Syrians flee northern town as tanks close in
AMMAN: Thousands of Syrians have fled the historic town of Maarat Al-Numaan to escape troops and tanks pushing into the north in a widening military campaign to crush protests against…
Dozens dead in new front between north-south Sudan
NAIROBI: Fighting has erupted along a new front near the internal border between north and south Sudan with dozens of people reported killed, aid workers and a UN report said.…
Area near Qaddafi compound struck in raid
TRIPOLI: NATO pounded the area near Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi's compound again before dawn Thursday, rattling windows in the heart of the capital with thunderous booms as smoke rose from…
Giving a second listen to McCartney’s first disc
It's hard to think of how Paul McCartney could have given his first solo album a bigger publicity hurdle to overcome, unless he'd been arrested for some vile crime on…
An Ant’s Cry: The exploitation of the revolution continues
In the recently released Ahmed Fouad Negm biopic “El-Fagoumy,” director Essam El-Shamaa ventured to capitalize on the January 25 Revolution by inserting footage of the protests at the very end…
The women of the Arab spring: from protesters to parliamentarians?
By Natana DeLong-Bas BOSTON, Massachusetts: What do Asmaa Mahfouz, Munira Fakhro and Tawakul Karman all have in common? They are all strong, capable women defying the popular Western image of the…
Religion, out of place?
By Maria José Rosado-Nunes Brazil is seen as a country of diverse and profound faith. But though religion is an important reference point in the lives of the population, the extent…
France’s UNESCO ambassador to resign to fight Sarkozy
PARIS: France's ambassador to UNESCO, the former minister Rama Yade who fell into disfavour with President Nicolas Sarkozy, has decided to resign to join an ally's campaign to unseat him.…
Erdoğan’s Economic Revolution
By Ibrahim Ozturk ISTANBUL: Since 2002, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been governing Turkey with remarkable success in economic terms. Indeed, its record is almost unique in Turkey’s modern…
A Post-Crisis World of Risk
By Michael Spence MILAN: The global economy’s most striking feature nowadays is the magnitude and interconnectedness of the macro risks that it faces. The post-crisis period has produced a multi-speed world,…