South Sudan militia head ‘surrenders,’ toll soars
JUBA: A top militia leader has surrendered in south Sudan after clashes that killed more than 160 people, the army said on Monday, as the soon to be independent nation…
State-owned newspaper lists Zakaria Azmy’s assets
By Safaa Abdoun CAIRO: As part of the ongoing interrogation and investigation into former presidential chief of staff Zakaria Azmy, the Ministry of Justice ordered all notary public offices to halt…
Egypt orders ex-energy minister, former officials tried
By Sami Aboudi/Reuters CAIRO: Egypt on Saturday ordered former energy minister Sameh Fahmy and six other officials to stand trial on charges related to a natural gas deal with Israel, the…
Local government: empowering local communities
By Hazem Galal and Nesrine Halima Historically across the Middle East, local government has typically been associated with poor planning and inefficiency in execution. Sidelined to central planning agencies, local government…
The Greek debt rumor mill
By John Defterios It does not take much to get the market in Athens agitated these days. Not a trading session goes by without rumors of a pending restructuring of Greek…
Security forces fire in Yemen, wounding marchers
SANAA: Yemeni security forces opened fire on Monday to block a thousands-strong protest and wounded at least 10 people, amid uncertainty over a Gulf plan for President Ali Abdullah Saleh…
Lesson 101: Turning a new leaf in Egypt
By Philip Whitfield An economist taught me it took 80 years for America to turn an agricultural economy into an industrial powerhouse, 18 years to restore Japan and Germany to normalcy…
Ignorance Today
By Massimo Pigliucci NEW YORK: Ignorance is the root of all evil, according to Plato, who also famously gave us a still-current definition of its opposite: knowledge. For Plato, knowledge is…
Democracy or finance?
By Robert Skidelsky LONDON: “Shorting” is a tactic well known among the financial cognoscenti. It means betting against an asset with borrowed money in the expectation of making a profit when…
Sharing the right to Jerusalem’s past
By Yonathan Mizrachi JERUSALEM: The Palestinian village Silwan in East Jerusalem is situated about a hundred meters from the Temple Mount/Haram El-Sharif. It is home to 40,000 Palestinians and almost 400…