Palestinian Refugees: The Right of Return edited by Naseer Aruri. Pub: Pluto Press, London, UK and Sterling, VA, USA, 2001. Pp: 294. Pbk: £15.99 / $22.95.

Considering that the world seemed to be on the brink of nuclear catastrophe, the end of the crisis between India and Pakistan was surprisingly low-key.

Take the fact that NATO has embraced Russia (its Cold War enemy) and is reorganising to engage ‘terrorism’, and president Bush’s recent declaration that he reserves the right to strike at 60 countries that he deems to be a threat to the US

Islamic Iran showed its support for the Palestinian cause this month, when the annual conference to mark the anniversary of the death of Imam Khomeini (r.a) was dedicated to the Palestinian intifada.

One feature of the current intifada is the support and sympathy the Palestinians are receiving from people, Muslims and others, all over the world.

The ongoing Palestinian intifada not only marks a watershed in the struggle of the Palestinians to reclaim their usurped lands, but is also a defining moment in the restoration of resistance to Arab political discourse and praxis.

A referendum in Tunisia, held on May 26 to approve amendments to the constitution proposed by president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, secured 99.52 percent of the votes cast. This result makes it possible for Ben Ali to stay in office until 2014, and gives him immunity from prosecution for life.

When on June 3 ‘president’ Yasser Arafat overruled a decision by the very court he had set up as an independent tribunal the previous month, he was not only caving in to American and Israeli pressure but also taking a leaf out of the book of fellow Arab dictators, such as Egypt’s Husni Mubarak.

As you walk through the camps of riot survivors in Ahmedabad, in which an estimated 53,000 women, men, and children are huddled in 29 temporary settlements, displays of overt grief are unusual.

fghanistan’s long-awaited Loya Jirga (council of leaders) finally opened 24 hours late, on June 11. The circumstances make it clear that the traditional Afghan institution is in fact now little more than a front for decisions being made behind the scenes by the country’s established faction leaders...

The US government set off another round of anti-terrorist hysteria on June 10 by announcing that it had arrested an American Muslim alleged to have been planning an attack on a major US city.

The UN’s long-awaited Food Summit, which was postponed after September 11, opened in Rome on June 10, only to be snubbed by western governments only sending junior-level delegations to attend it, although UN officials and leaders of African countries regarded it as crucially important when there are currently famines looming in several southern African countries.