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	<title>World &#187; Aryn Baker &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>World &#187; Aryn Baker &#124; TIME.com</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com</link>
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		<title>Exclusive: &#8216;We Will Slaughter All of Them.&#8217; The Rebel Behind the Syrian Atrocity Video</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/05/14/we-will-slaughter-all-of-them-an-interview-with-the-man-behind-the-syrian-atrocity-video/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/05/14/we-will-slaughter-all-of-them-an-interview-with-the-man-behind-the-syrian-atrocity-video/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 12:54:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker / Beirut</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=86465</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[News sites around the world have shown Khalid al-Hamad sink his teeth into what appears to be the lung of a dead Syrian government soldier. His fellow rebels have called for him to be arrested or killed for the act. Human-rights groups have condemned him. But al-Hamad has no regrets. In an interview conducted via Skype in the early hours of May 14, al-Hamad explained to TIME what caused him to cut out the soldier’s organs: “We opened his cell phone, and I found a clip of a woman and her two daughters fully naked and he was humiliating them, and sticking a stick here and there.” (MORE: Syria’s Lurking Terror: A History of Sarin Gas) The video, a 27-second clip in which al-Hamad brandishes organs that appear to be the lungs and heart of the Syrian soldier who lies dead at al-Hamad&#8217;s feet, was first seen by two TIME reporters in April. A few weeks later, TIME obtained a copy. Though we had been told by witnesses to the filming that the video was legitimate, we set about authenticating its content, aware of the potential that it could have been faked for propaganda purposes. Al-Hamad has now confirmed that the video is real, and that he did indeed take a bite of the soldier’s lung. (At the time of filming, al-Hamad believed he was biting into the liver. A surgeon who has seen the video confirms that the organ in question was a lung, which somewhat resembles the liver). On May 12, a copy of the video appeared on a proregime website, sparking a flood of Facebook Shares and YouTube views. Al-Hamad, who is Sunni and harbors a sectarian hatred for Alawite Muslims, said he has another gruesome video of his killing a government soldier from the Alawite faith. (Syrian President Bashar Assad is Alawite; the conflict in Syria is increasingly sectarian.) “Hopefully we will slaughter all of them [Alawites]. I have another video clip that I will send to them. In the clip, I am sawing another shabiha [progovernment<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=86465&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Syria</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/middle-east/syria/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/battalion6.jpeg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">From left: Khalid al Hamad.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">arynbaker</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Savage Online Videos Fuel Syria&#8217;s Descent Into Madness</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/05/12/atrocities-will-be-televised-they-syrian-war-takes-a-turn-for-the-worse/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/05/12/atrocities-will-be-televised-they-syrian-war-takes-a-turn-for-the-worse/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 12 May 2013 21:09:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[assad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[syria conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syrian civil war]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[videos]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=86108</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The video starts out like so many of the dozens coming out of the war in Syria every day, with the camera hovering over the body of a dead Syrian soldier. But the next frame makes it clear why this video, smuggled out of the city of Homs and into Lebanon with a rebel fighter, and obtained by TIME in April, is particularly shocking. In the video a man who is believed to be a rebel commander named Khalid al-Hamad, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, bends over the government soldier, knife in hand. With his right hand he moves what appears to be the dead man&#8217;s heart onto a flat piece of wood or metal lying across the body. With his left hand he pulls what appears to be a lung across the open cavity in the man&#8217;s chest. According to two of Abu Sakkar&#8217;s fellow rebels, who said they were present at the scene, Abu Sakkar had cut the organs out of the man&#8217;s body. The man believed to be Abu Sakkar then works his knife through the flesh of the dead man&#8217;s torso before he stands to face the camera, holding an organ in each hand. “I swear we will eat from your hearts and livers, you dogs of Bashar,” he says, referring to supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Off camera, a small crowd can be heard calling out “Allahu akbar” — God is great. Then the man raises one of the bloodied organs to his lips and starts to tear off a chunk with his teeth. Two TIME reporters first saw the video in April in the presence of several of Abu Sakkar&#8217;s fighters and supporters, including his brother. They all said the video was authentic. We later obtained a copy. Since then TIME has been trying to ensure that the footage is not digitally manipulated in any way — a faked film like this would be powerful propaganda for the regime, which portrays the rebels as terrorists — and, as yet, TIME has<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=86108&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Syria</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/middle-east/syria/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/polaris04410484.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">A rebel FSA fighter fires at enemy positions of Assad Forces as skirmishes break out on the front line in Bustan Al Qasr frontline in Aleppo, Syria, April 9, 2013.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">arynbaker</media:title>
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		<title>Mali&#8217;s Legendary Musicians Struggle to Be Heard in the Shadow of War</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/05/08/the-day-the-music-died-malis-musicians-still-struggle-to-be-heard/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/05/08/the-day-the-music-died-malis-musicians-still-struggle-to-be-heard/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 May 2013 06:00:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker / Gao, Mali</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Al-Qaeda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mali]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ali Farka Touré]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mali]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Salif Keita]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Super Onze]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yehia Mballa Samake]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=84904</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Before the coup d’état that overthrew an elected government, before the French-led war to oust Islamist rebels who had taken over much of the country, Mali was perhaps best known internationally for something else: its music. Mali’s was a culture recorded in rhythm, a history recounted in rhyme. No wedding was complete without a band; for that matter, neither was a Friday night. Mali may have been poor, but music was its best-known product. Damon Albarn, lead singer of the British band Blur, fell so in love with the music he recorded an album in 2002 called Mali Music with leading Malian musicians. Ali Farka Touré, chosen as one of Rolling Stone magazine&#8217;s top 100 guitarists of all time, was Mali’s ambassador to the world. His Grammy Award–wining 1994 album Talking Timbuktu reminded America of the debt its own great musical tradition owed to the country. The mournful narratives of the American blues can be traced back through the history of slavery to the banks of the Niger River, where traditional griots, or bards, still sing as if ancient history were but a few days old. The three-string n’goni, predecessor of the modern guitar, is still their instrument of choice. In Mali, a patchwork nation of disparate cultures and ethnic groups, music is the social glue, uniting in melody what it divides in styles, from Touré’s desert laments to Salif Keita’s catchy southern Afro-pop. Nowhere was that more clear than in the northern city of Gao, a multiethnic confederation of nomadic Tuaregs, entrepreneurial Arabs, cattle-herding Fulani and farming Songhai. “Music is the blood of Gao, it’s what keeps our heart beating,” says Yehia Mballa Samake, the lead n’goni player of Super Onze, one of Gao’s best-known musical groups. But Gao’s beating musical heart has been stilled for over a year, silenced by the arrival of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist rebels who swept through Mali’s northern states in April 2012. Commanders in the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO by its French acronym) immediately implemented an extreme interpretation of<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=84904&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mali</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/africa/mali-africa/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/160502731.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Salif Keita And Bwani Junction Perform At Celtic Connections Festival 2013</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">arynbaker</media:title>
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		<title>As Mali Wars With Islamists, a Mormon Runs for President</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/05/02/a-mormon-president-in-mali-an-unusual-candidate-steps-up-in-bamako/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/05/02/a-mormon-president-in-mali-an-unusual-candidate-steps-up-in-bamako/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2013 21:06:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker / Bamako</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mali]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bamako]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[elections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[France]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gao]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mali]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[samake]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=84782</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When Niankoro Yeah Samake lands in Mali on Friday, following a successful California fundraising campaign, to register as a candidate in the country’s upcoming presidential elections, he will be carrying a lot of baggage. There will be the requisite suitcase stuffed with gifts from the U.S. for his family back home. He will have a sizable check from an American hair-products magnate to help fund his campaign. And he will have his well-thumbed copy of the Book of Mormon, scripture that has been a constant source of strength since he converted more than a decade ago. He is likely to need it. Aside from his wife and children, Samake is Mali’s only Mormon. He’s not even sure which will be more difficult: running as a Mormon in a country that is 95% Muslim, or being President of a nation so weakened by corruption that the past 14 months have seen the government felled by a coup and two-thirds of its territory overrun by Islamist militants. “I am not running for President because of my faith, but my faith will help me be President,” he says, via Skype on a layover in Paris. (PHOTOS: France&#8217;s War in Mali) It’s hard to understand why a man like Samake, a social entrepreneur well on his way to achieving American citizenship, who has spent most of the past 13 years in Utah running a successful charity, would even want such a job. Were it not for a French-led intervention earlier this year, Islamists would still control some half of the country. The security situation in the northern territory is grim: the undeveloped and ungoverned Saharan expanses have become ground zero for terrorism expansion in Africa, a malevolent node where al-Qaeda-affiliated groups collude with drug-trafficking mafias, gun runners and kidnappers-for-ransom. Mali, once a model for democracy in West Africa, has become a watchword for abysmal, corrupt governance. “The government failed the people, so the people turned to the religious groups that filled the gaps,” Samake says, referring to the success of Islamist militias that, for a time, occupied some<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=84782&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mali</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/africa/mali-africa/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/519413076.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">MALI CONFLICT</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">arynbaker</media:title>
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		<title>No Exit: Syria&#8217;s War Through the Eyes of a Fighter on Both Sides</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/04/22/no-exit-syrias-war-through-the-eyes-of-a-fighter-on-both-sides/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/04/22/no-exit-syrias-war-through-the-eyes-of-a-fighter-on-both-sides/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:30:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Al-Qaeda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terrorism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=82633</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When Siraj heard the news earlier this month that al-Qaeda had embraced Jabhat al-Nusra, a jihadist group recognized in Syria for its discipline and fighting prowess, but deemed a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. As someone who had fought on both sides of the war, first as a reluctant conscript for the Syrian government, then as a high-ranking defector with the Free Syrian Army, he appreciated Jabhat al-Nusra’s deadly strength. At one point he even flirted with joining them, beguiled by their toughness and single-minded dedication to the cause. Al-Qaeda’s support and expertise will be a boon for the rebels, who appear to be locked in a stalemate, says Siraj, but he is starting to wonder if the price of winning might mean the end of Syria. “Nusra has a different plan for Syria. For them, success means a forever revolution. How will it finish? When everyone dies.” The Syrian war, now in its third year, has lapsed into a brutal impasse. More than 70,000 have died according to a U.N. count. An epidemic of rape, torture and extrajudicial killings has destroyed untold lives and implicates both sides. Meanwhile, scores of cities and neighborhoods have been crushed by an onslaught of bombs and rockets. More than a million refugees have fled the country, and international aid organizations estimate that more than 4 million Syrians have been displaced within the country. All the while, the international community is at loggerheads over how to end the conflict, torn between a desire to stop the bloodshed and fears over what may follow the ousting of Syrian President Bashar Assad. (MORE: U.N. Agencies Issue Unprecedented Plea for Syria) Rebel fighter Siraj, who only uses one name to protect his family still in Damascus, understands that reluctance. Something has happened over the course of the war that corrupted even the most upright of leaders, he says. Once he defected from the Syrian Army in early 2012, he quickly climbed the ranks of a well-regarded rebel brigade<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=82633&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Syria</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/middle-east/syria/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/1500_int_syria_b_0421.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">People stand at a damaged building in Al-Sukkari neighborhood, by what activists said was a result of an airstrike by the Syrian Regime, in Aleppo April 7, 2013.</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">arynbaker</media:title>
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		<title>Why Reports of Chemical Weapons Attacks in Syria May Never Be Confirmed</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/04/12/syrias-chemical-weapons-attack-still-waiting-for-the-truth/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/04/12/syrias-chemical-weapons-attack-still-waiting-for-the-truth/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Apr 2013 20:41:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[arab uprisings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aleppo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bashar Assad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chemical weapons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Damascus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[homs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UN]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=81403</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Updated April 13, 2013 One witness said he smelled chlorine. Another remembered the scent of rotting garbage. There were photos of dead farm animals in a yard, and video footage of survivors struggling to breathe. But of the 31 casualties of what the Syrian government has labeled the opposition’s first chemical weapons attack, on March 19, there is no list of names of the deceased and no footage of coffins that can be directly attributed to the incident. Immediately following the alleged attack, the Syrian government demanded an international investigation, and the U.N. Security Council obliged, scrambling a team with the assistance of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Nearly a month after the attack, that team is twiddling its thumbs in Cyprus, waiting for a green light to enter Syria even as the evidence, whatever is left of it, evaporates into thin air. (MORE: The mystery behind a chemical weapons attack in Syria.) Discussions on the proposed investigation between the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the U.N. remain deadlocked. The Syrian government requested only an inquest into the one attack on a pro-regime village just outside of Aleppo last month. The rebels, too, want an investigation. They hold that they were framed by the government, and believe that an international investigation will exonerate them. But they have also raised the issue of two other alleged chemical weapons attacks, one in Damascus in March and another in Homs in December. Both the rebels and the regime have traded accusations over all three events. The U.N., responding to pressure from France and the U.K., insists that the investigators have access to all three sites, something the Syrian government is refusing to grant upfront. According to Reuters, an April 6 letter from Syria’s foreign minister to the UN.. said that access to Homs would be granted only after the investigators went to Aleppo, and then only once the mission’s “honesty and neutrality and the credibility of its work away from politicization” was ascertained. The U.N. is unlikely<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=81403&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Syria</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/middle-east/syria/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/int-syria-chemical-130412.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Animal carcasses lie on the ground, killed by what residents said was a chemical weapon attack on Tuesday, in Khan al-Assal area near Aleppo</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">arynbaker</media:title>
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		<title>Lebanon&#8217;s Sects Game: The Problem With Its Byzantine Political System</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/04/09/lebanons-sects-game-the-problem-with-its-byzantine-political-system/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/04/09/lebanons-sects-game-the-problem-with-its-byzantine-political-system/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:16:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker / Beirut</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hizballah]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lebanon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Minorities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[druze]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hizballah]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lebanon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[maronites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[najib mikati]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[orthodox christians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[parliament]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sects]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shitte]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sunni]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tammam salam]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=80115</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What is the worth of religion? In Lebanon, it is everything and nothing at all. The country has 18 constitutionally recognized sects, and those sects dictate marriage, divorce, inheritance, political position and votes. Yet sect is mutable. It doesn’t necessarily reflect spiritual belief, or any belief at all. And the right to change sect is enshrined in the constitution. Catholic and want a divorce? Convert to Islam. Don’t like Sunni Islam’s inheritance laws? Become a Shi‘ite. Just don’t choose &#8220;none of the above.&#8221; That threatens a political system so deeply intertwined with religion that agnosticism becomes an existential threat. Like an injection of steroids that initially revived Lebanon after a debilitating civil war, continued use of religion in politics has rendered the country’s government bloated, impotent and subject to unexpected eruptions of rage. Nowhere is that more apparent than over the current debacle that has deprived Lebanon of a government just two months shy of parliamentary elections. After two tension-filled weeks, Lebanon’s fractious political parties have agreed upon a new Prime Minister to replace Najib Mikati, who abruptly resigned in protest on March 22 over parliament’s inability to agree on a new law to govern the upcoming elections. Incoming Prime Minister Tammam Salam, a former minister from a prominent Sunni Muslim political dynasty, has to form a Cabinet, implement — if one can be agreed upon — the new election law and open parliamentary polling by June 9. At which point he will be out of office. (MORE: Lebanon’s Bad Habit: Staring Into the Abyss Too Often) Unless the current law is amended, the next parliament is likely to look like this one — leading to a carefully calibrated balance of opposing parties that maintains political stability at the risk of getting absolutely nothing done. But if the electoral law changes to reflect another political consensus, it could have knock-on effects not only for the balance of power in parliament, but on whom parliament elects as President next year. If, for example, the Hizballah-aligned bloc loses its standing in parliament and in the Cabinet,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=80115&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Lebanon</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/middle-east/lebanon-middle-east/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/165829718.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Lebanon&#039;s newly named Prime Minister Tammam Salam arrives for an interview following his official appointment at his home in the Lebanese capital Beirut, April 6, 2013.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">arynbaker</media:title>
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		<title>Will Syria&#8217;s Refugee Crisis Drain Jordan of Its Water?</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/04/04/how-syrias-refugee-crisis-is-draining-jordans-scarce-water-supply/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/04/04/how-syrias-refugee-crisis-is-draining-jordans-scarce-water-supply/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Apr 2013 06:30:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Water]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=79550</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Updated: April 6, 2013 Now that spring has arrived in the Middle East, Syria’s estimated 1.2 million refugees in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan can hope for relief from the snow, the rain and the bitterly cold nights of winter. But that relief will be as short-lived as the region’s balmy weather. Summer is fast on its way, and in Jordan in particular, life for Syrian refugees, and the border communities that support them, is about to get a lot worse. Jordan is one of the most water-stressed countries in the world, subject to an ongoing drought that has devastated agricultural prospects in the country’s northern areas for nearly a decade. The large and rapid influx of Syrian refugees into the border cities of Ramtha and Mafraq, home to the Za’atari refugee camp, has strained water supplies to the breaking point — for two weeks in February, parts of Mafraq town had no water whatsoever. Summer’s soaring temperatures will put additional demands on a poor region that can hardly support its own population, let alone the surge of new refugees that are expected as the war in Syria grinds on. When the peaceful Syrian uprising evolved into a bloody conflict nearly two years ago, residents of Mafraq welcomed refugees fleeing the violence. That hospitality is starting to wane. Competition between Syrian refugees and local residents over limited resources, from water to electricity, food, schooling, housing and health care could boil over, potentially causing unrest in one of the few stable countries left in the Middle East. “As temperatures rise, so too will tensions,” says Nigel Pont, Middle East Regional Director for Mercy Corps, an international development agency actively involved with the Syrian crisis. Resentment among the Jordanians is palpable, he adds, and could easily escalate into violence if the underlying issues are not addressed. (PHOTOS: The Women Warriors of the Free Syrian Army) Some 3,000 Syrians are crossing the Jordanian border every day, and aid agencies working with the 363,000 refugees already in the country anticipate that at this rate they<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=79550&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Syria</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/middle-east/syria/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/int-syria-jordan-0403.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Syrian refugees go about their daily business in the Zaatari refugee camp in Za&#039;atari, Jordan, Feb. 1, 2013.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">arynbaker</media:title>
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		<title>Syria&#8217;s Civil War: The Mystery Behind a Deadly Chemical Attack</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/04/01/syrias-civil-war-the-mystery-behind-a-deadly-chemical-attack/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/04/01/syrias-civil-war-the-mystery-behind-a-deadly-chemical-attack/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Apr 2013 09:45:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terrorism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=78774</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Reports on bombings in Syria these days have become routine. But when Mohammad Sabbagh, an industrialist from Aleppo, heard about the attack near his hometown on March 19, the details stopped him cold. Survivors and witnesses of what was being described by the government news agency as a chemical attack said they smelled something like chlorine. And as the owner of Syria’s only chlorine-gas manufacturing plant, Sabbagh knew that if chlorine was involved, it most likely came from his factory. The attack killed 31 people, including 10 soldiers, and wounded scores more. In the immediate aftermath, the Syrian government and the opposition traded accusations. The government claimed that “terrorists,” its term for the rebels that have been fighting the regime for two years, had fired a “missile containing a chemical substance” at the village of Khan al-Asal in retaliation for their support of the government. Kasem Saad Eddine, spokesperson for the opposition military council of Aleppo, accused the government of attacking its own people in order to smear the opposition. “The regime is trying to hide its crime by accusing the FSA,” he tells TIME, referring to the Free Syrian Army, the loose confederation of rebel groups fighting the government. Eddine also accused the Syrian government of launching a second chemical attack near Damascus, causing an unspecified number of casualties. Whatever the case, the attack at Khan al-Asal marks a chilling evolution in a war that has already taken 70,000 lives and disrupted, perhaps permanently, millions more. If it turns out that the government has used chemical weapons, international demands for armed intervention will increase. If the rebels used them, the escalation in tactics indicates that the war is about to become even bloodier. (MORE: Viewpoint: Aleppo Gas Attack Shows How Little We Know About Syria&#8217;s Civil War) The U.N. has acquiesced to a Syrian government request to send an investigation team to Khan al-Asal; it is expected to arrive on site this week. The team will be headed by Ake Sellstrom, a veteran chemical-weapons inspector from Sweden who was instrumental in investigating<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=78774&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Syria</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/middle-east/syria/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/syria_chemical_attack_0401.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Syria Chemical Attack</media:title>
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		<title>In Saudi Arabia, Women&#8217;s Voices Are Starting to Be Heard</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/03/27/in-saudi-arabia-womens-voices-are-starting-to-be-heard/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/03/27/in-saudi-arabia-womens-voices-are-starting-to-be-heard/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 27 Mar 2013 21:51:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Saudi Arabia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=78349</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Updated: April 1, 2013 Saudi Arabian television news anchors aren’t supposed to smile too broadly. After all, the news is serious business in this country. But when presenter Fouz Auwadh al-Khmali delivered the morning news for the state-run Al Akbaria channel on Jan. 11, she couldn’t stop grinning. On that day, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah announced that for the first time the names of the women he would appoint to the country’s consultative Shura Council, the closest thing the country has to a parliament. On air, al-Khmali read the names of the 30 women who would make history in the historically male-dominated kingdom. From that day forward a full 20% of the Shura would be represented by women. Little more than a month later, al-Khmali announced that the women had been sworn in, and would soon take their places at the country’s helm. “This is the beginning of a new era for Saudi women,” al-Khmali said backstage one recent morning as she prepared to go on air. “It’s about time women have a say — we are 50% of Saudi society, you know.” From the outside, progress on women’s rights in the kingdom may appear to be mired in tar. After all, women are still not allowed to drive, they can’t get a job or take a loan without the permission of a male family member, and their designated male guardians, usually a husband or a father, are notified via SMS every time they leave the kingdom. But from the perspective of women inside the country, dizzying changes are afoot. For the first time, female athletes represented Saudi Arabia at the Olympics last year in London. An employment ban has been lifted for female cashiers at supermarkets, and women have taken the place of men in lingerie and cosmetic stores across the country. And in Riyadh on March 26, Cabinet ministers issued a new law making national identification cards mandatory for all women, granting them identities independent from their families and paving the way toward lifting the onerous guardianship system that treats<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=78349&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Saudi Arabia</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/middle-east/saudi-arabia/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/saudi055.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Fouz Auwadh al-Khmali</media:title>
		</media:content>

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		<title>Saudi Arabia to Tourists: We Are Just Not That Into You</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/03/22/saudi-arabia-to-tourists-we-are-just-not-that-into-you/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/03/22/saudi-arabia-to-tourists-we-are-just-not-that-into-you/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:30:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Saudi Arabia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=75414</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Draped in a long black abaya, French tourist Virginie de Tinguy gingerly picks her way up a majestic stone staircase, careful to lift the heavy folds of fabric out of the way of her feet, lest she stumble on steps made smooth by centuries of use. The perilous climb to the top of a 13th century citadel is rewarded with a breathtaking view. Below her sprawls the ancient walled city of Al Ula, a labyrinthine warren of stone houses built so closely together that the second-floor balconies practically kiss, casting the alleys below into perpetual shade. Gray-green date-palm orchards lap at the city walls; beyond them a jagged red rock massif looms, tinting the horizon a dusty rose. “This is exceptional,” de Tinguy utters in rapturous French to her husband. “I never would have guessed there were places so beautiful in Saudi Arabia.” As if on cue, the call to prayer curls through the deserted alleys, beckoning long-departed residents to the recently restored 630-year-old mosque nearby. All that’s missing from this 1,001 Nights tableau is a flying carpet or a mustachioed genie. Not 20 minutes away by car, another extraordinary scene can be found: the carved stone tombs of the 1st century Nabataean trading center, Mada’in Saleh, now classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site — Saudi Arabia’s first. In between Al Ula and Mada’in Saleh lies a vast gathering of surreal rock formations, magenta and gold spires and tortured, wind-carved sandstone escarpments rising out of the dunes. It’s as if the Parthenon, the Grand Canyon and Colorado’s Garden of the Gods were all crammed together in an area not much larger than Manhattan. If it were anywhere else in the world, the sites would be crammed with camera-toting tourists. Instead, de Tinguy and her husband have the entire place to themselves, alone with their voluble and informed Saudi guide, who is in the process of explaining the mechanics of a primitive sundial that alerted local farmers when it was time to plant crops. “I could just spend days exploring this place,” says<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=75414&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://world.time.com/2013/03/22/saudi-arabia-to-tourists-we-are-just-not-that-into-you/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Saudi Arabia</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/middle-east/saudi-arabia/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/atourism019-copy.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Saudi Arabia Tourism</media:title>
		</media:content>

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		<title>The Art of War: Syria&#8217;s Artists Find Pain and Fame on the Front Lines</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/02/13/the-art-of-war-syrias-artists-find-pain-and-fame-on-the-frontlines/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/02/13/the-art-of-war-syrias-artists-find-pain-and-fame-on-the-frontlines/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:45:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[arab uprisings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dictatorships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=68675</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss projected onto a bullet-pocked wall in Damascus. Goya’s iconic execution squad from Third of May 1808 superimposed onto a bombed-out alley. Matisse’s nudes from The Dance skipping over rubble. When digitally manipulated photos by Syrian artist Tammam Azzam went viral last week the images were both familiar and shocking. For a world grown deaf to the Syrian war’s endless bombardment of horrors, the juxtaposition of high art and human depravity introduces a new voice to the conflict that is neither regime spokesman&#8217;s nor opposition warrior&#8217;s, but that of the Syrian artist. As both sides in the conflict gird for what is expected to be a pivotal battle for the capital, Damascus, in the coming weeks, Syrian artists are attracting attention in the international art world, sought out for their visual commentary on the conflict just as exile from their homeland propels them into view. “There has been an increased level of interest in art coming out of Syria,” says Khaled Samawi, whose Ayyam Gallery represents Middle Eastern artists in London, Beirut and Dubai. “The attention on Tammam Azzam is a perfect example of how the current difficulties in Syria are giving greater exposure to Syrian artists, especially those who are making work about the effect that the regime is having on the country.” The uprising, he adds, has sparked considerable interest by international museums in the work of several of the gallery’s Syrian artists, including Azzam, who had his first solo show in Dubai in December. (PHOTOS: Syria Under Siege: Photographs by Alessio Romenzi) The artists themselves may feel conflicted about the opportunities that war has brought them, but for Samawi, it is recognition long overdue. Seven years ago the successful Geneva-based banker returned to his native Damascus, just as economic and social reforms put in place by President Bashar Assad were starting to take root. An urban consumer class was growing in tandem with newly developed private banks, businesses and a stock exchange, and Samawi saw an opportunity in the country’s well regarded but poorly marketed contemporary-arts<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=68675&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Syria</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/middle-east/syria/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/tammam-azzam-freedom-graffiti-150x150cm-archival-print-2012-edition-of-5-courtesy-of-the-artist-and-ayyam-gallery.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Tammam Azzam Freedom Graffiti, 150x150cm, Archival Print, 2012, Edition of 5, Courtesy of the artist and Ayyam Gallery</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">arynbaker</media:title>
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		<title>Why the Syrian Rebels May Be Guilty of War Crimes</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2012/09/19/why-the-syrian-rebels-may-also-be-guilty-of-war-crimes/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2012/09/19/why-the-syrian-rebels-may-also-be-guilty-of-war-crimes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Sep 2012 07:03:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dictatorships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Geo-politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Human rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Military]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.N.]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=45710</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For weeks, politicians in European capitals and in the U.S. have debated how, and if, they should assist Syrian rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar Assad. The mounting civilian toll — more than 23,000 dead and more than a million displaced, according to the U.N. — has led many to argue that inaction is tantamount to genocide. But the Assad regime, despite the grotesque atrocities it has committed in the past year, isn&#8217;t responsible for all the brutality. A new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report sheds new light. The report, released Monday, details incidents of torture, illegal detention and extrajudicial killings committed by the antigovernment militias loosely organized under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Some could be potentially considered war crimes. “Torture and extrajudicial or summary executions of detainees in the context of an armed conflict are war crimes, and may constitute crimes against humanity if they are widespread and systematic,” asserts the report&#8217;s summary. (MORE: Syria&#8217;s Secular and Islamist Rebels: Who Are the Saudis and the Qataris Arming?) Of course, the reports’ findings — a dozen cases of extrajudicial killings and summary executions along with six confirmed cases of torture and scores of illegal detentions — pale in comparison to the well-documented “gross violations of human rights” committed by the Syrian regime, according to a recently released U.N. report. Still, the rebels have a greater responsibility to uphold the very rights they claim to be fighting for, says Nadim Houry, HRW’s deputy Middle East director. “Time and again Syria’s opposition has told us that it is fighting against the government because of its abhorrent human-rights violations. Now is the time for the opposition to show that they really mean what they say.” When confronted with evidence of extrajudicial executions, three opposition leaders told HRW that those who were killed deserved to be killed, and that only the worst criminals were being executed. Furthermore, other opposition leaders said they did not consider the practice of falaqa, beating the soles of the feet, to be torture “because it did<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=45710&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Syria</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/middle-east/syria/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/int_syria_human_rights_0918.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">A Syrian man carries his wounded daughter outside a hospital in the northern city of Aleppo on September 18, 2012.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">arynbaker</media:title>
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		<title>A Journalist Behind Bars: The Dangers of Reporting in Lebanon</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2012/09/15/a-journalist-behind-bars-the-dangers-of-reporting-in-lebanon/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2012/09/15/a-journalist-behind-bars-the-dangers-of-reporting-in-lebanon/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 15 Sep 2012 09:32:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[arrested]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[beirut]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fixer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freedom of the press]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hezbollah]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[journalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lebanon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rami Aysha]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rami Aysha arrested]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=45193</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the littler known aspects of the work of foreign correspondents is how much we rely on the help of our local colleagues and translators. In Western journalistic slang they are often called &#8220;fixers&#8221;&#8211;as they are far more than that. They translate both language and culture and they are repositories of vital information—everything from an essential phone number to insider knowledge of how to navigate arcane government procedures. They are our eyes and ears in places we can’t reach, and in many cases serve as valuable sounding boards for developing story ideas. Oftentimes they provide the kernel to our full-blown scoops and exposes, gleaned from contacts and street gossip that we would never otherwise hear. But that ground-level work can be perilous. Rami Aysha, a well-known Lebanese-Palestinian reporter who has done this valuable work for several major foreign news organizations in Lebanon, including Time, was picked up two weeks ago while reporting a story in Beirut’s Hizballah-controlled southern suburbs. Hizballah agents stopped Aysha, who was traveling in a car with two other men, at gunpoint. The three men were badly beaten, and Aysha’s video camera was destroyed. The three men were then turned over to Lebanon’s military police, who continued to beat them, according to accounts from Aysha’s lawyer. (PHOTOS: Lebanon in Crisis) According to the lawyer, Aysha’s case was heard by a military judge who refused to release him on bail, even though charges have yet to be brought. On September 12, Aysha was transferred to Quba Prison in the northern city of Tripoli, far from his wife and daughter, where he is only allowed limited contact with his family. “He is terrified,” says his brother, Ramzi Aysha. “He is surrounded by criminals, yet he was doing nothing but journalism.” According to a report  by Hizballah&#8217;s Al-Manar TV, Aysha was arrested along with an army lieutenant identified as Wissam Abd al-Khalik and a third person identified as the officer&#8217;s cousin. The report acknowledged that Aysha was a journalist investigating a potential story. On Thursday a military judge said<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=45193&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Middle East</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/middle-east/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/rami-aysha.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Rami Aysha</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">arynbaker</media:title>
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		<title>Syria&#8217;s Looted Past: How Ancient Artifacts Are Being Traded for Guns</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2012/09/12/syrias-looted-past-how-ancient-artifacts-are-being-traded-for-guns/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2012/09/12/syrias-looted-past-how-ancient-artifacts-are-being-traded-for-guns/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:00:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker / Majdal Anjar, Lebanon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[arab uprisings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Borders]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Crime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=44384</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Abu Khaled knows the worth of things. As a small-time smuggler living along the porous border between Syria and Lebanon, he has dabbled in antiquities as much as the cigarettes, stolen goods and weapons that make up the bulk of his trade. So when a smuggler from Syria brought him a small, alabaster statue of a seated man a few weeks ago, he figured that the carving, most likely looted from one of Syria’s two dozen heritage museums or one of its hundreds of archaeological sites, could be worth a couple thousand dollars in Lebanon’s antiquities black market. So he called his contacts in Beirut. But instead of asking for cash, he asked for something even more valuable: weapons. (MORE: Treasure hunt—the quest for Afghan antiquities.) “War is good for us,” he says of the community of smugglers that regularly transit the nearby border. “We buy antiquities cheap, and then sell weapons expensively.” That business, he says, is about to get better. Fighters allied with the Free Syrian Army units battling the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad have told him that they are developing an association of diggers dedicated to finding antiquities in order to fund the revolution. “The rebels need weapons, and antiquities are an easy way to buy them,” says Abu Khaled, who goes by his nickname in order to protect his identity. Criminal activity thrives in chaos, and the theft of antiquities for a rapacious international black market is no exception. Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan have all fallen victim to looters during previous wars, and Libya and Egypt, rich in archaeological sites, witnessed several attempts at looting during their more recent uprisings. In the case of Syria, however, the full-blown civil war may do more harm than simply the plundering of its culture. The burgeoning market for this ancient land&#8217;s priceless treasures could actually prolong and intensify the conflict, providing a ready supply of goods to be traded for weapons. Furthermore, the ongoing devastation inflicted on the country’s stunning archaeological sites—bullet holes lodged in walls of<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=44384&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Middle East</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/middle-east/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/citadel-outer-gate.jpeg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Aleppo Citadel&#039;s outer gate</media:title>
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		<title>How a Ban on Polio Vaccination in Parts of Pakistan Puts the Entire World at Risk</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2012/07/15/how-a-ban-on-polio-vaccination-in-parts-of-pakistan-puts-the-entire-world-at-risk/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2012/07/15/how-a-ban-on-polio-vaccination-in-parts-of-pakistan-puts-the-entire-world-at-risk/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 15 Jul 2012 20:45:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Af-Pak]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Humanitarian aid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taliban]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=35666</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When thousands of public-health workers fan out across Pakistan today in the first day of a three-day campaign to vaccinate the country’s children against polio, an estimated 250,000 won’t be receiving the potentially lifesaving dose, the social-affairs secretary for Pakistan&#8217;s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Aftab Akbar Durrani, told VOA&#8217;s Urdu Service yesterday. Last month, militant leaders in two of the most lawless districts of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) declared that the vaccination teams would not be allowed to conduct their campaign, declaring that the locally run program was merely a ruse to allow American spies to penetrate the region. “In the garb of these vaccination campaigns, the U.S. and its allies are running their spying networks in FATA, which has brought death and destruction on them in the form of drone strikes,” wrote Mullah Nazir, one of South Waziristan’s major militant commanders, in a pamphlet that was widely distributed on June 25. His screed echoed that of a commander in North Waziristan, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, whose own pamphlet from a week earlier was even more direct: &#8220;We don&#8217;t want benefits from well-wishers who spend billions to save children from polio, which can affect one or two out of hundreds of thousands, while on the other hand the same well-wisher (America) with the help of its slave (Pakistan&#8217;s government) kills hundreds of innocent tribesmen including old women and children by unleashing numerous drone attacks.&#8221; The ban on vaccinations, he continued, would not be lifted until the drone strikes stop. Both Nazir and Bahadur reiterated to TIME through a special correspondent in Peshawar yesterday that they would not reconsider the ban on vaccination teams, citing the ongoing drone campaign in the country&#8217;s tribal regions. (MORE: The Taliban Halts Polio Vaccines — and Pakistan’s Kids Will Pay) As my colleague Jeffrey Kluger wrote in the wake of the first pamphlet, Using children as medical poker chips is indefensible under any circumstances, but the Pakistanis do have other reasons to be suspicious of Westerners bearing vaccines. In the months leading up to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=35666&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Pakistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/pakistan/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/148272004.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">The Battle To Eradicate Polio In Pakistan</media:title>
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		<title>The Taliban Execution: What Happens When a Nation Fails</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2012/07/09/the-taliban-execution-what-happens-when-a-nation-fails/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2012/07/09/the-taliban-execution-what-happens-when-a-nation-fails/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:03:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taliban]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[aid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[corruption]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[donors]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hamid Karzai]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[parwan province]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reuters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[taliban execution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[women]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=34776</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Three shots ring out in close succession, and the woman’s shawl-shrouded body slumps to the ground. Whoops, cheers and praise to Allah follow another four shots into her inert form. The latest video footage to come out of Afghanistan purports to show the execution of an allegedly adulterous woman at the hands of the Taliban. The video, filmed last month on a mobile phone and obtained by Reuters, is shocking. But even more atrocious is the fact that such incidents are on the rise in Afghanistan, from Taliban executions to gruesome punishments like cutting off noses and ears, whippings and the forced amputations of hands for accusations of theft. The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission notes that cases of extreme violence against women are on the rise — some are Taliban-inflicted, but many are simply eruptions of ancient forms of tribal justice unchecked by Afghan society and the government. The Taliban, after all, based their extreme edicts not just on a fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law but also on tribal traditions that predate Islam. This latest video, as many have pointed out, supposedly presages the fate of Afghanistan’s women when foreign troops pull out over the next 2½ years. But the fact that such punishments continue to be meted out even with some 100,000 foreign troops still on the ground in Afghanistan is an indication that when it comes to women’s rights at least, the 11-year experiment in nation building has come to very little. And that has less to do with the commitment to women than with the weak support for education across the board. Sure, more than 3 million Afghan girls are in school today, more than ever before in the history of Afghanistan, up from nearly zero in 2000. But few of those girls go on to secondary school, and those who do are usually in the urban areas. Rural Afghanistan, as evinced by the video, has changed little. That execution took place in Shinwari district, about an hour&#8217;s drive from the paved roads and glass-fronted office blocks of Kabul, but centuries<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=34776&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Viewpoint</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/viewpoint/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/world_afghanistan_execution.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Men watch as an alleged member of the Taliban fires his rifle at a woman accused of adultery in this still image taken from undated footage released July 7, 2012.</media:title>
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		<title>Saudi Arabia&#8217;s Heir to the Throne: Meet Crown Prince Salman</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2012/06/18/saudi-arabias-heir-to-the-throne-meet-crown-prince-salman/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2012/06/18/saudi-arabias-heir-to-the-throne-meet-crown-prince-salman/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Jun 2012 18:57:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saudi Arabia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[abdullah bin saud]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crown prince]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[monarchy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Royals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[salman]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=31359</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced on Monday that Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud would be the new heir to the throne, after the sudden death of previous crown prince Nayef on Saturday. Prince Salman’s elevation to the next in line to the throne was not entirely unexpected — as a well-respected Minister of Defense and half brother to the current King, he was one of the top choices — but as the dust settles over this latest transition, Saudis and Saudi watchers alike will be fervently hoping that this time the new crown prince will stick around long enough to make it to the throne. Salman, who is 75, is the third prince to be appointed heir to King Abdullah, 87, since he came to power in 2005. Saudi Arabia, already threatened with fallout from the Arab Spring lapping at its authoritarian shores, can little afford the instability that interrupted lines of succession might bring. And as long as the rest of the world depends on Saudi oil, few nations will want to see anything but a steady hand at its helm. Salman, who has no known health issues beyond a bad back, is likely to be that reassuring presence, especially with King Abdullah’s inevitable decline into very old age. “A Saudi crown prince has more power and influence than an American Vice President,” says historian Robert Lacey, author of two books on the Saudi royal family. “And if the king is incapacitated, the channels of power run through the crown prince.” Salman is known as a decisive leader, hardworking and punctual — local taxi lore has it that when he was mayor of Riyadh, you could set your watch to his daily 8 a.m. motor cavalcade to the office. As the family disciplinarian who maintains a private jail for errant princes and spendthrift princesses who neglect to pay their bills, he is seen as just, incorruptible and pragmatic. He will safeguard the family’s interest, not in terms of material wealth but in terms of maintaining the supremacy of the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=31359&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Saudi Arabia</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/middle-east/saudi-arabia/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/int_saudi_0619_001.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Saudi Prince Salman</media:title>
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		<title>A Death in The Family. Saudi Arabia&#8217;s Succession Saga</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2012/06/16/a-death-in-the-family-saudi-arabias-succession-saga/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2012/06/16/a-death-in-the-family-saudi-arabias-succession-saga/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 16 Jun 2012 12:59:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Democracy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saudi Arabia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crown prince]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[heir]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nayef]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=31045</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As Saudi Arabia mourns the death of Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, heir to the throne, there are likely to be as many gasps of apprehension as secret sighs of relief. It’s still not clear where Nayef, 78, was at the time of his death. Late last month he left Saudi for routine medical tests and a holiday at an unknown destination. Government officials, who said he was in good health as recently as June 3, had expected him back in the country “soon.” The death of Nayef, who was also deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, comes just eight months after the death of his brother and former Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, who was 86. Nayef’s appointment as crown prince last year was controversial in some circles, particularly among a younger generation of would-be leaders who perceived him to be more socially conservative and less reform minded than his brother the king. There were fears that if he were to take the throne he might overturn some of the King’s reforms, such as the promise that women would be able to vote, and run, for the first time in 2015’s local council elections. (OBITUARY: Crown Prince Nayef Has Died) But the death of a second heir to the throne in less than eight months threatens to upset the kingdom’s fragile stability. King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, who, at 87, has outlasted two heirs, will have some difficult decisions to make in the coming days as he presides over the appointment of the next crown prince. King Abdullah’s third brother, former governor of Riyadh and current defense minister Prince Salman, 75 is a likely choice, though the king’s half brother and Foreign Intelligence Chief Prince Muqrim, at a relatively sprightly 68, is also a contender. With most of those directly in line to the throne hobbling about with canes, hip replacements or in wheel chairs, one could be forgiven for thinking of Saudi palaces as particularly well-appointed old age homes. The next few decades<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=31045&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Saudi Arabia</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/middle-east/saudi-arabia/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/600_2012-06-16t110828z_74864758.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Nayef</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">arynbaker</media:title>
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		<title>The Murky Past of the Pakistani Doctor Who Helped the CIA</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2012/06/13/the-murky-past-of-the-pakistani-doctor-who-helped-the-cia/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2012/06/13/the-murky-past-of-the-pakistani-doctor-who-helped-the-cia/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Jun 2012 16:30:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Aryn Baker</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Af-Pak]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bin Laden]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Geo-political tensions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terrorism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[abbotabad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bara]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CIA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[doctor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[khyber agency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Osama bin Laden]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shakil afridi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=30227</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN For more than a year Pakistan and the United States have found little they can agree upon. From the efficacy of drones and NATO supply routes to who, exactly, is to blame for a cross border NATO attack from Afghanistan that ended with 24 Pakistani soldiers dead last November, each side is convinced its view is the correct one. The story of Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani doctor credited with helping track down Osama bin Laden, is no exception. Heralded in the United States as a hero, he has been lambasted at home, where his service to a foreign intelligence agency—no matter the end result—has been denounced as treasonous. But while policy makers on both sides of the divide debate Afridi’s fate—he has been sentenced to 33 years in jail on unrelated terror charges that many assume to be trumped up—longstanding and horrific accusations of grievous malpractice, sexual harassment, fraud and theft cast dark shadows on his record. Afridi’s murky past, as revealed by former colleagues, poses the question: is a hero born of circumstance, or is he built over a lifetime of choices?  “As far as I am concerned, getting rid of bin Laden was a service to mankind,” says Tariq Hayat, who supervised the district where Afridi worked up until 2008.  “But it doesn’t make up for everything else [Afridi] did wrong.” (READ: Is the doctor who helped get bin Laden now in danger?) After finishing medical school, Afridi moved into Pakistan’s public health sector, where he worked his way up to supervisory positions in regional government-run hospitals in what was then called the North West Frontier Province (now known as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa). Government health work, while poorly paid, is a sought after job in Pakistan as it comes with a pension and near-guarantee of lifetime employment. As a sprawling bureaucracy with limited oversight, it also offers plenty of opportunities for graft. The temptation was simply too much, says a former colleague who worked with Afridi in a regional hospital, who asked not to be identified for fear<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=30227&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Pakistan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/pakistan/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/int_pakistan_0612.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi talks with people in Pakistan</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">arynbaker</media:title>
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