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Once again, politicians in the United States and Europe are attempting to make the case for military intervention in the Middle East. Their problem is that we all remember the [...]

Insurance is perhaps not the most glamorous of industries. It is, however, essential to the success of others and to the economy it operates in. An entrepreneur planning to start [...]

There are billions of webpages populating the World Wide Web, a figure that grows rapidly, offering us ever more information by the day. The downside of this is that when [...]

Across the world, governments are investing billions of dollars on ambitious plans to construct high-speed railways connecting major population centres, projects deemed by those in favour as essential to future [...]

Of all the regions of the world, the development of local films has been the slowest in Africa. Films have proved to be invaluable in providing people with a sense [...]

A brand new 'city within a city' is rising on the Lagos shoreline. Work on Africa's most ambitious building project, which involves reclaiming a large chunk of the city's coastline [...]

HISTORIANS KNOW THAT THE FASHION OF an age speaks volumes for its people. So, what is the state of the fashion industry in the Middle East saying? Currently, it says [...]

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), global passenger traffic fell by approximately 1% last August. In the Middle East, however, there was an increase of nearly 11%. Freight [...]

For almost four decades, the Internet, in various guises, served the military quietly. If nuclear war broke out, communications would be maintained. That was the idea. Then various exclusive centres [...]

And that is not all that will run dry. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), computer modelling has predicted that the Middle East and North African region [...]

In October 2001, the United States and its allies fired their first shot in what promised to be a prolonged War on Terror, by launching air attacks on the ancient [...]

Overlapping Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan and characterised by the mountain range that spans those three countries, the Golden Crescent, along with Asia's Golden Triangle, is at the hub of the [...]

Human civilisation has been through many changes. Despite these changes, however, progress itself was slow. For centuries, life went on, for most, people, just as it had always done. There [...]

Ever since the mobile phone first made its appearance in Africa, the continent's love for cutting-edge technology has known no bounds. But if the mobile made the impossible possible, there [...]

G00GLE AND COMPANIES LIKE IT ARE remarkable in that they have turned centuries of business wisdom on its head in little more than a decade. Most businesses need a viable [...]

While the market for luxury cars is shrinking in the traditional markets in the West, it is growing apace in emerging markets. Africa's love for the prestige luxury car has [...]

IT IS STATISTICALLY TRUE THAT WE ARE living in the most peaceful and stable era in human history. It just does not feel that way. And if you live in [...]

Ten years ago, if we had marvelled at what passed then for the latest technology and wondered out loud what the future would bring, most of us would have fallen [...]

The Commonwealth of Nations has gone through many changes since its nebulous origins in the late 19th century. For many decades it was predominantly a political body, with issues such [...]

In Europe and north America, newspaper circulations have been falling. This is due, largely, to the emergence of instant media on the web that is free to access. The question [...]

Not for the first time, Europe is turning its lascivious eyes toward Africa. The dark history the two continents share with each other continues to evolve and, while never simple, [...]

Since the Bretton Woods agreement in 1944, which set the direction for the world's financial system for the next 27 years, the US dollar has enjoyed the status of the [...]

UNREALISTICALLY HIGH NUMBERS ARE killed daily on Middle Eastern roads, making it the second most dangerous territory in the world for road fatalities after Africa. The majority of fatal accidents [...]

To all intents and purposes, Sudan has been two countries since independence in 1956. An aerial view, taken from space, shows the barren, desert region of the north and the [...]

When considering the emigration from Africa of skilled and educated workers - more commonly known as the brain drain - one must first be aware of the negative bias contained [...]

Given the relatively tiny market for books in Africa, one can come to the erroneous conclusion that Africans do not like to read. Nothing can be further from the truth [...]

Despite the fact most mobile phones today come equipped with good-quality cameras, the market for amateur and semi-professional digital cameras offers a mind-boggling array of technological options not many consumers [...]

ABU DHABI'S TRANSFORMATION INTO A modern, dynamic place to live and do business has been rapid. Only 50 or so years ago, the emirate scratched a living in agriculture and [...]

The word 'entrepreneurship' evokes the image of a dynamic individual with a creative flair for business and the courage to go it alone. More broadly, however, entrepreneurship may be loosely [...]

Africa's telecoms sector is the most rapidly growing of any in the world. With many markets globally at saturation point, the opportunities for expansion in the continent are plentiful. But [...]

The geopolitics of regional oil and gas pipelines is, to put it mildly, complicated, with the world's powers jostling for market position and political influence. Whereas the nuclear arms race [...]

Of the many problems currently facing the Middle East, the weather is not, for most, the most pressing. The ongoing struggles in Iraq, the continuing conflict between Israel and the [...]

THE 2003 US-LED invasion of Iraq and subsequent deterioration of the security situation is well documented. The cost in human life and suffering has been considerable and, sadly in the [...]

'IT IS IMPORTANT to remember we have been engaged in the most difficult and challenging of tasks: the work of building a democracy for the future and defending it against [...]

IT IS NOW clear that either John McCain or Barack Obama will succeed George W Bush as President of the United States. What might the election of either man mean [...]

IT IS NOT quite 20 years since Pan Am flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people on board and on the ground. Libya has since [...]

FOR THE GOVERNMENTS who contributed troops to the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq, the subject of when they will be brought home is gaining prominence as the number one [...]

AT THE BEGINNING of the 20th century, Germany announced its plans to construct a railway linking Berlin with Baghdad. Germany needed oil to fuel its industry if it were to [...]

EVERYONE, IT SEEMS, has a solution to the current crises in the Middle East, whether it's the earnest diplomats of the UN, meeting on occasions too numerous to document to [...]

THE RELEASE OF A UNITED Nations (UN) report urging the US to either put Guantanamo Bay detainees on trial or release them; and criticism of the camp by government leaders [...]

DURING THE COLD WAR, THE WORLD was divided three ways. The First World--the Western--countries came under NATO and those aligned to the United States. The Second World--the East--was that which [...]

THE MILITARY STRATEGY OF DIVIDE and conquer--as first developed by the Chinese general, Sun Tzu, 2,500 years ago--has been used successfully down the centuries by empire builders as a means [...]

Iraqi women were oppressed by Saddam Hussein--in exactly the same way as men for most of the former president's rule--afraid to speak out against the regime and ever watchful of [...]

TENSIONS WITHIN LEBANON'S POLITICAL establishment finally snapped when the country's prime minister, Rafiq Hariri, and his cabinet, resigned following weeks of recriminations over the highly controversial constitutional change that allowed [...]

Record unemployment, rising rates of suicide, conscientious objectors refusing to join the army, and increasing numbers of people living below the poverty line now blight Israeli society as much as [...]

The question of whether or not the military action currently being taken in Afghanistan is morally justified is one that can never be satisfactorily answered. A person's stance on this [...]

THERE ARE BILLIONS OF WEBPAGES populating the World Wide Web, a figure that grows rapidly, offering us ever more information by the day. The downside of this is that when [...]

PRODUCT LAUNCHES FOR NEW SMARTPHONES have become big events, as eagerly anticipated as film premiers or royal weddings. The mobile phone market in the Middle East continues to grow, with [...]

On 11 September, delegates from around the world met in London to buy and sell some of the most sophisticated and devastating weapons available. On that same day, terrorists struck [...]

We would all like to be able to predict the future -- particularly in business. There are those, however, such as young fashion designers Fifi Talsi and Samir Ben Fadoul [...]