The Middle East back issues from February 2008:
Comment.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Viewpoint essay)
Feb 01, 2008; ... HE CAME, HE saw, he walked away with a shed load of contracts that will put more than $20bn into the coffers of American arms manufacturers. What is left to say about President George Bush? If his visit to the region had not come six or seven years too late, his words on peace ...
Climate conflicts: oil, money, land--the opportunities for argument in the volatile Middle East region are myriad. But it is water and the results of global warming that present the region with its greatest potential hazard over the coming decades.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As if the violence-plagued Middle East did not have enough to worry about, proponents of tough legislation against greenhouse gas emissions warn that global warming could lead to even greater instability in the region. The main problem, they ...
Dubya's mission impossible: described by Israel as its staunchest ally, President George 'Dubya' Bush waited seven years before his first official visit to the Jewish State.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] COMMENTING ON THE American leader's week long tour of the Middle East analysts agreed on one thing: it was not clear what he would bring his hosts apart from gridlock. Parties in the troubled region had different aims and expectations for the US leader's ...
Upping the ante: Israel has threatened to launch an all-out invasion of the Gaza Strip if the violence against its border towns continues. There seems a fair chance Hamas and Fatah will join forces to fight the invading Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) troops if that happens. The prospects for peace, despite the fine rhetoric of international politicians, do not look good, as Mel Frykberg reports from Gaza.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SDEROT, A WORKING-CLASS Israeli town of 22,000, has been battered by more than 4,500 crude Qassam rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, just a mile away, since 2001. A total of 970 rockets and 1,200 mortar shells have been fired at Israel from Gaza since ...
US spy report averts threat against Iran.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
Feb 01, 2008; ... THE THREAT OF early military strikes by the United States and its allies against Iran to thwart its relentless pursuit of nuclear power has receded, giving way to the advancing prospect of a disastrous new cold war enveloping the Middle East. The change was brought about by the hugely ...
Ankara claims success on PKK targets: after nearly a year of debate and manoeuvre, with a roar of warplanes and the thud of artillery Turkey finally launched its long-awaited offensive into neighbouring Northern Iraq in late 2007.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] TARGETING LOCATIONS REPORTED to be bases of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in the rugged and largely snowbound mountains of the border region, the Turkish military claimed hundreds of guerrillas killed and the PKK infrastructure severely damaged. ...
After Benazir ... The death late last year of the controversial Benazir Bhutto has been much debated. Milan Vesely reports from the United States on some of the likely causes and culprits behind her cowardly killing.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] TAHE ASSASSINATION OF Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan on 27 December highlighted the disarray in America s foreign policy. And with President Bush stubbornly sticking to the old Ronald Reagan guideline of backing individuals while at the same time pressuring ...
Ambivalence was never an option.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Biography)
Feb 01, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BENAZIR BHUTTO WAS flawed but she was also courageous and committed to bringing change to Pakistan. Love her, or hate her, few successfully ignored her, writes Richard Seymour. Bhutto was born in Karachi in 1953 into a political dynasty. Her ...
Arab world: capitalizes on private equity.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)(Cover story)
Feb 01, 2008; ... IN THE GCC and other parts of the Middle East, private equity is expanding massively, as governments, corporations and individuals seek to maximise the returns on their growing wealth. Family-owned firms in the region are expected to benefit as well, not least because some of the largest ...
Investments by GCC Sovereign Wealth Funds in Western Financial Institutions: May-December, 2007.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)(Table)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... <Pre> Investments by GCC Sovereign Wealth Funds in Western Financial Institutions May-December, 2007 AMOUNT HOLDING SWF FINANCIAL INSTITUTION($ BN) (%) Abu Dhabi Investment ...
Sovereign wealth funds.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are closely this year at the prospect of investing yet more funds in western financial institutions, particularly those that have been adversely affected by the US sub-prime mortgage crisis and the ensuing ...
Arab private equity: a case study.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)(Case study)
Feb 01, 2008 ... WHEN TWO GIFTED and ambitions young men in Amman, Jordan, decided in 2005 that they needed finance and advice to expand their website business, a Bahrain-based private equity fund, Abraaj Capital, came on board to help. The result has been a phenomenal success both for the two young men ...
MENA: region throws open its doors to business.
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A thriving business sector requires companies (ranging from large, medium and small enterprises) operating in the formal economy, which can more easily obtain bank credit. hire workers, trade with diverse partners (both local and foreign), enforce legally ...
Gaddafi's grand tour accelerates the pace.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)(Muammar Gaddafi)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] LIBYAN LEADER COLONEL Muammar Gaddafi, swept through the major capitals of west Mediterranean Europe signing contracts and healing old wounds, receiving the political elite in a traditional Bedouin tent big enough for visitors and his entourage of 400. He ...
Egypt embraces the age of renewables.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
Feb 01, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MOST DISCUSSION OF the Egyptian power sector focuses on the political battle over liberalisation and the replacement of oil with gas as a feedstock for thermal power plants. Yet the country is fast becoming the biggest wind power producer in the Middle ...
OPEC's $150bn upstream investments.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] EVEN WITHIN THE past 12 months, the possibility of the $100 barrel has been described as unlikely by analysts who were confident prices would fall towards $60 a barrel on the back of new field development. These same predictions have been heard regularly ...
Will $7.5b.n really make a difference.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] TWO MONTHS AFTER Annapolis and the launching of the new US-sponsored peace process for Israel and Palestine, the foundations of the "economic" road map, as well as its political outlines, are becoming clearer. Some $7.5bn has been pledged for ...
Palestinians in the West Bank & Gaza: poor & growing poorer.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)
Feb 01, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a report issued by the Arab Monetary Fund in Abu Dhabi in January, the Arab League--which represents 22 Arab countries--cited Israel's refusal to transfer funds raised by taxes on Palestinians to the Palestinian Authority as a main cause of the growing ...
Hope on the horizon: Mel Frykberg reports from the occupied territories.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CERTAIN PALESTINIAN BUSINESS sectors IN THE WEST BANK HAVE STARTED TO SLOWLY recover. "I believe the country is on the right track and I feel very optimistic for the future," Bassim Khoury, chairman of the Palestinian Federation of Industries in Ramallah, ...
Major donations to Palestine.(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)(Table)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... <Pre> MAJOR DONATIONS TO PALESTINE PARIS CONFERENCE, 17 DECEMBER, 2007 Saudi Arabia $750m over three yearsPast donations and aid European Union $650mover three years have suffered from Israeli United States$555m for 2008 (subject restrictions in the ...
Making East Jerusalem "Jewish".(BUSINESS AND FINANCE)
Feb 01, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ALICE ROTHCHILD, THE US-based author of Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience, noted that while, "despite pronouncements to the contrary, every Israeli government since 1967 has supported the growth of a ...
Gaza faces medical crisis: Mel Frykberg reports from the occupied territories.(MOSAIC)
Feb 01, 2008; ... GAZA IS ON the brink of a medical disaster as the Israelis continue to tighten their siege of the strip. Hospitals have run out of many essential drugs and pharmaceuticals and other supplies are running chronically low. Insufficient amounts of fuel--necessary for operating hospital ...
Limbless in Gaza: the brown eyes of 14-year-old Assad look serious within his skinny frame. But the unsmiling face reflects trauma: two months ago, an Israeli tank shell exploded in Belt Hanoun, northern Gaza, where he and his friends were playing football. Seven of his close friends were killed and many injured.(MOSAIC)
Feb 01, 2008; ... ASSAD LOST AN arm and two legs, one below and one above the knee. He seems small within his new wheelchair, a tracksuit arm dangling empty at his side, and stumps still bandaged. "From the first day I refused treatment in an Israeli hospital," said his father, Mahmoud, eyes ...
Hidden Afghanistan.(MOSAIC)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] WHEN ALL THE news about Afghanistan is of conflict and misery, it's heartening to hear something positive. "Poor Afghanistan" we mutter, suffering since the Russian invasion of 1979 and now the war between local leaders, the Taliban and Coalition forces ....
Still smoking after all these years.(MOSAIC)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MILLIONS OF EGYPTIANS invoke the name of Cleopatra daily, offering money in exchange for packets bearing images of the queen. No, they're not members of a neo-Ptolemaic cult, only avid consumers of some of the world's cheapest cigarettes. Around half of ...
The message stays the same: Pat McDonnell Twair reports from the US.(MOSAIC)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] WHILE WORLD LEADERS wring their hands and lament there is no solution to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, a generation that came of age around the onset of the second Intifada has found its own expression in a cultural revolution known as hip-hop. ...
Playing Politics with Terrorism: A User's Guide.(Brief article)(Book review)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] PLAYING POLITICS WITH TERRORISM: A USER'S GUIDE Edited by George Kassimeris published by C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd ISBN: 978-1850658474 price 45.00 [pounds sterling] hardback Playing Politics with Terrorism: A User's Guide is a collection of ...
Water Sheikhs & Dam Builders.(Brief article)(Book review)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WATER SHEIKHS & DAM BUILDERS by Francesca de Chatel Published by Transaction Publishing ISBN 978-0-7658-0377-1 price $ 32.95 hardback In Water Sheikhs & Dam Builders Francesca de Chatel discusses the problems and paradoxes of water resources in ...
The Scar of David.(Brief article)(Book review)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE SCAR OF DAVID by Susan Abulhama Published by Journey Publications ISBN 978-0-9772078-8-6 price $28.95 hardback The Scar of David is fiction about a Palestinian family from the village of Ein Hod, which was emptied of its inhabitants by the ...
The Middle East and North Africa 2008, 54th Edition.(Brief article)(Book review)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA 2008, 54TH EDITION Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 978-1857434316 price 385.00 [pounds sterling] hardback The Middle East and North Africa 2008 is internationally regarded as among the most reliable and complete ...
Swimming Up the Tigris.(Brief article)(Book review)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SWIMMING UP THE TIGRIS by Barbara Nimri Aziz Published by University Press of Florida ISBN 978-0-8130-3144-6 price $24.95 hardback As Americans went about their daily lives in the 1990s, few could imagine what Iraqi men and women faced under the ...
Poems from Guantanamo: the Detainees Speak.(Brief article)(Book review)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] POEMS FROM GUANTANAMO: THE DETAINEES SPEAK Edited by Mark Falkoff published by University of Iowa Press ISBN 978-1-58729-606-2 price $13.95 hardback Mark Falkoff, who has represented 17 Yemeni prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, collected the works ...
The last word.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
Feb 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I am not a politician but I know one thing. There is no military solution. We are blessed or cursed to live with each other ... Even not very intelligent people are saying that the occupation has to be stopped." Speaking in Ramallah last ...