YEAREND SPECIAL: A good year for God
By Chris Patten LONDON: It’s been a better year for God. After withering literary assaults on the Almighty from the Oxford academic Richard Dawkins, the essayist Christopher Hitchens, and others, believers…
West Africans threaten force in Ivory Coast
ABIDJAN: Laurent Gbagbo who refuses to leave Ivory Coast's presidency faced new threats to his grasp on power after regional leaders threatened to remove him by force if necessary. Meanwhile,…
Kuwait in turmoil as opposition bids to oust PM
KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait has plunged into fresh political turmoil after opposition MPs unleashed a serious bid to unseat the oil-rich Gulf state's premier, a senior member of the ruling family.…
Rights campaigners appeal for life of Kurd student in Iran
PARIS: Rights campaigners have appealed to Iran to spare a Kurdish law student due to be executed on Sunday. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on the…
Something fishy holds hope for Angola tourism
KISSAMA PARK: Post-war Angola may not stand out as a top African tourist destination but adventure anglers fishing for the giant tarpon look set to put the country back on…
‘Dark future’ awaits the economy, says Iran opposition
TEHRAN: Iran's opposition leaders said that a "dark future" awaits the economy because the government didn't listen to economists when it slashed energy and food subsidies in a country already…
World Cup investment to lead Qatar growth
DUBAI: The investment in infrastructure that Qatar will have to make after it won the right to host the 2022 football World Cup is likely to lead the economic growth…
YEAREND SPECIAL: Cairo art scene embraces new trends
By Mariam Hamdy This year has been a relatively intriguing one for the arts in Cairo. Despite the fact that most of the exhibitions didn’t resonate significantly with viewers or critics,…
YEAREND SPECIAL: The best films of 2010 have little chance of wide viewership
By Joseph Fahim The life of a critic is a solitary one, largely spent in front of a big screen with an audience that mostly shares the same tastes, opinions and…
YEAREND SPECIAL: 2010’s books promise much, offer little
By Sherif Azer and Youssef Faltas/ Literary recession still glooms over book lovers in Egypt. There are no notable sensations to mark 2010, with bestseller lists largely unchanged from last year’s,…