The Middle East articles from June 2007

The Middle East archives from June 2007

Editorial comment: a great burden is being placed upon the shoulders of the Middle East region's youth, if the Petra III Nobel Laureates meeting held in Jordan in mid-May is anything to go by.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Editorial)
June 1, 2007... It is a well recognised fact that more than 50% of the region's population is under the age of 18 and that issues concerning youth--making sure young people receive a good education and working to ensure that on completion of their schooling...

Mayhem in the Maghreb: while the counter-terrorism strategy of the western powers and their allies has been focused on Iraq and Afghanistan, jihadists, inspired, and in all probability organised, by Al Qaeda, have been establishing a new front in their "holy war" against the "crusaders": North Africa.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
June 1, 2007... COUNTER-TERRORISM ANALYSTS SUSPECT that Al Qaeda's objective is an integrated organisation across the Maghreb, from Egypt to Morocco and south into the sub-Saharan Sahel region, that could provide a springboard for sustained terrorist campaigns...

Olmert & after.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Ehud Olmert)
June 1, 2007... Since becoming Israel's prime minister in April 2006, Ehud Olmert seems to have spent much of his time fighting for political survival. What many political observers saw as the last straw, were the findings of the Winograd report, published in...

What cost defence of the Gulf? Governmental expenditure on defence among the countries of the Gulf and its neighbours is on the rise as Eamonn Gearon reports.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
June 1, 2007... ACCORDING TO THE Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), global military expenditure has never been higher, with 2006 spending figures certain to outstrip the $1.12 trillion-mark realised in 2005. The US's continuing...

The Six Day War: 40 years on: as June marks the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War, Bill Parry talked to people from both Israel and Palestine about their memories of the conflict and their reflections on its intractable legacy.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
June 1, 2007... MARIE, A 10 year old girl, skips home from school down the narrow streets of Nazareth. It's late May, 1967. From door to door, window to window, she catches every word of Gamal Nasser's nationalistic, provocative address to the Arab people...

Splintering Iraq's insurgency.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
June 1, 2007... ON 27 MARCH, Harith Dhahir Al Dari, a top leader of the 1920 Revolutionary Brigades, one of the largest Sunni insurgent groups, was assassinated in an Al Qaeda bombing west of Baghdad. He was killed because he sought to align the group with the...

In our own time, at our own pace, if at all: the seventh forum on democracy, development and free trade was held in Doha at the end of April, when Adel Darwish and Pat Lancaster joined around 500 other participants in the Qatari capital to debate the progress, or otherwise, of reforms in the region.(2007 Doha Conference on Democracy and Free Trade)
June 1, 2007... THERE WAS SOMETHING unique and yet expectedly familiar about the 2007 Doha Conference on Democracy and Free Trade, held at the end of April in the Qatari capital. This annual event has established itself as an exceptional global forum where...

UAE: the success story surges onwards and upwards.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
June 1, 2007... THE UAE, A confederation of seven autonomous emirates, remains one of the most prosperous economies in the emerging-market regions. Abu Dhabi, an oil powerhouse, and Dubai, the regional hub for trade, commerce and finance, form the backbone of...

Heroin trading reaches new highs.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
June 1, 2007... ANTONIO MARIA COSTA, director of the Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, has written to the health ministers of 90 countries in the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe advising them to prepare for soaring drug-overdose...

Not much to celebrate.(Egypt)
June 1, 2007... THE 1ST OF May, Labour Day, came and went without much fanfare in Egypt last month. Although never usually loathe to pass up an opportunity to praise the stalwarts of Egypt's economy, this year, officials were strangely quiet. The reason behind...

At last-an Iraqi success story: Jon Gorvett reports on the economic success being achieved in the Kurdish region of Iraq.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
June 1, 2007... AROUND THE CITY, building goes on at a furious pace. In hotel lobbies, the talk is of new airports, oil agreements and shopping malls. Over glasses of tea, plans for tourism developments are discussed, along with mineral rights and the new,...

Forging stronger ties across the Med: plans to construct a multibillion dollar tunnel beneath the Straits of Gibraltar that will link Morocco and Spain are moving forward.(Mediterranean region)
June 1, 2007... JUST FIVE YEARS ago, relations between Morocco and Spain were dangerously precarious. The long-running dispute over the fate of the Western Sahara seemed to prevent constructive dialogue on a range of other issues and the argument over the...

Essentially Egyptian: raqs sharqi has experienced its fair share of controversy over the generations but despite adversity the power of Middle Eastern dance remains strong and is currently attracting growing global attention. Maria Golia reports from Cairo.(MOSAIC)
June 1, 2007... NOT FAR FROM the pyramids at one of Cairo's 5-star hotels, several hundred women of a dozen nationalities file into a conference hall to the strains of raucous music. The gathering they are here to attend will offer special insights into...

Travellers in Arabia: in the 21st century a "special relationship" is said to exist between Saudi Arabia and the UK. Many would claim oil is the common denominator in this affiliation but bilateral ties go back further than that.(MOSAIC)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... THE DESERT EXPANSES of Arabia--lands unchartered and inaccessible to outsiders from ancient times to the modern day--have long held an allure for travellers from the world beyond, many of them from Europe and specifically the United Kingdom....

Honouring the vision: Pat McDonnell Twair talked to the son of legendary Syrian filmmaker Moustapha Akkad, Malek Akkad, who has become a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood in his own right.(MOSAIC)(Interview)
June 1, 2007... SHOCK REVERBERATED THROUGHOUT the Arab and Muslim worlds when news broke of the 11 November 2005 death of legendary Syrian-American filmmaker Moustapha Akkad. Two days earlier, a bomb blast in an Amman hotel had instantly killed Akkad's...

The Savage Border: The Story of the Northwest Frontier.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... THE SAVAGE BORDER THE STORY OF THE NORTHWEST FRONTIER By Jules Stewart published by Sutton Publishing ISBN 0 7509 4452 6 price 19.99 [pounds sterling] hardback For centuries, Pakistan's North-West Frontier has been seen as a lawless...

Where Now for Palestine? The Demise of the Two-State Solution.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... WHERE NOW FOR PALESTINE? THE DEMISE OF THE TWO-STATE SOLUTION Edited by Jamil Hilal published by Zed books ISBN 978 1 84277 840 1 price 17.99 [pounds sterling] paperback Where Now for Palestine? marks a turning point for the Middle East....

Rumi: Words of Paradise.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... RUMI WORDS OF PARADISE Selected and translated by Raficq Abdulla Published by Frances Lincoln ISBN 0 7112 2651 2 price 9.99 [pounds sterling] paperback Jalaluddin Rumi, the great Sufi mystic born in 1204, wrote poetry to express and teach...

A History of Women's Seclusion in the Middle East: The Veil in the Looking Glass.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... A HISTORY OF WOMEN'S SECLUSION IN THE MIDDLE EAST THE VEIL IN THE LOOKING GLASS By Ann Chamberlin published by The Haworth Press ISBN 978 0 7890 2983 6 price $24.95 paperback This book is a critical interdisciplinary examination of the...

Ghost Plane: The Inside Story of the Cia's Secret Rendition Programme.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... GHOST PLANE THE INSIDE STORY OF THE CIA'S SECRET RENDITION PROGRAMME By Stephen Grey published by Hurst & Co ISBN 1 85065 850 1 price 16.95 [pounds sterling] hardback In December 2005, Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, assured...

Governing Property, Making the Modern State: Law, Administration and Production in Ottoman Syria.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2007... GOVERNING PROPERTY, MAKING THE MODERN STATE LAW, ADMINISTRATION AND PRODUCTION IN OTTOMAN SYRIA By Martha Mundy and Richard Saumarez Smith Published by IB TAURIS ISBN 978 1 84511 291 2 price 49.50 [pounds sterling] hardback Was 'modernity'...

The last word.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
June 1, 2007... After his farewell speech on 10 May, British Prime Minister Tony Blair beamed with the relief of a man finally shedding a heavy burden. And well he might, for despite the 'good guy' image he has tried to project while in office, the reality is...