Not only Muslim blood but even Muslim honour is cheap. One only has to glance at the world from Indonesia to Morocco and all places in-between for confirmation. The death toll is so horrendous that it defies description.

The people of Algeria have had no respite from murder, mayhem and oppression for six years. Ever since the Algerian junta annulled the second round of parliamentary elections in January 1992, the country has been gripped by violence.

The ninja - slang for the Algerian junta’s feared Balaclava-clad paramilitary police force - spoke quietly as he gave the details of the October 10 massacre last year.

Having deliberately wrecked the chances of a negotiated settlement of the Sudanese civil war, the US has set the stage for a military assault on Sudan by its Christian-led neighbours, as the recent tour of the region by American secretary of State Madeleine Albright...

The euphoria that surrounded the signing of the global anti-personnel landmine ban treaty in Ottawa last December was tempered by the fact that the world’s most powerful military States and leading producers and users of landmines...

The burning of the 700-year-old Shah-e Hamdan shrine in Tral, Indian occupied Kashmir, on December 16 was no accident. This was the third ‘accidental fire’ that has destroyed an important Islamic monument in Kashmir.

In recent weeks, Iraq is again in the limelight. It is accused of developing biological weapons but these were first developed by the west and have become a full-fledged technology of war.

Arab regimes on the western shores of the Persian Gulf are taking their first tentative steps towards normalising relations with Iran.

The brutal assault by Serb police on peaceful student rallies in Pristina and five other towns on December 30 indicates that Belgrade is pressing ahead with its policy of Serbianization in the predominantly Muslim Albanian province of Kosovo.

Change in relations between the US and Iran may be characterised by a supertanker on the high seas. Changing its direction takes a long time and it needs a lot of space.