Editorials Features

Could Human Rights Promotion Have Spared the Arab World all that Turmoil?

Long before the advent of the Arab Spring, the region was boiling as people in most of the countries of the region were denied basic social and economic rights: Unhealthy housing, below standards education, inaccessible health care, ramping unemployment etc. However hard the situation was, people seemed accommodating with their daily hardships, thanking God for […]

Business Egypt Features Finance Headlines

Egypt: Political Unrest Costs are Very High

Egypt’s Minister of Finance, Mursi Hijazi, revealed that the country is losing about 100 million pounds per day because of insecurity and political unrest and that workers’ repeated strikes have also contributed to the losses. According to the minister, “the losses are caused by various disruptions, such as sit-ins, protests, cutting off roads and breaking […]

Egypt Features Headlines

Egypt: 19 Foreign Tourists Killed in Hot Air Balloon Crash

Nineteen foreign tourists from Britain, France, Japan, Hong-Kong, China and Hungary were killed in a hot air balloon crash that occurred Tuesday near the Egyptian city of Luxor The balloon was at 1,000ft (300 m) when it caught fire and plunged into fields west of the ancient city. This tragedy, the world’s worst ballooning accident, […]

Culture Features Lifestyle

Golden Age of Morocco’s Jewish Community will never Die

A synagogue has been refurbished and inaugurated by a Head of a government. This is no news, if the event is taking place somewhere in Europe, the Americas or inside Israel. But when the synagogue is located inside the walls of the spiritual capital of an Islamic State, when it is dedicated, after having been […]

Algeria Business Emerging Markets Features Headlines Tunisia

Tunisia preys on Algeria’s flourishing market

Tunisian businessmen expressed interest Algeria’s furniture and interior design market and showed their willingness to develop partnerships with their Algerian counterparts in the sector. The director of the Tunisia program of ‘Export to Algeria,’ Riadh Bezzarga, said that the sector is “flourishing” in Algeria and it has a “great potential” to grow especially when the […]

Business Energy Features Headlines Libya

Libyan fields return benefit OMV

OMV, the Austrian oil and Gas Company which is partly owned by Abu Dhabi, has recently posted a 25 per cent rise in revenues after the revival of its production in Libya which was forced to halt when the uprising gained momentum. The company’s overall oil and gas production increased by 5 per cent last year with much of […]

Business Energy Features Headlines Libya

Libya Finds New Oil & Gas Fields

Libya has announced new oil and natural gas discovery in the Ghadames basin southwest of Tripoli, opening new prospects for the battered economy of the North African country. This new oil & gas find was made by the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) and Algerian state-owned Sonatrach. The discovery consists of one oil field with […]

Features Headlines Tunisia

Tunisia: sovereign credit ratings lowered

As Tunisia is at grips with a seemingly inextricable political situation, rating agencies continue to reduce its standings, in an unnecessary additional evidence that the country’s economy is not faring any better than politics.  The latest of these agencies is Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services# which lowered Tunisia’s long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings […]