Middle East & Africa

From bullets to ballots

How Liberia and Sierra Leone ended their cycles of violence

The lessons two African countries offer on ending intractable conflicts

No miracles required

How to save the lives of 200,000 women a year

Maternal deaths are being prevented, but not quickly enough

Sudan’s agony

After six months of civil war, little remains of Khartoum

Sudan’s capital has become Africa’s Aleppo

Crisis in the Middle East

Joe Biden steers a risky course after a Gaza hospital blast

The president takes personal charge of diplomacy as he visits Tel Aviv

Uncomfortable numbers

Wartime leaders usually get a popularity bump. Israel’s hasn’t

Israelis overwhelmingly think Hamas’s attack represents a failure by their government

The Israel-Hamas war

Gaza’s evacuees are racing south with nowhere safe to go

100 tonnes of aid pile up as Egypt and Israel keep the border closed

Conflict in Gaza

Ehud Barak blames Binyamin Netanyahu for “the greatest failure in Israel’s history”

A former prime minister says “destroying Hamas” is unrealistic

Paralysis on the West Bank

Fear and anger rise on the West Bank

Hamas says it wants to trigger a Palestinian uprising

Will Hizbullah act?

Israel faces the danger of fighting on a second front

In Lebanon Hizbullah fighters talk up the odds of war

Forced to flee

As war looms Israel calls for 1.1m people to evacuate northern Gaza

America may want Egypt to take in large numbers of Palestinian refugees

Custom redesigned

Land reform in Africa is challenging the power of chiefs

Activists want to give communities more of a say

The reluctant litigant

The fallout from Mozambique’s debt scandal reaches a London court

But too much transparency makes the government nervous