34495 Articles
There is growing concern among the Western coalition forces about the worsening situation in Afghanistan. The insurgency has recently shown its bloodiest face since the Taliban’s ouster in 2001 and represents a ticking time bomb for the collapse of US policies in the country. The fallout of American policies in Iraq has been felt across …
Associated Press ROME: An Italian-Israeli historian has angered fellow Jews by taking on a subject that has long haunted his people: alleged anti-Christian hatred he says fueled medieval accusations that Jews killed Christians in ritual murders. Ariel Toaff s book, just released in Italy, shocked the country s small Jewish community – in part because …
Bush administration efforts to forge a US-Arab alliance against Iran are threatening to produce a new Middle East Cold War, with dangerous implications for regional stability, US interests and American lives. When Condoleezza Rice was in the region to lay the foundations for a united front with key Arab states based on the perception of …
Time has never been better for Somalia’s leaders to take the opportunity given to them by recent turn of events to establish and hold onto a lasting peace that they have been searching for in the past 16 years. Following the crushing defeat of forces loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) by the …
Officials from Riyadh to Khartoum have been working overtime to find a solution to Lebanon s latest political crisis. This week, Speaker Nabih Berri became the most recent leader to enter the fray with a plan of his own. The speaker has proposed an initiative aimed at resolving two of the more contentious issues that …
Here comes another February with a new Valentine s Day on the horizon, bringing to the fore fantasies and memories with scented candles and red flowers. When it comes to Valentine s it s all about expressing love and affection to our husbands or wives and fiancées. Early preparations for surprising gifts, romantic candlelight dinners …
CAIRO: On Jan. 8, Cairo International Airport security prevented Doha-based documentary film producer Howayda Taha from boarding a plane for Qatar and confiscated 50 videotapes in her possession, her laptop and some books. After two days of questioning by state security the reported mock torture footage and re-enactments of alleged police abuse in her possession, …
CAIRO: Iraqi refugees in Cairo continue to wait outside the United Nations High Commission for Refugees’ (UNHCR) office in Mohandiseen to register their refugee status. Among them is Salwan Jumeil Awda. He moved to Cairo four months ago after a series of attacks on his communications company in Baghdad. In May 2006 we were attacked …
Egypt confronts a double problem on its northeastern borders – both Palestinian and Israeli. The two problems are intertwined and have interacted over the past six decades or so. However, they are also different, or at least require different sets of policies. While the Israeli question is geopolitical in nature and is defined most of …
WASHINGTON: For many Muslim girls in the United States, the hijab is not an obstacle, but rather a source of strength, pride and a tool to spread correct information about much-stereotyped Islam. I’ve been wearing my hijab for more than five years; since I was a fifth grader, and I believe nothing has changed between …
UNITED NATIONS: Cats can become infected with the highly lethal H5N1 bird flu virus but there is no scientific evidence at present to suggest that there has been sustained transmission in cats or from cats to humans, and they should not be killed as a control option, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) …
Agence France-Presse CAIRO: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would set the stage for final status talks in the long-stagnant Middle East peace process. The three-way meeting with Rice and Olmert on Feb. 19 will pave the way …
Relations between the Middle East and the United States are undeniably strained. Evidence of this comes to us every day through the news, in movies and television, and in academic writings. What, though, is driving this hostility and what can be done to end it? A survey conducted by Zogby International examining how Arabs view …
Whatever critics at home and abroad may think, the “surge that President George W. Bush is planning for Iraq is more than a troop increase; it is a new and high-risk regional strategy. True, Bush’s plan will prove far too little and comes far too late to stabilize Iraq. But it does offer the United …
NAIROBI: A United Nations fund, the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), has allocated about $85 million for under-funded emergencies in 15 countries in Africa and Asia. This funding is part of CERF s two-part annual allocation for life-saving programmes around the world, according …
Associated Pres UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed officials from Egypt, the United States, China, and Japan to top UN posts Friday and accepted the resignation of 17 senior staff members as part of a long-awaited overhaul to start shaping his new administration. The secretary-general, who took office on Jan. 1, decided to leave …
Egyptian art fetches record auction price at Christie s For a while it looked as if the Middle East had found a place on the international art map as a venue for the sale and production of works of aesthetic importance. Admittedly, the purchasing took place in the Gulf while the creative process took place …
You would have had to be stuck in deepest Mongolia to avoid hearing that the United Nations climate panel, the IPCC, issued a new report last week. Perhaps even in the depths of Mongolia, you would have heard the dire warnings emitted by journalists. You would have distilled from these agonized noises that the report …
Towards the end of 2006, the Euro-Mediterranean Ministers in their meeting at Turkey, stressed the need for strengthening the role of women in their societies. A framework and action plan was agreed upon for the next five years. It was agreed that the Euro-Mediterranean partners would embrace a holistic approach based on three interdependent and …
GIZA: The village of Temoua was rocked early Saturday morning when a truck loaded with gas tanks belonging to the Misr Petroleum Company unexpectedly exploded. The blast occurred, according to local witnesses, after one of the small tanks, intended for residential use in the poor southern Giza neighborhood, ignited and set off the hundreds of …
Reuters WASHINGTON: Egyptians and most Arabs have a very unfavorable opinion of US President George W. Bush, a new poll has revealed. A new poll on Thursday underscored deep Arab unhappiness with the United States but said the negative image could be repaired if Washington brokered a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace agreement. The survey of 3,850 …
A handful of nuts a day might keep the doctor away. Recent nutritional studies released in the Journal the American Medical Association and other reputed publications, found that eating nuts regularly has a multitude of beneficial effects on health including lowering the risk of developing heart disease (1), type 2 diabetes, dementia, stroke, and gallstones. …
Dear Salameh, Your last letter reached me a short while before I started an interview with the new Minister Ghaleb Majadele. I was pleased to read him the warm words you wrote about his appointment as the first Arab minister in an Israeli government. Like many in the Israeli peace camp, I also hope that …
NEW YORK: The only way for the status of women in the Arab world to improve is for the governments there to invest in quality education, the United Nations General Assembly President said today, pointing out that simply passing laws on gender equality is not enough because deeply ingrained attitudes have to change. Until we …
LOS ANGELES: There s the flicking kiss, the ice-cream kiss, the vacuum kiss, the Hollywood kiss and another 50 or so smoochy variations. Who said a kiss was just a kiss? For everyone who s ever wanted to pucker up like a movie star, French kiss like Johnny Depp, or simply add variety to their …
Associated Press CAIRO: Measures to reduce global warming would not be devastating economically, and the United States has been particularly delinquent on the issue, Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, said Tuesday. Speaking to the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, Volcker said the argument that taxes on oil or carbon …
CAIRO: The Al-Nozha Misdemeanour Court has postponed the trial hearings of Al-Jazeera producer Howayda Taha, accused by the authorities of “harming national interests until Feb. 21. She had been working on a documentary about alleged police torture in Egypt when she was detained at Cairo International Airport as she waited to board a plane for …
Shems Friedlander retrospective breathes spirituality into the Gezira Art Center Shems Friedlander is an artist and a sheikh. While he is known as a professor, author, filmmaker, poet, photographer, graphic designer, and painter, his views on spirituality, move Friedlander’s works beyond the boundaries of his material. His first solo exhibit also serves as his first …
Soon after taking office in summer 2005, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sacked most of his country’s ambassadors. Many of the posts left vacant as a result have been slowly filled, but the resulting dearth of professional skill in the conduct of Iranian diplomacy continues to be evident to this day. In fact, at a time …
China’s president, Hu Jintao, is currently touring Africa, seeking to secure dependable sources of natural resources, but also to promote China’s “peaceful rise. Such tours are designed to give notice that China is emerging on the world stage, as well as to make it look respectable as a major world power. But China’s quest for …
