The Middle East back issues from October 2007:
Editorial comment.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Editorial)
Oct 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I like America and, generally, I like Americans. I like New Yorkers and, as the badges say: "I love New York". I like Floridians and West Coasters and East Coasters; I especially love the East Coast--Boston and Cape Cod are magical. I've never been to ...
Back to the future: Russian Navy discussions about the possibilities of restoring bases in Syria in order to bolster Moscow's drive to regain its influence in the Middle East have led to speculation about the start of a new Cold War.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
Oct 01, 2007; ... Russia's reported plans to set up naval bases in the Syrian ports of Tartus and Latakia to re-establish a naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean is causing some consternation. Israel in particular is showing signs of alarm at the prospect of Russian military and intelligence support ...
The calm before the storm: Mel Frykberg reports from the Occupied Territories.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
Oct 01, 2007; ... A TENTATIVE CALM AND shaky peace has settled over the Gaza Strip following the weeks of bloody infighting between Hamas and its political rival Fatah, as the two groups battled for political and military supremacy several months ago. Analysts and human rights organisations have warned that ...
The new hope: "the one state solution".(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
Oct 01, 2007; ... The list of Palestinian and Israeli intellectuals who no longer believe in or support the two state solution gets longer with each passing day. As a result, the 'one state solution' (OSS) route to solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is growing in popularity. However, the man on the ...
Libya edges in from the cold.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
Oct 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CONDOLEEZZA RICE, THE American secretary of state, is expected to visit Tripoli in October to prepare for a long-delayed flood of western investment and technology exports attracted by Libya's largely unexplored, rich hydrocarbon resources. ...
The surge in Egyptian nationalism.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
Oct 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] EGYPTIAN NEW YEAR'S Eve, which fell on 11 September, was celebrated by Egyptians across the globe in major cities as far flung and diverse as London, San Francisco, Sidney, Oslo and Dubai. For the first time in modern history Egyptians publicly ...
Old fears die hard: Sudeshna Sarkar reports from Istanbul.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
Oct 01, 2007; ... "I NEEDED TO MAKE an urgent call to my mother, who was staying in a town called Bilaxi," reminisces Ismail Balli, assistant general news manager at the Ihlas News Agency in Istanbul. "It was in 1985, when only about 10% of people had phones. The rest had to go to the post ...
Without fear or favour: in this exclusive interview Chris Kutschera talked to Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, one of a panel of Iraqi judges responsible for seeing justice done during the protracted trial of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Interview)
Oct 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] PREVIOUSLY LITTLE KNOWN outside Iraq, Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin rose to international attention when he was appointed head of the five-judge panel of the Iraqi Special Tribunal conducting the Dujail trial, which charged Saddam Hussein with responsibility ...
Arab funds under scrutiny.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)(Cover story)
Oct 01, 2007; ... While pressures are mounting for Arab state-supported funds to disclose more about their global investment strategies and current holdings, many private investors in Europe and Asia are welcoming their new-found willingness to pay high prices for shares in some of the world's leading ...
Gazan gas set to flow to Israeli consumers.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
Oct 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] DESPITE HAMAS' TAKEOVER of Gaza last month, the Israeli government has signed an agreement with the British natural gas company BG Group Plc to drill for natural gas in the Gaza Marine field. One of the sticking points in the deal was where the ...
Mass tourism or mass confusion? With Libya keen to establish normal, post-sanctions relations with the international community, why do there still seem to be so many obstacles put in the way of non-Arab citizens wishing to use the country as a tourist destination? Eamonn Gearon reports from Tripoli.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
Oct 01, 2007; ... LIBYA IS A veritable treasure trove for tourists, from largely unspoilt antiquities and desert landscapes of the first order to old fashioned, unhurried Arabic hospitality at its finest. So, when the US government dropped the majority of its sanctions against the country in 2003, who were ...
Islamic capital markets set to soar: Pamela Ann Smith reports on the increasing interest in Shari'ah-compliant financial dealings, which are poised to break all records this year, not only in Muslim countries but across the globe.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
Oct 01, 2007; ... WHETHER IT IS in Dubai, London or even Texas, Islamic financial instruments are experiencing unprecedented global demand. But while Shari'ahcompliant mortgage schemes (musharaka), insurance (takaful), leasing (ijarah) and some retail products have been available for a number of years, it ...
Russia builds fuel-bank for Middle East reactors.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
Oct 01, 2007; ... RUSSIA AND NEIGHBOURING Kazakhstan are developing a uranium enrichment centre intended to provide a safe and reliable nuclear fuel supply under multilateral control for the atomic power reactors now being sought by most countries of the Middle East. The fuel-bank is being ...
Iraq holds $billion mobile auction: the unrelenting bad news from Iraq has been interrupted with the results of its mobile telecom licencing auction. Structured to provide a reliable revenue stream for the country, the auction proved there was international investor interest in Iraq beyond the country's oil and gas sector.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
Oct 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHEN IN POWER, President Saddam had tried, without much success or conviction, to ban all mobile telephones. Like King Canute, he attempted to turn the tide of a technology that had swept through the Middle East; a technology that created in the wider ...
100 top Arab banks special report: the momentum of globalisation and banking innovation is changing the landscape of the financial services industry in the energy-rich Middle East region, and posing new challenges and opportunities for banks and their clientele. Researched and written by economic analyst Moin Siddiqi.(Company overview)
Oct 01, 2007; ... BANKING ON INCREASED MARKET LIQUIDITY From the construction boom in the United Arab Emirates (led by dynamic Dubai) to upstream oil/gas expansion projects in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the evidence of buoyant economic conditions in a region swamped by the flood of petrodollars is ...
Cairo's invisibles: Mel Frykberg reports from Egypt.(MOSAIC)
Oct 01, 2007; ... AS DAWN BREAKS over the heaving and polluted metropolis of Cairo and the city of 18m people braces itself for another day, some of its most vulnerable--approximately one million street children--can be found sleeping off the effects of glue and other substances of abuse, in the nooks and ...
Palestinian brothers revive an ancient Middle East tradition.(MOSAIC)(Khoury brothers )
Oct 01, 2007; ... CHRISTIAN PALESTINIAN BROTHERS David and Nadim Khoury are co-owners of Taybeh Beer, a brew named after the two brothers' home village outside Ramallah. The first and only Palestinian-brewed beer and the only micro-brewery in the Middle East, Taybeh Beer was launched in 1995 ...
Something to shout about.(MOSAIC)
Oct 01, 2007; ... THE DATE OF 29 July 2007 will long be remembered by Iraqi football fans, and most especially that magnificent, magical moment when captain fantastic, Younis Mahmoud, headed the victory goal into the net, celebrating the 72nd minute of the Asian Cup final against Saudi Arabia. ...
Reinventing Jerusalem: Israel's Reconstruction of the Jewish Quarter After 1967.(Brief article)(Book review)
Oct 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] REINVENTING JERUSALEM ISRAEL'S RECONSTRUCTION OF THE JEWISH QUARTER AFTER 1967 By Simone Ricca published by IB TAURIS ISBN 1 84511 387 2 price 45.00 [pounds sterling] hardback The Jewish quarter of Jerusalem today seems like an organic fusion ...
Love in a Torn Land: One Woman's Daring Escape from Iraq.(Brief article)(Book review)
Oct 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] LOVE IN A TORN LAND ONE WOMAN'S DARING ESCAPE FROM IRAQ By Jean Sasson published by Bantam ISBN 0 553 81814 7 price 6.99 [pounds sterling] paperback One morning Joanna Al Askari, a young bride living in the Kurdish mountains of Iraq, was ...
Oil Crusades: America Through Arab Eyes.(Brief article)(Book review)
Oct 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] OIL CRUSADES AMERICA THROUGH ARAB EYES By Abdulhay Yahya Zalloum published by Pluto Press ISBN 978 07453 2559 0 price 15.99 [pounds sterling] paperback Oil is the lifeblood of modern economics. It underpins the world's financial markets. But ...
Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape.(Brief article)(Book review)
Oct 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] PALESTINIAN WALKS NOTES ON A VANISHING LANDSCAPE By Raja Shehadeh published by Profile Books ISBN 1 861 97804 2 price 10 [pounds sterling] 99 paperback Palestine is a land of biblical beauty--of olive groves, grapevines, stone buildings, ...
The Turkic Speaking Peoples: 1,500 Years of Art and Culture from Western China to the Balkans.(Brief article)(Book review)
Oct 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE TURKIC SPEAKING PEOPLES 1,500 YEARS OF ART AND CULTURE FROM WESTERN CHINA TO THE BALKANS By Ergun Cagatay, Dogan Kuban Published by Prestel ISBN 3 7913 3515 4 price 47.50 [pounds sterling] hardback Around 2,000 years ago, Turkic speaking ...
The Clash of Barbarisms: The Making of the New World Disorder.(Brief article)(Book review)
Oct 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE CLASH OF BARBARISMS THE MAKING OF THE NEW WORLD DISORDER By Gilbert Achcar published by Saqi Edited By Peter Drucker ISBN 0 86356 919 6 price 12.99 [pounds sterling] paperback The London bombings ofF July 2005 revived the debates that raged ...
Abdel Hay Adeeb: pioneering screenwriter, filmmaker and producer 1928-2007.(THE LAST WORD)(Obituary)
Oct 01, 2007; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The 29th Alexandria International Film Festival closed by paying tribute to its co-founder, scriptwriter Abdel Hay Adeeb, who died earlier this year aged 82 after a career spanning 45 years, involving over 100 Egyptian movies, television plays and some two ...