Book reviews are usually written about new publications. But it is surprising how often important works by major writers are forgotten simply because they are perceived to belong to an earlier generation...

​The War We Could Not Stop: The Real Story of the Battle for Iraq edited by Randeep Ramesh. Pub: Guardian Newspapers Ltd., with Faber and Faber Ltd., London, 2003. Pp: 303. Pbk: £7.99.

Last month’s bomb-blasts at Western targets in Saudi Arabia and Morocco followed the conclusion of the US invasion of Iraq. The bomb-explosions in Riyadh on May 12 killed 24 people and wounded dozens. Four days later another 24 people were killed in five blasts in Casablanca, Morocco...

Several weeks after the US’s occupation of Iraq, its rule is in chaos. Iraq was the most advanced Arab country before the US destroyed its infrastructure in 1991; even after 1991, despite UN sanctions, there was a modicum of civil infrastructure and service provision...

The Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought convened a conference on the Seerah in Toronto last month, in association with Crescent International. Here we present the paper presented by IMAM MOHAMMAD AL-ASI.

Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon became a champion for peace on May 25, when he persuaded his cabinet to accept the US’s ‘roadmap’ for peace.

A week after the four bomb blasts in Riyadh which killed 24 people on May 12, the US, Britain and Germany shut down their embassies in Saudi Arabia after warnings that more deadly attacks could be expected.

Taking a cue from her American mentors, Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri has discovered the art of talking tough towards the end of a term of office. Megawati has mostly maintained silence as the cornerstone of her presidency...

Two women presidents in Southeast Asia could have been good news, but alas, events in Aceh and Mindanao make a mockery of such hopes.

Although much attention has been paid to zionist policies in the West Bank and Ghazzah, Palestinians living inside 1948 Palestine – the area which the UN recognised as Israel in 1948 – are also coming under increasing attack. NASSER SALEM reports.

President Vladimir Putin is now even more determined to resist the Chechen people’s fight for independence, as he faces parliamentary elections this year and a presidential poll next year. Anxious to give the impression that the pledge he was elected on–to end the Chechens’ struggle for independence–has in fact been carried out...

Emboldened by the relative ease with which Saddam’s regime was overthrown, American hawks and neo-conservatives are now pushing for "regime change" in Tehran as well. Pro-monarchist groups, led by Reza Pahlavi, son of the late ex-Shah...

How serious is Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee about a dialogue with Pakistan to resolve the thorny issue of Jammu and Kashmir by peaceful means? In Pakistan there seems to be great euphoria about the volte face in India’s stance, first announced on April 18 by Vajpayee during a visit to Srinagar, capital of Indian-occupied Kashmir.