Archive for the ‘Top Stories’ Category
Posted on May 18, 2012 11:04:42 AM
The Sultanate represented by the Capital Market Authority joined the global information sharing arrangements between the securities commissions by signing the Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MMOU) of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) in Peking, China on the sidelines of the 37th Annual Meeting of the IOSCO.
THE MMOU provides a framework for consultation, cooperation and exchange of information among the signatories for the enforcement of capital market laws all over the globe as the MMOU is standard of cross border cooperation for combating market manipulation.
HE Sheikh Abdullah Salim Al Salmi, Executive President of the Capital Market Authority said the Sultanates accession to the global information sharing arrangement among the securities commissions comes after reviewing CMA’s competence with regards to the regulatory and legislative frameworks regulating the Omani financial market and to identify how it could move to a higher standard of classification within the IOSCO and to take the required action to conclude the MMOU to widen the cooperation and exchange of information to ensure the securities commission apply all internationally recognized standards to ensure safe investment environment.
He added, “Signing the MMOU is acknowledgment of the development of the legislative and regulatory structures of the capital market in the Sultanate as well as international recognition of the credibility of the law and regulation and soundness of regulatory and supervision standards CMA applies which would make the Sultanate a hub for attracting international investments with best internationally recognized regulations and the creation of safe environment for investors.”
The number of signatories of MMOU are 82 out of the 190 members of IOSCO.
HE added that IOSCO’s recognition of the CMA’s membership of the MMOU is a motivation for further efforts to enhance the regulatory and supervisory standards and to continue adopting the best international standards and practices.
HE pointed out the MMOU would allow CMA access to information pertaining to investigation in fraud and manipulation issues and on dealing with such issued to create sound and safe investment environment to attract foreign investments and to furnish the maximum limits of transparency and credibility in the capital market. Accession to the MMOU is one of the indicators adopted by the international institutions such as the World Bank and IMF on the compliance with international standards.
Al Salmi added the MMOU would ease obtaining information from regulators in the member countries for the purpose of investigation of violations in securities markets such as insider trading, market manipulation, information misrepresentation and other fraudulent practices pertaining to securities and derivatives.
Posted on May 18, 2012 08:04:55 AM
Last month in Damascus, one young woman stood alone in the middle of a busy street outside parliament. Her banner, as big as her, declared "Stop the Killing."
Passers-by stopped to applaud her message. The authorities detained her.
But this lone act of bravery by "the woman in the red dress" was captured on video and became something much bigger. Others copied her burst of defiance.
"It started as a personal scream of anger but it spread widely," reflected the strikingly soft-voiced Rime Dali.
"It even gathered people who support the regime because we all want to stop the killing, and build a Syria for all Syrians."
Shortly after our meeting, she was briefly detained again as she attended a vigil for victims of last week's powerful blasts in the capital that left dozens dead and hundreds injured.
In Syria, moderate views are often drowned out by the louder harsher violence that captures the headlines. But other voices are there – on both sides of an increasingly dangerous divide.
In his gleaming new office with a panoramic view of the capital, journalist Ziad Haider is hopeful enough to open the Damascus bureau of a new TV Channel "Al Mayadeen" which has its headquarters in Beirut.
"We're already labelled I guess because we have permission from the Syrian government," he said, "but we want to tell a different story.
"We are against foreign intervention, against a military solution, coming from either side."
Asked whether he believed there was the political space to tell a different story, he said that's not his greatest worry now.
"Tasting coffee in the morning isn't the same anymore," he regretted. "It's not about what you will do that day, or what you will achieve, it's whether you will arrive home safely."
Some fear the explosions, others the arrests.
In the last few weeks, Syrian authorities have stepped up their detention of leading intellectuals and activists, many of whom have nothing to do with the protests.
"Do you blame us, when we are under such threats?" retorted one government official who defended the sweeping campaign of arrests.
But it has raised new doubt about its commitment to reform.
"The government has more difficulty dealing with a political opposition than its armed opponents," remarked a European diplomat in the capital. "We are still waiting to see evidence of a genuine desire to change."
The arrests come as the UN accelerates its efforts to try to move this fractured country toward political dialogue. Its searching for the kind of independent voices now being locked away, beyond their reach.
Faez Sara used to have some faith in official pledges. Last year, he attended the government's "national dialogue."
But when I visited him at his office, sadness seemed to consume him. Last week, his two sons were picked up at 6 AM. He hasn't seen them since.
"It's not just my children," he said with a deep sigh, and a discreet wipe of a tear. "Children of colleagues who, like me, spent time in prison, have also lost family members. The whole country is in agony."
Asked whether he'd lost all faith in a peaceful way out, Faez Sara invoked the phrase "violence leads to violence, blood leads to blood.
"It may take more than peaceful protests to change this regime, but for now I believe this is the best way."
But for now, both sides are violating a month-old UN truce.
And the sophistication and force of last week's twin bombings in Damascus has reinforced intelligence reports that militant groups, including possibly al Qaeda, are trying to exploit the current chaos.
"There is a third party which doesn't want this crisis to end in a political solution," said journalist Ziad Haider.
"I would be extremely worried if the state was not powerful enough to deal with this situation. Both sides should act with wisdom."
Conversations with Syrians who still back the government's stated reform underline their growing anxiety over this country's future.
"It's hard to be stuck in the middle," remarked a government official who spoke, off the record, about the need for change. "Thugs on both sides are taking advantage of this situation."
But one activist, just released from detention, flatly rejected any notion this was tumbling towards a civil war.
"Weapons seem louder but the protest is definitely more peaceful than armed," insisted one woman who gave her name as Leyla.
"The estimate of the Free Syrian Army is thousands, maybe tens of thousands but there are hundreds of thousands of activists and this is not counting people who are with the revolution not taking action."
"We look for hope every day," remarked Rime Dali. "Its not something abstract for us.
"When we help each other, there's hope, when we try to open dialogue, to build bridges with people who have different views, we have hope."
The challenge is whether a myriad of hopeful voices, still holding fast to a different vision, can find a secure space within a growing spiral of violence.
Posted on May 18, 2012 02:04:55 AM
More than 60 academics from across the world are gathering in Scotland to examine the literary merits of the Harry Potter novels.
Prof Pazdziora said: "We can't avoid the fact that Harry Potter is the main narrative experience of an entire generation – the children who literally grew up with Harry Potter.
"The Harry Potter novels are simply the most important and influential children's books of the late-20th and early 21st Centuries."
He added: "For very many people, this is their first experience of literature, and of literary art. So they want to think about it, and analyse it, and talk about it."
The keynote speaker for the event – which is entitled A Brand of Fictional Magic: Reading Harry Potter as Literature – is John Granger, author of The Deathly Hallows Lectures.
Mr Granger said: "I take exception to the unexamined and misinformed assumption that the books are 'light on literary merit'.
"Ms Rowling's works are comic, certainly, but it's a great mistake to think they're simple or haphazard story-telling."
He added: "Hogwarts, we're told, is hidden somewhere in Scotland, the author lives here, too, and Ms Rowling's mother was half Scot.
"It's somehow appropriate and fitting that the first academic conference of any size be held at Scotland's oldest university, St Andrews."
Posted on May 17, 2012 08:03:41 AM
Holocaust survivor Aharon Appelfeld has become the oldest recipient of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize at the age of 80.
The Israeli author's Blooms of Darkness was inspired by his own escape from a concentration camp during World War II.
It tells the story of an 11-year old boy who is looked after by a prostitute during the war.
Appelfeld beat five other authors including Umberto Eco to the £10,000 prize, shared by his translator.
The novel was translated from Hebrew into English by Jeffrey M Green.
"It has been a privilege to be Aharon's voice in English," Green said.
Journalist Hephzibah Anderson, who was one of the judges, said: "Jeffrey M Green's translation from the Hebrew does ample justice to a novel that mediates on the imagination, memory and language itself."
Appelfeld described his novel as "a work of fiction that includes my personal experience during World War II".
"I wanted to explore the darkest places of human behaviour and to show that even there, generosity and love can survive; that humanity and love can overcome cruelty and brutality," he added.
Anderson described Appelfeld's story as one which carries "the reader to a territory in which deep sensuality exists alongside unfathomable brutality".
Appelfeld was born in 1932 in what is now western Ukraine but was deported to a labour camp when he was seven.
He escaped and was picked up by the Red Army in 1944, making his way to Italy before eventually reaching Palestine in 1946 when he was 14.
While Appelfeld grew up speaking German, he could not bring himself to write in the language, citing it as "the language of the murderers".
Instead, he chooses to write in what he describes as his "mother language" of Hebrew, which he learned to speak when he moved to Palestine.
The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize is run by the charity Booktrust, and is awarded annually to the best work of contemporary fiction that has been translated into English and published in the UK.
Posted on May 16, 2012 08:03:41 PM
“Yes, it is for sure, the promoter will not get a permit to hold the concert,” National Police spokesman Saud Usman Nasution said Tuesday.
The concert promoter, Big Daddy Entertainment, declined to comment on the development.
“Please wait for further official information from us,” spokesman Alif Ramadoni said.
There has been an outcry against Lady Gaga performing among Islamists and conservative Muslims, who say her revealing costumes and sensual dance moves are “haram,” an Arabic term that means “forbidden by Islamic law.”
The chairman of the Islamic Defenders Front, Habib Rizieq, said his group could not guarantee what might happen, as far as security goes, if the concert were held.
The pop star was given a thumbs-down in March by a “high-ranking member” of the country’s highest Islamic authority, according to The Jakarta Globe.
The report said that Indonesian Council of Ulema chairman Cholil Ridwan was urging Muslims not to attend the overtly sexy and controversial singer’s upcoming concert in Jakarta.
“[The concert is] intended to destroy the nation’s morality,” Ridwan told the Globe.
Ridwan is concerned that the singer’s revealing outfits and sexy dance moves will set a bad example for Muslim youths.
Newspaper reports said more than 25,000 tickets were sold in the first two hours after the concert went on sale in March. Police said the promoter should not have started selling tickets before getting a permit.
This isn’t the first bit of controversy during the singer’s “Born This Way” tour. Gaga also ran afoul of Christian groups in South Korea, prompting the government to ban kids under the age of 18 from attending her show.
Ahead of the concert in late April, detractors called it “pornographic” and a promotion of homosexuality.
Yoon Jung-hoon, a reverend who helped organize the “Civilians Network against the Lady Gaga Concert” movement, told the Chicago Tribune that his group collected 5,000 supporters on Facebook. He also advocated a boycott of the show’s sponsor, Hyundai Card, in addition to Hyundai Motor Co., Korea’s largest automaker.
“Some people can accept this as another culture, but its impact is huge beyond art and debases religions,” Yoon said. “Even adults can’t see her performance, which is too homosexual and pornographic.”
The show went on as scheduled.
CNN’s Kathy Quiano and journalist Tasha Tampubolon contributed to this report.
Posted on May 16, 2012 05:03:41 PM
Story By: by S.V. Dáte
Nonprofit groups that want to run campaign ads within two months of the general election have to reveal the names of their donors. That’s the result of a federal appeals court action on campaign finance law.
Several weeks ago, a federal court in Washington told the Federal Election Commission it could not allow the buyers of tens of millions of dollars’ worth of ads to remain anonymous.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit late Monday, on a 2-to-1 vote, refused to grant a stay of that decision pending appeal. It ordered the full appeal to be heard sometime this fall.
At issue is the ability of tax-exempt groups that run political ads within two months of the general election â or within one month of a primary â to keep secret the names of their donors. Such groups spent some $80 million in the 2010 congressional elections, primarily supporting conservative candidates or attacking their opponents. The donors behind less than 10 percent of that amount were ever disclosed.
“It’s a very important victory in the battle to end the secret contributions that are currently being funneled into federal elections,” said Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21, the liberal group that worked with Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., to sue the FEC.
The ruling applies specifically to so-called electioneering communications. Not addressed were nonprofit groups that make what are called “independent expenditures” in campaigns. Those are covered in a different section of campaign finance law.
Wertheimer says his group is contemplating a second lawsuit seeking to disclose the donors who finance those forms of ads as well.
S.V. Dáte is the congressional editor for NPR’s Washington Desk.
Posted on May 16, 2012 02:03:41 PM
BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany pulled the euro zone’s economy back from the brink of recession at the start of 2012 but stagnation in France and contraction in southern Europe underlined sharply differing fortunes in a bloc laboring under the effects of austerity.
Overall gross domestic product was unchanged in the first quarter following a dip at the end of last year, data showed on Tuesday, meaning that the euro zone missed slipping officially into recession by the narrowest possible margin.
But a surprisingly strong showing from Germany, whose exporters are helping it to cope with the euro zone crisis, flattered dismal performances in most of the other major economies.
“Germany is leading the bloc, but this doesn’t mean we will have a strong rebound. Austerity is not going away and southern European economies are really struggling,” said Mads Koefoed, a senior economist at Saxo Bank. “We are looking at stagnation to very mild growth in the year to come.”
Most euro zone governments are imposing austerity policies, often at great cost to their electorates and the chances of economic growth, hoping to counter the debt crisis by cutting their budget deficits. However, new French President Francois Hollande is heading to Berlin on Tuesday to argue for adding measures to boost growth to the formula.
Tuesday’s data showed a two-speed euro zone, with Italy’s recession deeper than feared and Greece suffering something akin to a depression.
“There’s a growing divergence in the euro zone, with particularly sharp contractions in the peripheral countries that need to do the most structural reforms, while Germany is the outperformer,” said Joost Beaumont at ABN Amro in Amsterdam.
GDP in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, rose 0.5 percent on the quarter, confounding expectations of a more modest rise and lifting the rest of the 17-nation currency bloc.
While the euro zone’s stagnation offered little cheer, it was still better than the 0.2 percent contraction most economists had expected. Two successive quarters of falling GDP would have marked the second recession since 2009.
Germany’s strong showing initially bolstered markets which were battered on Monday by growing fears that Greece will deepen the crisis by leaving the euro zone.
The FTSEurofirst of top European shares climbed in response, safe haven German government bond futures dipped and the euro recovered some poise.
EVEN GERMANY SUFFERS
But even in Germany, the crisis is holding back a true revival, and analyst and investor sentiment fell sharply in May, separate figures showed. That ended a run of strong data for the economy as political uncertainty took its toll on confidence.
Germany’s biggest steelmaker, ThyssenKrupp, also said on Tuesday there was no sign of a quick recovery in Europe after the steel industry operated at reduced capacity in recent months due to weak demand and sliding prices.
“The euro zone crisis has returned to investors’ attention with the banking troubles in Spain and political instability in Greece,” said Christian Schulz at Berenberg Bank.
France, the euro zone’s second largest economy, reported no expansion in the first quarter, unwelcome news for Hollande as he was inaugurated in the Elysee Palace in Paris on Tuesday.
“There was no good surprise,” said Philippe Waechter, chief economist at Natixis Asset Management of the French data. “There was weak consumption, no investment.”
Hollande, who is due to attend his first EU summit in Brussels next week, said he would urge his peers to back a pact that coupled the goals of deficit reduction with economic stimulus. But Italy’s weaker-than-expected output epitomized southern Europe’s anemic economies.
Italy’s heavily indebted economy shrank more than expected in the first quarter, with GDP falling 0.8 percent and marking the third consecutive quarter contraction.
After a decade of falling productivity in Italy, the debt crisis has highlighted how barriers to competition, heavy regulation and bureaucracy are dragging on the economy, discouraging investment and prosperity.
Data two weeks ago showed Spain, which is struggling to reduce a huge deficit and rebuild its banking sector following a burst property bubble, is already in recession, after GDP shrank 0.3 percent in the first quarter.
Even in the wealthy Netherlands, economic output contracted for a third consecutive quarter, shrinking 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2012 compared with the previous three months, underscoring just how damaging the crisis has become.
Greece, still without a government nine days after elections as its political parties argue about whether to rip up its bailout program, is in its fifth consecutive year of recession, which is tantamount to a depression.
Greek GDP contracted 6.2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012.
POPULAR RESISTANCE
EU leaders have been unable to find a way back to growth, while many southern Europeans are turning against the austerity measures, holding huge street protests in Madrid and backing radical political parties in the Greek elections.
Hollande wants new growth measures and while German Chancellor Angela Merkel has not disagreed in principle, she is unlikely to accept anything that pushes government debt up further.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is also pressing for a growth strategy. He won support from an unlikely source when credit ratings agency Moody’s sharply downgraded 26 Italian banks, saying budget-cutting measures and an Italian recession had hit demand and increased the level of bad loans.
A hefty defeat for Merkel’s conservatives in a German state election on Sunday, meted out by the Social Democrats who have argued against austerity for austerity’s stake, will add to the pressure on the chancellor.
(Additional reporting by Daniel Flynn in Paris and Maria Sheahan in Frankfurt; Writing by Mike Peacock and Robin Emmott; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt and David Stamp)
Posted on May 16, 2012 08:04:05 AM
Los precios mundiales de los alimentos cayeron en abril luego de tres meses consecutivos de aumentos, presionados por las caídas de los valores del azúcar, los lácteos y los cereales, que compensaron los incrementos en aceites y carne, informó el jueves la Organización de la ONU para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO), pero advirtió que la soya y el maíz aún podrían impulsar un aumento de precios más adelante este año.
Reuters
Un cultivador de trigo en India.
La inflación de precios de alimentos subió al tope de la agenda internacional luego de tocar sucesivos valores máximos en la primera parte del año pasado en medio de preocupaciones globales sobre la oferta de cereales, azúcar y cacao. Los crecientes precios de los alimentos también mencionados como parte del motivo de la agitación que provocó la caída de los líderes de Túnez, Egipto y Libia.
El índice de precios de alimentos de la FAO, que mide los cambios mensuales en los precios internacionales de commodities de alimentos, que promedió 214 puntos en abril, un descenso de tres puntos, o 1,4%, frente a marzo. Aunque el índice es significativamente menor que los niveles récord registrados en abril de 2011, sigue estando muy por encima de las cifras por debajo de los 20 puntos que se registraron antes de la crisis alimentaria de 2008, resaltó la FAO.
“Prevemos que los precios globales de los alimentos sigan bajo presión bajista este año a no ser que haya eventos inesperados del lado de la oferta, como mal clima”, indicó Abdolreza Abbassian, analista de granos para la FAO. “Por esos motivos, es muy difícil predecir con seguridad en qué dirección se moverán los precios”.
“La única área real que podría desatar aumentos en los precios de los alimentos sería la soya que registra alta oferta, que luego impulsaría los precios del maíz como consecuencia”, indicó Abbassian.
“Aunque las perspectivas de producción para el maíz mejoraron, es poco probable que sea suficiente para compensar el bajo ratio entre acciones y uso”, advirtió Abbassian. “El próximo verano será crítico para los retornos en EE.UU. y si hay problemas con el clima esto podría causar un aumento del precio”.
De todos modos, los analistas advirtieron que los precios globales de commodities de alimentos también siguen siendo susceptibles a la volatilidad exterior, “en especial en mercados de monedas y energía”.
El índice de precios del azúcar de la FAO promedió 324 puntos en abril, un descenso de 5% frente a un mes antes y 6% por debajo de su nivel en abril de 2011, indicó la FAO.
“Se prevé que ingrese en el mercado nueva oferta de Brasil, el mayor productor mundial de azúcar. Mayor disponibilidad también fue informada en India, la Unión Europea y Tailandia, lo que contribuyó a mantener los precios por debajo de sus altos niveles de la temporada pasada”, sostuvo la ONU.
Los precios de los lácteos también registraron caídas significativas en abril; el índice de precios de la FAO promedió 186 puntos en abril, un descenso de 6% desde marzo, lo que marca una caída mensual por tercer mes consecutivo y refleja una recomposición de la oferta en especial en Oceanía y Sudamérica, indicó la FAO.
El índice de precios de cereales de la FAO cayó a 224 puntos en abril, un descenso de 2%, frente a marzo. El maíz fue el que más cayó, al reportar un descenso de 2,5%, informó la FAO, lo que refleja buenas perspectivas de producción para la cosecha.
En tanto, el índice de aceites y grasas de la FAO promedió 251 puntos en abril, un aumento de 2,2% frente a los niveles de marzo, tras un incremento en los precios de la soya.
“El aumento refleja principalmente la creciente preocupación sobre la oferta excepcionalmente escasa de esta temporada de soya y productos derivados. La disponibilidad reducida de exportaciones de soya ha aumentado la demanda global de aceite de palmera, el cual, sin embargo, sigue enfrentando un débil crecimiento de la producción y por lo tanto mayores precios”, señaló la FAO.
El índice de la carne de la FAO promedió 182 puntos en abril, un leve aumento frente a marzo, impulsado en particular por el incremento del valor de la carne de cerdo.
Posted on May 16, 2012 02:04:05 AM
Editor’s note: Wajahat Ali is a playwright, attorney, journalist and researcher. He is co-editor of the upcoming anthology “All-American: 45 American Men on being Muslim.”
“What would you like to be when you grow up?” I asked Sakafat, a boisterous 12-year-old girl, while visiting a remote Pakistani village in the Sindh province.
“A scientist!” she immediately replied. “Why can’t we be scientists? Why not us?”
The confident Sakafat lives in Abdul Qadir Lashari village, which is home to 500 people in Mirpur Sakro. It is in one of the most impoverished regions of Pakistan.
There was a characteristic resilience and optimism in this particular village. This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows anything about Pakistan’s often dysfunctional, surreal yet endearing daily existence.
The 500 villagers live in 48 small huts, except for the one “wealthy” family who recently built a home made of concrete. The village chief, Abdul Qadir Lashari, proudly showed off his village’s brand-new community toilets, paved roads, and water pump that brings fresh water to the village.
These simple, critical amenities, taken for granted by most of us in the West, resulted from the direct assistance of the Rural Support Programmes Network, Pakistan’s largest nongovernmental organization. RSPN has worked with thousands of similar Pakistani villages to help them achieve economic self-sufficiency.
I visited the Sindh village with RSPN to witness the results of using community organizing to alleviate poverty. The staff told me its goal was to teach villagers to “fish for themselves.”
Every household in the Abdul Qadir Lashari village was able to reach a profit by the end of 2011 as a result of professional skills training, financial management, community leadership workshops and microloans.
Specifically, a middle-aged, illiterate woman proudly told me how she learned sewing and financial management and was thus able to increase her household revenue, manage her bills, and use a small profit to purchase an extra cow for the family. She was excited to introduce me to her cow, but sadly due to lack of time I was unable to make the bovine acquaintance.
Women play a prominent role in this village’s process toward empowerment and self-sustenance. Here, in one of the most traditional and rural regions of Pakistan, almost all of the presentations were led by women. All of their daughters from the ages of 6 to 12 are now 100% literate. In comparison, only 31% of the entire village and 12% of females 15 and older can read.
All this is particularly pertinent to Pakistan’s wider sociopolitical context. In a country where change is so often top-down and directed by national elites mostly interested in maintaining the status quo for sake of sustaining their vice-like grip on power and wealth, grassroots empowerment can potentially change deeply ingrained feudal and tribal traditions. This power â to progressively change societal patterns and norms from the bottom up â is a rarity in Pakistan and a crucial counterweight to more extreme narratives currently sweeping the nation.
The village’s local community manager â a woman â reflected some of this positive sentiment when she passed on a hopeful message to America: “We take pride in our traditional work and livelihood, and we hope you too can enjoy them. We hope to trade with you in the future and to have better relations. And we hope and believe we can be a developed nation like you.”
Asked what single thing she felt was most important most for her village, she replied education. Upon asking another elderly lady what she wishes for Pakistan, she repeated one word three times: “sukoon,” which means peace.
When it was time to depart, the people of the village presented me with a beautiful handmade Sindhi shawl, an example of the craftwork the villagers are now able to sell for profit.
As I left the village with the dark red, traditional Sindhi shawl adorned around my neck, my thoughts returned to the 12-year-old girl, Sakafat, who passionately asked why she couldn’t become a scientist.
I looked in her eyes and could only respond with the following: “You’re right. You can be anything you want to be. And I have every confidence you will, inshallah (“God willing”), reach your manzil (“desired destination”).
By focusing on education and local empowerment to lift the next generation out of poverty, Sakafat’s dream could indeed one day become a reality for all of Pakistan.
Posted on May 15, 2012 05:04:05 PM
Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have agreed to end a mass hunger strike, which has been going on for more than two months.
More than 1,500 Palestinians have been refusing food to demand an improvement in conditions.
Under a deal, Israel conditionally agreed not to renew detentions without charge, which had been a key grievance.
The protest had raised fears of a violent Palestinian backlash if any of the inmates died, correspondents say.
'Administrative detentions'
"All of the factions signed an agreement," Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, told AFP news agency.
The Israel Prisons Authority later confirmed the deal, which was brokered with the assistance of Egypt and Jordan.
It said the prisoners would now sign a commitment "not to engage in actions contravening security inside the jails", according to Reuters.
An Israeli government spokesperson said the deal was clinched after a formal request from the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
The Palestinian inmates went on hunger strike to protest against the so-called "administrative detentions" – the policy of detention without charge or trial.
The deal envisages that such detentions can no longer be extended for another six months if no new evidence emerges, in what is seen as a big concession by Israel, says the BBC's Jon Donnison in Jerusalem.
It means that more than 300 prisoners could all be freed by November.
Such detentions have been condemned by the Palestinian Authority, which threatened to take the matter to the United Nations.
The inmates have also complained about being kept in solitary confinement and being denied family visits.
An Israeli government official confirmed that more family visits would be allowed from prisoners' relatives living in the Gaza Strip, but denied that Israel had agreed to no more solitary confinement for inmates.
Many of some 4,500 Palestinians held by Israel are suspected of being members of militant groups.
But they are seen as heroes in the West Bank and Gaza, where there have been protests in solidarity with the prisoners.
