More than 1,500 refugees flee Syria in one day
BEIRUT: More than 1,500 Syrian refugees streamed across the border to safe havens in Turkey in one day as Syria's 3-month-old pro-democracy movement braced for another day of mass protests…
Qaddafi ‘may abandon’ bombed capital, rebels seek arms
TRIPOLI: Moammar Qaddafi is considering leaving the capital Tripoli following blistering NATO air raids, a report said, as Libya's rebels hinted they may allow him to remain in the country…
Free speech under siege
LONDON: Recently, at a literary festival in Britain, I found myself on a panel discussing free speech. For liberals, free speech is a key index of freedom. Democracies stand…
What we can learn from A Gay Girl in Damascus
By Nada Akl LONDON: The elaborate fiction that was the blog “A Gay Girl in Damascus” by the fictional character Amina Abdullah Arraf Al-Omari left many feeling frustrated, betrayed or outraged.…
Pulling the plug on Lukashenko
By Mitchell Orenstein WASHINGTON, DC: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is a master of political survival. But, following a recent 64 percent devaluation of the currency, the clock appears to be running…
Religion and the public sphere in India
By Christophe Jaffrelot In contrast to most South Asian countries, modern India has always been officially “secular”, a word the country inscribed in its Constitution in 1976. Secularism, here, is not…
Egypt to restore ancient boat found near pyramid
CAIRO: Archaeologists have begun excavating a 4,500-year-old wooden boat found next to the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of Egypt's main tourist attractions, Egypt's top antiquities official said Thursday. The…
Al-Arish Port prepares to receive Gaza aid flotilla
AL-ARISH/CAIRO: Al-Arish sea port is currently preparing to receive an aid flotilla that’s about to sail to Gaza this month should it reroute to dock in Egypt and send the…
Outgoing Arab league chief praises region uprisings
CAIRO: The outgoing Arab League chief says the Arab world's uprisings have set the region on a path of change. It was Amr Moussa's last speech Thursday to the 22-member…
Europe probes migrant deaths in Mediterranean
STRASBOURG: The Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly on Thursday said it has opened an investigation into the cases of 1,000 migrants who went missing in the Mediterranean while fleeing unrest…