Benetton yanks pope-imam kiss ad after protest
VATICAN CITY: The Benetton clothing company quickly withdrew an ad featuring a fake photo of Pope Benedict XVI kissing a top Egyptian imam on the lips after the Vatican denounced…
Magazine’s 1st MAD men get a rare reunion
Think of them as the senior class of the "usual gang of idiots." Or the original MAD men perhaps. There's Al Jaffee, who at 90 still draws the optical illusion…
Democracy in the Congo?
By Charles Tannock LONDON: Free, fair, and transparent democratic elections are no longer strangers to Africa. Indeed, they have become a regular occurrence. But the presidential and parliamentary elections in the…
New India, old Europe
By Shashi Tharoor NEW DELHI: The recent Indian-Italian bilateral dialogue, held in Milan on November 7, at a time when Italy was reeling from the euro crisis and Silvio Berlusconi’s impending…
Turkey’s ‘zero problems’ problem
By Sinan Ulgen ISTANBUL: It was good while it lasted. Designed by Turkey’s newly elected government in 2002, the country’s “zero problems with neighbors” policy helped it to climb into the…
Calamity stalks the wings
By Philip Whitfield CAIRO: If your mother says she loves you check it out. That was Dornie’s mantra. Arnold Dornfeld, night news editor of Chicago’s now defunct City News Bureau that…
Three parties boycott Friday protests, others undecided
By Heba Fahmy CAIRO: The Free Egyptians, Al-Karama and the Egyptian Socialist parties alongside the Kefaya Movement and the National Association For Change (NAC) decided to boycott Friday’s protest, while other…
Elections 101: Egypt’s new electoral system explained
CAIRO: Egypt’s electoral system is “complicated and difficult for any ordinary Egyptian to comprehend and implement," experts believe, as political powers remain optimistic that it will help them secure a…
Syria defectors launch daring raid on intelligence base
DAMASCUS: Syrian army defectors attacked a military intelligence base on Wednesday in one of the most daring raids in eight months of unrest as Arab ministers gathered in Rabat to…
In east Jerusalem, streets will soon have names
JERUSALEM: Many east Jerusalem residents have for decades lived on anonymous streets where home delivery is almost impossible — but that is about to change thanks to a long-awaited plan…