Amidst the thick white smoke of burning tyres, silhouettes of people are visible as they squat in small groups and prepare their doses of heroin. Children play with each other, almost oblivious to the circle of self-destruction on display just a few feet away.
WHEN Barack Obama made his appeal, back in June, for a new understanding between America and Islam, the venue he chose was Egypt—for some obvious reasons. It is the most populous of the Arab nations adjoining the Middle Eastern conflict zone, with an ancient tradition of Islamic scholarship, and a citizenry that is tempted by fundamentalism but also admires some things about the West.
The big question for 2010—and the whole century—is whether the world’s civilisations, religions and cultures will finally depart from their persistent patterns of conflict. Some predict that the rift between “Islam and the West” will widen and that a clash of civilisations is unavoidable.
Some 350 experts from 50 nations gathering in Mexico for their 3rd global meeting will outline the latest creative applications of DNA barcoding, including projects to sequence ancient plant and animal remains extracted from northern permafrost cores.
Strategic experts who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the Iranian Fourth Fleet access to the Gulf of Aden would increase the process of smuggling weapons to rebel militants, subversive groups, and terrorist organizations in Somalia, North and South Yemen.
Reporters Without Borders finds it surprising and disturbing that Egypt is hosting next week’s Internet Governance Forum, at which important decisions about the Internet’s future will be taken or announced.
While the problem of unemployment in the Arab world seems insurmountable, there are a number of initiatives being implemented and proffered in the region to begin to put a dent in the problem, says Yvonne R. Davis.
At 4pm on a dark, wet winter’s evening in November 1862, a cheap plywood coffin was buried to the eerie sound of silence: no lamentations, no panegyrics, for as the British Commissioner in charge of the funeral insisted, 'No vesting will remain to distinguish where the last of the Great Moghuls rests.' The last of the Great Mughals was Bahadur Shah Zafar II: one of the most talented, tolerant and likeable of his remarkable dynasty, he found himself in the position of leader of a violent uprising he knew from the start would lead to irreparable carnage.
