Abbas demands firm Arab stance against Israeli settlements
JEDDAH: Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas urged Arab states during a meeting with Saudi King Abdullah to unite against Israeli plans to expand West Bank settlements, his spokesman said on Monday.The…
NDP denies cabinet reshuffle rumors
CAIRO: The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) denied Monday a newspaper report which stated that a cabinet reshuffle was to take place before the party's annual conference in November.Al-Wafd newspaper…
Hazem Hassan heads new GAFI board
CAIRO: Hazem Zaki Hassan of KPMG was named the chief of the Board of Trustees of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), according to a statement on…
TE wary of mobile operators' rate cuts
CAIRO: Telecom Egypt (TE) announced this week that it had filed a complaint to the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority against the country's mobile phone operators for what the fixed-line giant…
Transportation sector to see investments of LE 60 bln
CAIRO: Egypt will invest LE 60 billion in the local transportation sector, announced Minister of Transportation Mohamed Mansour. This allocation of funds will be used to make improvements in the…
At Venice film fest, child soldiers seek 'White Material'
Isabelle Huppert incarnates post-colonial whites terrorized by roving child soldiers in White Material, unveiled Sunday by French director Claire Denis.In the drama set on a coffee plantation, a white family…
Promise unfulfilled: A 'Voice for Love' comes to Cairo
I'm not sure if it was the music, but I was surrounded by four sleeping children.It was a cool late-summer eve and a low, steady voice was seeping over the…
De-mystifying the Middle East
WEST BANK: Sitting in my Tokyo apartment two years ago and planning a worldwide trip, I only considered travelling through Lebanon, Syria and Jordan as a means to get from…
A "reset" button for Europe's backyard
STOCKHOLM: Pushing the "reset button on diplomatic relations is a popular endeavor nowadays. President Barack Obama just journeyed to Moscow in order to "reset strained United States-Russian ties. The European…
The tragedy of the left's discourse on Iran (Part I)
The electoral coup and the subsequent uprising and suppression of the revolting voters in Iran have prompted all sorts of analyses in Western media from both the Right and the…