at a U.S. Army base, we passed ice sculptures of Babylonian winged lions. That was fine. I didn't even mind the little gingerbread houses decorated with candy canes and Oreos. It was the life-sized model of a soldier that freaked me out. Even the soldiers were disturbed.

It was sculpted from some fatty food product, either vanilla icing or butter. You had to touch it to find out. It was defintely butter. A six-foot tall butter soldier.

It stayed there for several days and didn't melt. I wondered who spent their time sculpting this thing. Was it some contracted food worker ordered by his KBR supervisor: "We need a six-foot butter soldier for Thanksgiving." Or maybe it was just a man who believed this was his way to pay tribute to his country. I just don't know.

— Ned Parker in Baghdad

Photo: Butter soldier will not melt in battle. Credit: Ned Parker

IRAN: Ahmadinejad the blogger

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has something in common with bloggers around the world: being overwhelmed by the demand for fresh content.

The president started a blog in 2006, vowing to spend 15 minutes a day communicating directly with people around the world. He has had 12 posts since then, starting with descriptions of his childhood as the son of a blacksmith who placed 132 out of 400,000 on the university admissions test despite a mid-exam nosebleed.

His protests against the shah did not distract from his studies, he said, and he rose to become a civil engineer, mayor, and in 2005, was elected president. He writes of the nature of bureaucracy, condemns the indignity of the United States' fingerprinting of foreigners, and prints the transcript of the 2006 meeting at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York when a Holocaust survivor presented himself as a living witness to the fact the Holocaust occurred.

The comments section is uncensored and erratic as any blog: "I think you are an evil leader," wrote Xochitl from the US.

"I think we need more leaders like you," wrote Ishu Shujau from the Maldives.

"Keep fighting bro," said Yuli Rani from Indonesia.

"Nice blog. You should be writing more often," said John Walker from Germany.

In an apparent response to Walker's comment, the president made his first post in eight months on Nov. 18th, apologizing for not writing.

"This doesn't mean that I have not been keeping my promise of spending fifteen minutes per week on it," he wrote. "As a matter of fact, I have spent more than the allocated time on the blog."

He had so many messages that he felt like he must personally respond to, he wrote, that only now does he feel caught up. He will continue to post and answer messages.

But he has one request for his loyal correspondents: "Make it as brief as you can."

— Maggie Farley at the United Nations

IRAQ: Honeymoon in Baghdad?

The car was festooned with flowers. The bride was resplendent in a puffy white gown. ‎And what a tall, strapping bride she was! A bit too tall for soldiers who stopped the ‎seemingly happy couple as they approached a military checkpoint north of Baghdad ‎on Sunday.

According to a statement from Iraq's Ministry of Defense, ‎Iraqi troops got suspicious when the car tried to pass through the checkpoint without ‎stopping. The occupants were ordered out of the vehicle, and a pat-down search ‎quickly revealed that this was no ordinary couple. Iraqi officials said the bride, groom ‎and two escorts actually were wanted men suspected of involvement in insurgent ‎activity. The ministry statement included photographs of the men, both before and ‎after the wedding.‎   

— Tina Susman in Baghdad

Photo: The blushing "bride"; Credit: Iraq Defense Ministry

IRAN: Fighting for human rights

Iran's Supreme Court today reopened the case of Zahreh Kazemi, the Canadian Iranian journalist who was allegedly beaten to death in 2003 while in a Tehran prison. Her mother tapped Iranian lawyer and Nobel Laureate Shireen Ebadi to pursue her case, which continues to strain relations between Tehran and Ottawa.

Ebadi lost the battle. Iranian authorities acquitted all those allegedly involved in her death.

On a trip to Iran early this year I spoke with Mohammed Hossein Aghassi, lawyer for Parnaz Azima, the Iranian American reporter who was charged with state security crimes during a visit to Tehran and later allowed to leave the country.

I expected a timid and discrete jurist who would refuse to let me use his name. Who knew that I would find Iran’s version of William Kunstler, the famous American civil rights lawyer who took up the case of the Black Panthers in the 1960s?

IRAQ: De-Baathification measure draws lawmakers' ire

Sunday’s session at the Iraqi Parliament resembled a typically rowdy gathering of the British Parliament during Question Time with the British Prime Minister, in which backbenchers (or members of the parliament who are not ministers) boisterously pepper the country’s leader with queries. The sessions usually become quite heated.

While Sunday's session was not targeted at the Iraqi Prime Minister, numerous “Right Honorable” Iraqi lawmakers descended into yelling and finger-pointing among themselves.

The issue at hand concerned reforms that would ease curbs on former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party rejoining Iraq's civil service and military.