The Middle East articles from August 2006

The Middle East archives from August 2006

Editorial comment.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Editorial)
August 1, 2006... Despite the fact that most international officials meeting in Rome under the auspices of the UN in late July, were keen that an immediate ceasefire be implemented in Lebanon, the US, in the form of US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice,...

Flashpoint Lebanon: once again Lebanon finds itself the arena in which others elect to settle old scores.(Cover story)
August 1, 2006... After turning their back on 15 years of civil war and many sacrifices, the Lebanese finally saw the departure of Israeli forces in 2000, followed five years later by the withdrawal of Syrian troops. Just as Beirut was reviving its old...

Middle East military spending soars: according to a recent report, global military spending in 2005 reached $1.12 trillion, a new record. At the same time, a decreasing number of countries are now responsible for an increased proportion of this spending with the Middle East being among those regions responsible for significant increases. Eamonn Gearon reports on the growth of a lucrative if deadly industry.
August 1, 2006... THE FIGURES FOR MILITARY SPENDING in 2005 were issued by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), in June, in their annual report. SIPRI was established in 1966 and is largely funded by the Swedish government. It remains...

LA 8: the final battle? The long-running case of the US government versus the LA 8, appears to have been settled--or almost. Pat McDonnell Twair reports from California on the latest developments.
August 1, 2006... A REAL-LIFE ENACTMENT OF a plot similar to that of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, in which Inspector Javert chased Jean Valjean for 20 years, has resulted in a setback for the US government with the recent ruling by District Court Judge Stephen...

Taliban and Al Qaeda re-emerge in Afghanistan.
August 1, 2006... AFTER WEEKS OF DOWNING STREET dismissing the need to deploy more troops to help the overstretched British army in southern Afghanistan, Tony Blair's government made a 180-degree turn when Defence Secretary Des Brown announced in July that an...

Paving the way to parity: just over a year after winning the right to vote and run in elections, Kuwaiti women were frustrated at the ballot box as a string of female candidates lost out to male rivals. Yet the elections have undoubtedly opened the door to change, as Jon Gorvett reports from Kuwait city.
August 1, 2006... DESPITE THE FAILURE of some 28 women candidates to get elected, the end of June parliamentary ballot was still seen by most as historic--and a powerful shot in a campaign to see female enfranchisement elsewhere in the region. The elections...

The last frontier: in 2004, Egypt had a mere 40 registered blogs. Today, that number has risen to well over 1,000, creating a new medium for the diffusion of ideas. This situation has worked in favour of the growing opposition in the country, allowing activists to communicate their message of dissent. Joseph Mayton reports from Cairo.
August 1, 2006... AS ALAA ABDEL FATTAH, an internationally renowned blogger, languishes in prison for his involvement at a public demonstration in May, Egyptians are taking to the internet in order to publicise their cause. Alaa's blog, www.manalaa.net, won...

From Russia 'with love': Russia's President Putin declares war on jihadists after Moscow's diplomats are kidnapped and killed in Iraq.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
August 1, 2006... ON 28 JUNE, the Kremlin announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered his intelligence services to hunt down and kill the Iraqi jihadists who slaughtered four Russian diplomats kidnapped in Baghdad earlier that month. A fifth...

Stoking the competition.(mobile telecom license, Egypt)
August 1, 2006... There has been no shortage of excitement of late for telecom and IT buffs in Egypt. Nine consortia waited with bated breath for the results of an auction awarding Egypt's third mobile licence in early July. It was not so much the result that...

Qatar poised for take-off: in a few years, a crowd of skyscrapers has joined the occasional solitary tower that, with the signature pyramid of the Sheraton Hotel, formed the Doha skyline. These concrete and glass edifices to prosperity now compete for height and breadth amongst malls and motorways--and the city's building programme hasn't really started yet.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
August 1, 2006... QATAR IS AT the beginning of a construction and real estate boom that is set to rapidly propel the emirate to a position some believe will make it the new Dubai. Such a project does not seem fanciful either when looking through the schemes that...

Nokia wins Saudi network contract.
August 1, 2006... Finnish telecoms company Nokia has won a contract to supply managed network services in Saudi Arabia to cellphone company Mobily. The deal will enable Mobily to meet the growing demand for access to information, services and entertainment more...

15km road network for Dubailand.(Kier Dubai L.L.C.)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... A $64m joint venture has been set up to construct roads and infrastructure for the $1.1bn City of Arabia development in Dubailand. The two companies involved, Leighton Asia and Kier Dubai LLC, will build 15km of roads, five bridges and...

After the pilgrimage: every year approximately two million people enter the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj or Umrah pilgrimage. Many thousands of these people fail to return home, creating an immigration problem unique to Saudi Arabia and an economic issue that the Saudi government wants resolved. Eamonn Gearon reports from Riyadh.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
August 1, 2006... ANY COUNTRY WHERE the standard of life or the perceived money-making opportunities are thought to be better than one's own will naturally attract persons from less well-off or less secure countries. This desire to pursue a better quality of...

Oil producers spend windfall wisely: there has long been global fascination with how and where the Arab oil producing nations spend their cash. Neil Ford reports that the trends of 2006 are very different to those of 30 years ago.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
August 1, 2006... ECONOMIC STRATEGY AMONG the oil producing nations of the Middle East and North Africa has followed a similar trend over the past 30 years. Oil, and to a lesser extent gas, revenues have dominated GDP, export earnings and government income,...

Not just an oil economy.(United Arab Emirates)(Interview)(Agency overview)
August 1, 2006... ESTABLISHED IN 1980, the Central Bank of the UAE has the responsibilities of issuing the emirates currency, the UAE dirham (UAD) and maintaining its stability internally and externally as well as ensuring its free convertibility into foreign...

Bedouins of the holy land.
August 1, 2006... "We are friends of the land; we work it and make it flourish. For generations we have grown off this land and depended on it for our sustenance," says Abu Ali, a Bedouin farmer who lives with his second wife and one of his 11 children in a...

Islamic Art & Architecture.(The Timeline History of Islamic Art and Architecture )(Book review)
August 1, 2006... THE HISTORY OF ISLAM stretches from the 7th century to the present day and encompasses an area from Spain to Indonesia, North Africa to China. Of the 193 recognised countries of the modern world, more than 50 are of the Muslim faith, with a...

More hope than glory: although US President George Bush is displaying no sign of alarm at the spiralling levels of violence and mayhem across the Middle East, American citizens are not so sanguine, as Pat McDonnell Twair reports from the United States.
August 1, 2006... ON US MEMORIAL day, when Americans traditionally honour their war-dead, evidence of the anti Iraq war movement screamed at people walking on Santa Monica beach where almost 2,500 crosses were stuck in the sand, representing American military...

Setting the Desert on Fire: The Arab Revolt of 1916.(Book review)
August 1, 2006... SETTING THE DESERT ON FIRE THE ARAB REVOLT OF 1916 By James Barr published by Bloomsbury ISBN 0 7475 7986 5 price 20.00 [pounds sterling] hardback The myth of T.E. Lawrence--made famous in the book Seven Pillars of Wisdom and the film...

Rafiq Hariri and the Fate of Lebanon.(Book review)
August 1, 2006... RAFIQ HARIRI AND THE FATE OF LEBANON By Marwan Iskandar published by Saqi Books ISBN 0 86356 3708 price 16.99 [pounds sterling] hardback On Valentine's Day 2005 self-made billionaire Rafiq Hariri, Lebanon's former prime minister, was...

Inside the Gender Jihad: Women's Reform in Islam.(Book review)
August 1, 2006... INSIDE THE GENDER JIHAD WOMEN'S REFORM IN ISLAM By Amina Wadud published by Oneworld ISBN 1 85168 463 8 price 14.99 [pounds sterling] paperback In this insightful study, Amina Wadud, an African-American Muslim herself, introduces the...

The Cat in Ancient Egypt.(Book review)
August 1, 2006... THE CAT IN ANCIENT EGYPT By Jaromir Malek published by The British Museum Press ISBN 0 7141 1970 9 price 9.99 [pounds sterling] paperback Many modern cats are descendants of the cats of ancient Egypt. These beautiful creatures thus...

The West Bank Wall: Unmaking Palestine.(Book review)
August 1, 2006... THE WEST BANK WALL UNMAKING PALESTINE By Ray Dolphin published by Pluto Press ISBN 0745324339 price 14 99 [pounds sterling] paperback What is the purpose of the West Bank Wall? What are the real intentions behind the Israeli security...

Natural Remedies of Arabia.(Book review)
August 1, 2006... NATURAL REMEDIES OF ARABIA By Robert Lebling and Donna Pepperdine published by Stacey International ISBN 1 905299 02 8 price 27.50 [pounds sterling] hardback This timely volume comes just as the age-old regional knowledge of remedies...

The last word.(Tony Blair's diplomacy)
August 1, 2006... Prime Minister Tony Blair's handling of the Middle East crisis alarmed British elder diplomats as they sensed the ghosts of Suez hovering above Downing Street. Fifty years ago (26 July 1956) Anthony Eden's dinner party for young King Faisal II...