Israel to quit part of village on Lebanese border
JERUSALEM: Israel will present the UN with a plan to withdraw from the northern sector of a disputed village along the Lebanese border that it has occupied since its 2006…
Egypt jumps 5 places in doing business rankings
CAIRO: Among the world's economies, Egypt jumped 5 places in reforming business regulations from 99 in 2010 to 94 in 2011, according to Doing Business 2011: Making a Difference for…
Egypt tells Israel peace process must move forward
JERUSALEM: Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman met Israeli leaders on Thursday and said the prospect of renewed Middle East peace talks with the Palestinians must not be allowed to slip…
Archaeologists unearth 3,400 pharaoh statue
CAIRO: Egypt's antiquities chief says archaeologists have unearthed the upper half of a red granite statue of a powerful pharaoh who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago. Zahi Hawass says the…
Clowns, dancers and puppets bring cultures together in sea festival
Alexandria, the Pearl of the Mediterranean, outclasses Cairo, Mother of the World, with its genteel poise. Although it’s claimed Alexandria is more cosmopolitan than Cairo, this coastal city presents itself…
Actress Jill Clayburgh dies at 66
NEW YORK: US actress Jill Clayburgh, who was twice nominated for Oscars for her portrayals of independent women, died of leukemia on Friday, the New York Times reported. She was…
Book prize on a platter for France’s Houellebecq?
By Myriam Chaplain-Riou /AFP PARIS: For over a decade the biting, sex-fuelled satire of France's best-known living writer Michel Houellebecq has shocked and delighted readers in equal measure, but the country's…
Building bridges with graffiti art
By Mohammed Ali LONDON: We hear government officials, academics and politicians talking about the problems of multiculturalism and community cohesion, but I feel they have left one resource untapped when it…
Diplomacy’s darkest hours
By Shlomo Ben Ami MADRID: Diplomacy is not having its finest hour nowadays. Quite the contrary: resistance to diplomatic solutions is a common thread in most of today’s major conflicts. Afghanistan…
Why is China lashing out?
By Ian Buruma NEW YORK: It must be galling for the Chinese government to keep seeing Nobel Prizes go to the wrong Chinese. The first wrong Chinese was Gao Xingjian, a…