Signs of life in Egypt secondary bond market
By Tom Pfeiffer / Reuters CAIRO: Egypt's secondary market in treasuries is flickering to life after a year of stagnation as companies plough excess cash into government paper and debt auctions…
Egypt minister sees telecom tender within 4 weeks
By Matt Smith and Regan Doherty / Reuters DOHA: Egypt will launch a tender for mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) licenses within four weeks, the country's communications minister said on Tuesday.…
Did America blink?
By Philip Whitfield CAIRO: Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens…
Syria’s agony
By Shlomo Ben Ami MADRID: The English author and priest William Ralph Inge once said that “A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he cannot sit on it.”…
The usual suspect
By J. Bradford DeLong BERKELEY: Across the Euro-Atlantic world, recovery from the recession of 2008-2009 remains sluggish and halting, turning what was readily curable cyclical unemployment into structural unemployment. And what…
Japan’s revenge of the mandarins
By Masahiro Matsumura OSAKA: Ever since the huge earthquake that hit Japan’s Pacific coast at Tohoku on March 11, 2011, the country’s mass media has obsessively focused on the magnitude of…
‘Lost’ novel by dead Nobel laureate published
By Gabriel Rubio / AFP A "lost" novel by Portuguese Nobel literature laureate Jose Saramago which he wrote in the 1950s before he achieved international acclaim has been published nearly two…
Nigeria music icon making a comeback at 85
By Aderogba Obisesan / AFP An 85-year-old music legend in Nigeria, known for the "highlife" dance music that once dominated West Africa, Fatai Rolling Dollar has mounted a surprising comeback five…
A moment of silence with Shawaraena
By Maha ElNabawi The cacophony of noise in Cairo is enough to drive a person mad. The sirens, ambiguous sounds of gunfire (or fireworks?), the out of tune Imams blaring sermons…
Syria faces mounting pressure on aid, rights abuses
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi / Reuters AMMAN: Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad faces growing pressure for blocking humanitarian aid and human rights abuses, with the UN humanitarian chief set to visit the country…