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Local and foreign observers across the MENA region are inconsensus that the region lacks a key ingredient to anythriving democracy: a pool of professional journalists. Thishas created a drought of …

You must have seen her. She’s blonde, fair andclear-skinned, blue-eyed with a perfect pout and an evenmore perfect nose. She’s staring at you frompractically every billboard in Beirut and urging …

Muslims living in Holland should tear the Koran in half, as half of the book advocates violence, thus maverick Dutch politician Geert Wilders recently suggested, subtly adding:“If Mohammed lived here …

A recent trip to Bahrain, what should have been a fairlyrun-of-the-mill interview with a CEO to discuss the launchof the Middle East’s first sports car plant turned intosomething rather different …

So far this has not been a good year for President Bush.First, his plan to pacify Iraq by “surging” more Americantroops appears to have backfired. Since the surge beganIraqis have …

Here in Washington, the winners of the 2006 mid-termelections had just started to enjoy their spoils when the2008 presidential campaign already started to heat up. Nosooner had Nancy Pelosi finished …

Arab political unity, from being a mantra in the 1950s,has turned into a joke, and today the Arab world’s 22″sister” countries regularly bicker in an endless politicaltragic-comedy. Politically, fragmentation of …

The United States’ cold war with Iran has taken aseries of sinister turns in recent weeks. Hopes of regionalco-operation over Iraq’s future are just one victim ofWashington’s drive to apply …

When US oil services behemoth Halliburton said this springit was moving its corporate headquarters to Dubai, exudationof praises ensued at full throttle. Maestro developerMohammed Alabbar of Emaar grandeur for example …

Despite the hesitation of the United Nations secretariat andthe warnings of the Lebanese opposition, the adoption of theInternational Tribunal under a Chapter 7 mandate appearsalmost certain. The government and its …