'I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you sometimes see in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass.

The cult of St. Diana incorporates many myths but none so corrosive as the idea that there is a good Establishment media (“the press”) and its wicked alter ego, (the “tabloid press”).

The appointment last month of Dr Masoomeh Ebtekar as vice president in the cabinet of president Mohammad Khatami caused surprise among those unfamiliar with Iran.

There died in the first half of this month two ladies, one known for her exemplary charitable works, the other famous because she is well-known.

The Beni Mousses killings, however, pale into insignificance in comparison with the August 29 slaughter near Rais, 40 kms south of Algiers, when an estimated 300 people were hacked to death.

The Saudi rulers are about to undergo, for the first time, the humiliating experience of a public drubbing by a fully paid-up member of the desert kingdom’s inner elite.

Mention India and it conjures up images of the Taj Mahal, sitar music and dope-smoking hippies tranced by gurus pontificating on the virtues of transcendental meditation.

The Azerbaijani president, Haydar Aliyev, has called for closer ties between his country and both Israel and the US. The move, which follows the conclusion of a ‘historic’ defence and friendship treaty between Russia and Armenia...

Aware that their survival depends on unity, the Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus have frequently attempted to achieve this goal in the face of persistent threats from Russia as well as other regimes in the region.

The US State department’s recent report on the treatment of Christians in 78 countries is more about demonising Islam and Muslims than about seeking protection for Christians.