Lebanon declared the Nahr Al-Bared Camp fighting over, but renewed fighting, a bomb attack on UN troops and an army shoot-out with militants heralded a protracted battle, Lucy Fielder reports

Hesham Youssef, senior Arab League official and envoy to Lebanon, tells Dina Ezzat that the Arabs are not giving up on Lebanese reconciliation

The first round of direct talks in seven years between Morocco and the Frente Polisario holds positive prospects, Khaled Dawoud reports from Manhasset, New York

Good-bye Hamas, hello Al-Qaeda, despairs Saleh Al-Naami

Israel continues to nurture the quisling Palestinian government with a carrot in one hand and a big stick in the other, reports Khaled Amayreh in East Jerusalem

It takes more than complaints for the Arabs to curb the Iranian influence in the region. Rasha Saad and Doaa El-Bey report

Amidst political infighting, a shocking new scandal involving Iraq's most vulnerable group, children, continues to blight Iraq's political scene, reports Nermeen Al-Mufti from Baghdad

Realising justice for the Kurds, including compensation from the international community for having supplied the Iraqi regime with chemical weapons, continues to be an uphill battle, reports James Martin from Halabja

As the war against insurgents gets deadlier and political reconciliation stalls, Washington's surge strategy seems to be crumbling, writes Salah Hemeid