A BRUTAL FRIENDSHIP: THE WEST AND THE ARAB ELITE By Said K Aburish. Published by Victor Gollancz, London, UK. 1997. pp. 414. Hbk: UK20.00.

In the west, king Husain of Jordan is projected as a plucky little monarch battling enormous odds. His kingdom sandwiched between Israel on the one side and Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia on the other, is in a precarious position.

Israelis, whose State was founded 50 years ago, and expanded since through naked aggression and unremitting acts of terrorism, might have loudly deplored Mossad’s humiliating failure to assassinate Khaled Meshal...

First there was the troika - the president, prime minister and army chief - that ruled Pakistan. Now it is a foursome, with the chief justice elbowing his way in. In a perverse sense, it could be called progress towards democracy by 25 percent.

As Bangladesh aid donors met in Dhaka on November 4, they got a glimpse of the problems confronting the country. The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) held a noisy rally in the capital condemning the regime’s performance.

If they are not pre-occupied with the length of people’s beards, the Taliban are busy thinking up exotic names for their war-ravaged country.