One year after Ben Ali flight, a mixed bag for Tunisia
By Kaouther Larbi / AFP TUNIS: A year after they ousted a dictator and gave birth to the Arab Spring, Tunisians are still battling pressing social and economic problems but now…
AN ISRAELI VIEW: 2012 could be a year of dramatic change
By Yariv Oppenheimer At first glance, this election year in the United States does not bode well for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. President Barack Obama will be occupied all year with…
Embracing diversity for peaceful cohabitation in American cities
By Frank Fredericks NEW YORK: In the November 19, 2011 issue of The Economist, the cover story, called “The magic of diasporas” outlines the benefits of mass immigration, particularly to the…
Speaking out against mosque desecration
By Rabbi Gideon Sylvester JERUSALEM: Across the world, people were outraged by the news that mosques in Israel had been desecrated and racist graffiti scrawled across their walls. Israeli Jews felt…
The perils of Europe’s navel gazing
By Ana Palacio MADRID: While the world anxiously awaits the climax of the eurozone drama, its leaders’ behavior resembles the political equivalent of what physicists call “Brownian motion,” with officials bouncing…
Muttering Mutaween
By Philip Whitfield CAIRO: I think people miss the real story in Egypt. People were trying to convince themselves during the revolution that Egyptians were going to turn out to be…
Why development aid is not enough
By Erik Solheim OSLO: Poverty is not only about not having enough money. It is also about exploitation and oppression, and about armed conflicts and wars that make it impossible to…
Europe’s vicious spirals
By Barry Eichengreen BERKELEY: The euro crisis shows no signs of letting up. While 2011 was supposed to be the year when European leaders finally got a grip on events, the…
Being a Muslim and being a feminist are not mutually exclusive
By Fatemeh Fakhraie PORTLAND, Oregon: People, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, often tell me that I can’t be both a Muslim and a feminist. At a recent book reading in Oregon, for…
Muslim Brotherhood hails ties with US
CAIRO: The head of the political arm of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday hailed US-Egyptian ties during talks with the US State Department's number two, but also said they must…