Egypt

Israel’s operation against Gaza is nothing but brutal and indiscriminate collective punishment against the Palestinians and is deplorable. The pictures we see in the press of celebrating Israelis as bombs fall on the people of Gaza are reminiscent of another era when the Jews were on the receiving end, but this appears lost on Israelis today.

The Turkish government and Palestinian authorities are in talks for providing humanitarian aid to Gaza Strip as Israeli jets continue to pound the enclave.

Global food prices will likely decline in the upcoming few years before stabilizing as farmers boost production at a faster rate than demand rises, the OECD and United Nations have said The outlook for world food inflation looks lower and more stable as agricultural commodity prices settle over the next decade following years of volatility, the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organisation

Israeli warplanes kept up deadly raids on Gaza July 11 but failed to stop Palestinian militants firing rockets across the border, as the United States offered to help negotiate a truce.

With the violence growing worse, U.S. President Barack Obama in a phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government was willing to broker a ceasefire.

Egypt opened its Rafah border crossing to Gaza on Thursday to receive wounded Palestinians as Israel pounded the enclave with air strikes, an official at the border said.
      
Hospitals in north Sinai, which borders Gaza and Israel, have been placed on standby to receive the Palestinians, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.
      

Defense minister, Egypt's ambassador discuss cooperation

BELGRADE -- Defense Minister Bratislav Gašić and Egyptian Ambassador Menha Mahrous Bakhoum discussed Tuesday the development of defense cooperation programs.

BELGRADE - Serbian Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic and Egyptian Ambassador to Serbia Menha Mahrous Bakhoum conferred Tuesday on the development of defense cooperation programs, and agreed that a bilateral defense cooperation agreement should be concluded as soon as possible in order to establish a legal framework for future joint projects.

Thousands of Syrian refugee women are caught in a "spiral of hardship, isolation and anxiety," widowed or separated from their husbands and struggling to survive, the UN warned on Tuesday.
      

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said July 6 he "wished" three jailed al-Jazeera journalists including an Australian had not been put on trial, conceding the case had been damaging, a newspaper reported.

The high pricing of the 2014 FIFA World Cup broadcasting rights by Qatari entities in the Middle East naturally creates a politically explosive situation in a football-crazy part of the world No matter how entrenched animosities in the Middle East may be, one principle is upheld by all: never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.