Articles

The extraordinary outpouring of international sympathy and goodwill at the death of King Hussain of Jordan last February, and the lavish promises of economic aid made at the time by western and oil-rich leaders have not yet been translated into reality.

The constant in Middle Eastern politics is their inconsistancy. Alliances are made and broken regularly. Who would have imagined five years ago that Iran and Saudi Arabia could be discussing the possibility of a defence pact?

Kuwait, the proud owner of the only elected parliament in the Arab Gulf states, has further consolidated its democratic credentials by giving Kuwaiti women the right to vote and to stand in parliamentary and municipal elections.

Politics in Malaysia is at a crossroads. The aftermath, or rather the aftershock of Anwar’s verdict, which virtually all Malaysians have now dismissed as a shameless show-trial, is still felt all over the country. The judgement, as Anwar himself described it, ‘stinks to high heaven’.

Sonia Gandhi withdrew her resignation from the presidency of India’s Congress Party on May 24, after an eight-day hiatus which has strengthened her position but seriously weakened the party.

Indian authorities admitted on May 26 that they have used aircraft to attack mujahideen controlling the area around Kargil, a town 220km northeast of Srinagar. It is the first time they have used aircraft against the mujahideen since the uprising began 10 years ago.

That the African National Congress (ANC) will win the June 2 elections in South Africa is not in doubt. But it is what will follow that worries most people.

US foreign policy has been reduced to a three-point agenda in the post-cold war era: unquestioning support of Israel, daily bombings of Iraq, and chasing Osama bin Laden

After seven years of vicious fighting and the failure of several mediation attempts, the warring factions in the west African state of Sierra Leone have finally agreed to a ceasefire - but only because of strong pressure exerted by the US, Britain, the United Nations and Nigeria. Washington’s role in the deal is said to have been the ‘clinching influence’.

On May 19, Dr Mazen el-Najjar, a Palestinian professor from Tampa, Florida, completed two years in an American jail for reasons he has never been told. He is the father of three American-born children.