MIDDLE EAST: Women's status up in Saudi Arabia, down in Syria, says study

The subject of women's rights in the Middle East is contentious. Sensational media coverage of honor killings and child brides equates religious conservatism with gender inequality, incensing Western feminists on the one hand and provoking regional backlashes on the other.

The reality is far more nuanced, according to the the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report released in late October by the World Economic Forum, which ranks countries based on women's economic participation, educational attainment, health and political empowerment.

In Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar -- socially conservative Persian Gulf countries that all rely on some form of Sharia Islamic law -- more women than men enroll in higher education, although they have yet to be fully incorporated into the workforce. 

Syria, on the other hand, which is ruled by a nominally secular regime, has slid in the rankings for the last three years. 

Iran scores low in the fields of economic, educational and health equality, but performs relatively well on political empowerment. 

Saudi Arabia and Egypt still hover near the bottom of the list, but have improved steadily since 2006. 

Yemen remained the lowest-ranked country in the world for the fourth year in a row.

UAE: Former Syrian spy sentenced to jail time, deportation

Abu Dhabi's supreme court sentenced former Syrian intelligence officer Mohammad Zuhair Siddiq to six months in jail and deportation for entering the United Arab Emirates on a fake Czech passport that Siddiq claims was given to him by French intelligence.

Siddiq, once a star witness in the international tribunal investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, is suspected of giving false information in an attempt to implicate Syria in the explosion that killed Hariri and 22 others in 2005. Since then, investigators for the tribunal have dismissed Siddiq's testimony, and warrants for his arrest have been issued by the Lebanese and Syrian governments.

Siddiq's lawyer, Fahd Al-Sabhan, indicated to local reporters that he will fight the deportation sentence if it means his client will be handed over to Syrian authorities, which would be tantamount to extradition.

SYRIA, ISRAEL: Facebook sparks new conflict over Golan Heights

Facebook users in the Golan Heights, which was captured from Syria by Israel in a 1967 war, now find themselves at the center of a new, virtual skirmish over the disputed territory.

Until recently, Facebook users in Golan towns were listed as living in Syria, prompting more than 2,600 Israelis to form a group called "Facebook, Golan residents live in Israel, not Syria." Now, users are allowed to choose whether their hometown is listed as part of Israel or Syria.

Honest Reporting, the Jerusalem-based organization behind the campaign, wrote on the group's page that "it is not for Facebook to decide the national origin of Golan residents."

Alex Morgalin, the creator of the group, wrote in an e-mail to The Times that the petition was not motivated by political considerations.

"We do not take a position on the future of the Golan," he wrote. "What we are concerned with is the present -- that people who identify as Israelis, living under Israeli law, were not allowed to identify themselves that way."

TURKEY, SYRIA: Nations sign historic accord, end visa requirements

Turkey continued its decade-old quest to expand its influence in the Middle East, announcing the end of visa restrictions for travel to Syria.  

The two nations' foreign ministers announced that Syrians could travel to Turkey without visas, and vice versa, as the countries' leaders held talks on Turkish-mediated efforts to ease tensions between Baghdad and Damascus and foster peace between Syria and Israel, according to the English-language Today's Zaman news website. 

The two countries also signed a cooperation deal similar to one Turkey penned with Iraq. For years Iranians and Turks have been able to cross their border without visas.

Though a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization which hosts a major United States military base, Turkey maintains strong diplomatic and economic relations with many of the Middle East's main players, including U.S. rivals Iran and Syria.

IRAQ: Baghdad warns neighbors, airs militants' confessions on TV

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has turned the heat up on his Arab neighbors after last month’s double bombings at the foreign and finance ministries, which killed about 100 people. Maliki and his government have repeatedly accused Syria of providing shelter to those behind the blasts. Syria has denied the charge, and some Iraqi politicians have raised serious questions about whether Syria or the Baath Party was involved.

Today, Maliki once more slammed his neighbors. “We will continue looking [for a way] to close all the gaps and the doors from which the killers can breathe again. We censure the others from our brothers, friends and the neighborly countries,” Maliki said on a visit to the southern city of Karbala. “They used to say that they are with us and they did stand with us in certain situations, but how can we describe the practice of embracing the killers. To where will they be exported [next] time, to Iraq again or to a different country? Can the evil be contained to one specific country?” 

Maliki has asked the U.N. Security Council to establish a formal investigation into the bombings. He has also accused Syrian intelligence agents of sitting in on a meeting in July of Baath Party officials and Islamic militants. The government sees it as the latest episode in which Syria has allegedly been complicit in the activities of anti-Iraq militants. Iraqi security officials confirmed today that they had sent additional security forces to reinforce the vast Syria-Iraq border. 

Since the bombings, the government has revived the practice of showing taped confessions from alleged militants. Two confessions have been shown on state television and a third was aired at a news conference. The first confession was of an Iraqi arrested for the Aug. 19 attack, who blamed Baath Party leaders in Syria for planning the attack. The other confessions have shown foreign fighters recounting their alleged travels through Syria. There is no way to verify whether the taped remarks were genuine or staged.  But they mark a concerted effort to blame Syria in part for recent security breaches.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the state channel broadcast the purported confessions of an alleged fighter from Yemen named Mohammed Oud.

The following are excerpts from the broadcast:

SYRIA: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez slams Israel during Damascus visit

The notoriously fiery Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took on Israel on Thursday during a joint press conference in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar Assad, calling the Jewish state "genocidal," "anti-peace" and accusing it of implementing "America's imperialist policies."

Chavez, a vocal leftist, went on to praise the Syrian people as the "architects and designers of the resistance," condemning American and European hegemony and the "unipolar" world order, according to the official Syrian news agency, SANA.

The Venezuelan president is currently on an 11-day international tour, including stops in Libya, Algeria, Iran, Belarus and Russia.

IRAQ: Baghdad-Damascus feud heats up again after bombings

Iraq and Syria continued to spar verbally after the Aug. 19 bombings at Baghdad’s finance and foreign ministries that killed about 100 people and prompted accusations from the Iraqi government that Damascus was harboring the masterminds of the attacks. 

Iraq has charged Syria with sheltering leaders from late dictator Saddam Hussein’s Baath party and with allowing other militants to operate inside its borders. The government broadcast footage a week ago of a suspected militant captured after the attacks who described receiving orders from Iraqi Baathists in Syria. 

Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, shuttled between Baghdad and Damascus on Monday in an effort to contain the dispute between the two countries, who only renewed diplomatic relations three years ago.  

MIDDLE EAST: Daily headlines from Gaza, Israel, Iran in your mailbox

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LEBANON: Report linking Hezbollah to Hariri assassination raises questions

In a bombshell report published Saturday, the German weekly Der Spiegel says the investigation into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is moving toward the conclusion that the Shiite militia Hezbollah was behind the attack.

Based entirely on an unnamed source or sources, the Spiegel report said Lebanese investigators monitoring cellphone usage in the vicinity of the car-bomb explosion that killed Hariri lucked into a breakthrough discovery.

According to the report, the cellphones were used exclusively for phone calls among the alleged assassins except for one instance when one of the suspects used a phone to call his girlfriend. 

From that single call, investigators figured out the name of the  operative. Allegedly, he was Abdul Majid Ghamlush, described as an Iranian-trained agent who belongs to a "special forces" unit of Hezbollah, according to the report, which then goes on to link him to higher-ups in Hezbollah, including a commander named Hajj Salim. 

SYRIA, LEBANON: Nests of spies uncovered in the Middle East

Alleged spy Roxana Saberi has been released from an Iranian prison, but intrigue continues to plague the region with Syria confirming the arrest of two British citizens on terrorism charges and Lebanon reeling from the discovery of an Israeli spy network.

The 36-year old mother of four, Maryam Kallis, and 28-year-old Yasser Ahmed were arrested eight weeks ago by Syrian plainclothes intelligence officers, according to their families. On Sunday, the Syrian embassy in London confirmed the arrests (in Arabic), accusing the two Britons of working with a terrorist group connected to Al Qaeda.

“The Syrian Authorities arrested Mrs. Kallis and Mr. Ahmed in Damascus on the 17 March 2009, and the interrogations indicated that both Ms. Kallis and Mr. Ahmed are working for a terrorist network related to the Al Qaeda organization and other members of the network were also arrested by the Syrian Authorities,” read a statement released by the embassy.