Columns Features Opinions

Pregnant in War, a Fact of Life for Too Many Women in the Middle East

UNITED NATIONS – Imagine giving birth in a refugee camp after you fled the brutal repression of an Islamic group or while missiles are being dropped a few meters away. You will then understand how war and forced displacement in the Middle East are taking a heavy toll on pregnant women. As humanitarian crisis grew […]

Features Op Eds Opinions

The inconvenient truth : Arab states failure to support Palestinians

Notwithstanding passionate discourses against Western responsibility and “Zionist conspiracy”, commitment to the Palestinian cause has not translated into any support.   “Israel is an abnormal case in the history of humankind and the geopolitical map of the world.” These words, uttered by Mr. Imad Nabil Jadaa, Ambassador of Palestine in Chile on August 14, are […]

Africa Europe Features International

UfM Launches Training Program to Help Women Enter Job Market

The Barcelona-based Union for the Mediterranean officially launched last week an employability-skills training program labelled “Skills for Success: Employability Skills for Women” aimed to provide economically disadvantaged girls and young women who have completed secondary school (aged 15-20) with specific knowledge, skills and tools to enter the job market. The program includes training in English […]

Features Opinions

Burqa, Hijab, Niqab or ‘Nothing’? – MENA’s Attitudes to Female Dress Code

The Pew Research Centre has recently compiled the results of its research on the opinions of people in different countries across the MENA region on the way women dress. Respondents from seven MENA countries – Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia – were asked which of the six styles of Muslim women’s […]

Business Features Finance

World Bank and North Africa: 2013 in Review

In fiscal year 2013, the World Bank (WB) has supported 16 projects worth 2.1 billion USD, out of which 1.8 billion USD came from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and 249 million USD from the International Development Agency (IDA). 56.4 million USD were committed separately for the West Bank and Gaza. On […]

Business Energy

Egypt distributes offshore Mediterranean blocks

Eight oil and gas exploration projects have been awarded by Egypt to several companies in a statement released from the ministry of petroleum. The decision followed the reception of 13 offers after an international call for tender concerning prospective acreage. Among the companies are British Petroleum (BP), International Egyptian Oil Company (IEOC), a subsidiary of […]

Asia Features International

Iranian Spies Nabbed in Saudi Arabia

Saudi authorities have caught 18 people having direct link to Iranian intelligence services, exacerbating secret war and tensions between the Sunni Arab monarchies and Shiite Persian Iran accused of seeking to destabilize the Gulf countries by inciting their indigenous Shiite communities to stage demonstrations during the Arab Spring. According to Saudi Interior ministry, the spy […]

Asia International

Lebanon: the Shi’ite-Sunni crisis revived

The country’s sectarian crisis seems to be deepening as clashes broke out again between the sunnis and shite. Recent events took place in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh on the edge of Sidon where majority of the habitants are Sunnis and most of them followers of Sheikh Ahmed al-Aseer. Reports claim that clashes […]

Business Emerging Markets

North Africa Will No Longer Benefit from Europe Preferential Trade System in 2014

The EU has issued lately its revised import preference scheme – known as the Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP) – for developing countries most in need which will take effect from 1 January 2014. The new list of beneficiaries from GSP does not include North African countries: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco & Tunisia. With […]