New Hamas government already in trouble

Ruling the Palestinian territories has proved difficult even at the best of times. Hamas, the winner of last January’s elections are finding out just how complex governing those territories can be. And these are by no means the best of times.

Olmert’s monumental job

Israel’s Kadima center party has won the elections — but just barely. However, this will guarantee the prime minister’s office to Ehud Olmert, along with a difficult task.

Israelis go to the polls

Israeli voters are going to the polls this Tuesday to cast their ballots in what has been described at the same time as one of the country’s most decisive and most apathetic elections.

Bush commits second major Iraq error

People will argue for years to come whether the war in Iraq was worth starting or a mistake.

Afghan covert from Islam threatened

Just two months after the debacle over the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed pitted the Muslim world against the West, a new controversy has erupted threatening to further widen the chasm between the two cultures. The latest row is over the news that a court in the Afghan capital, Kabul, is threatening to impose the death penalty on an Afghani man who converted to Christianity from Islam.

Dubai deploys weapon of charm

Dubai’s secret weapon came to Washington. She is Sheikha Lubna Al-Qasimi, Minister of Economy of the United Arab Emirates and the first woman in the history of the United Arab Emirates to assume a full cabinet position. She was given the position in November 2004 to manage the newly merged ministries of Economy and Planning.

Media pays heavy price in Iraq

Call it civil waror not, three years of conflict has already claimed more lives among the press corps than 20 years of jungle, and at times urban, warfare in Vietnam.

The Not May ‘68 riots

Despite the similarities between today’s student unrest and the student revolt of May 1968, there is little chance that the recent spate of protests perturbing French political life turning into another May ‘68.

Stop the boycott

Shorlt after ascending to the throne, Saudi Arabia’s new King Abdullah indicated that he intended to play a major role in finding a negotiated settlement to the long-standing Arab-Israeli dispute.

A diary of the Iraq war — year three

Iraq. Year three. Things did not exactly turn out as planned.