News stories by Shelly Kittleson, page 2

JABAL AL-AKRAD (SYRIA), May 20 (IPS) - In the mountains east of the coastal port of government-held Latakia, three years of regime bombardment has left swaths of blackened stumps in the mountain forests and crumbling concrete structures in Sunni villages, most of whose inhabitants support opposition forces.

REYHANLI (TURKEY), May 19 (IPS) - As once-eliminated diseases resurface and barrel bombs and alleged chlorine attacks target civilians, doctors in rebel-held areas and across the border struggle with issues of how best to serve their profession.

CAIRO, Feb 06 (IPS) - Heavy reliance on water intensive crops, a major upstream dam project for the Nile basin, and rising groundwater levels pushing at pharaoh-era monuments will be pressing issues for the next Egyptian president - whether military or civilian.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon, Jan 22 (IPS) - In northern Lebanon's largest city, Tripoli, Syria Street cuts through neighbourhoods that back opposite sides of the war raging in Syria, 30 km away. Clashes between them resumed this weekend after a cross-border rocket attack.

IDLIB PROVINCE, Syria, Nov 21 (IPS) - Concerns are rising that courts run by Islamic clerics in many of Syria's rebel-held areas may serve as a prelude to Taliban-style justice in what was long a violently repressive but secular state.

IDLIB/ALEPPO Provinces, Syria, Oct 09 (IPS) - Free Syrian Army fighters stand guard over the state cable company premises to avoid looting in Khan Al-Assal, a district 14 kilometres west of Aleppo. Much of the rest of the place seems a nightmarish ghost town.

MA’ARRET AN-NU'MAN (Idlib Province, Syria), Sep 30 (IPS) - The prisoner is led, handcuffed and dirty, into what until last year served as a school. "A shabiha," said one of the anti-regime rebels in the room. "We found him two days ago at a checkpoint."

AD-DANA, Idlib Province, Syria, Sep 24 (IPS) - Scorching flames from a makeshift oil refinery sting eyes and the fumes choke throats near the top of a hill in northwestern Syria, where Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters gather for fuel, coffee and phone calls as darkness falls.

KABUL, Jun 26 (IPS) - Despite impressive advancements in enrolment rates, media reports of gas attacks on girls' schools, shoddy books, and a lack of classroom facilities continue to mar the reputation of the education system in Afghanistan.

KABUL, May 31 (IPS) - As Afghanistan prepares for the 2014 withdrawal of foreign forces that have occupied this country for over a decade, investors are already beginning to bid a hasty retreat amid rumours that "chaos" and civil war will replace NATO's boots on the ground late next year.