First Independent Mena Newspaper
Amid deep political turmoil, there is a mounting concern in Egypt as Ethiopia forges ahead with its plan to build the $4.8 billion Grand Renaissance Dam on the Nile’s main tributary. The hydroelectric dam, to be Africa’s biggest, sounded the alarm bell for Egypt due to its possible impact on the flow of the river. […]
Moroccan and Tunisian governments are cracking down on jihadists and people with travel history to Syria. In Tunisia, there are no exact figures but the number of these individuals is estimated to be around 400. “But we are following them very closely. We have built up a database… They have acquired experience and training and […]
Owing to its security troubles and fight against terrorism, Iraqsigned an arms deal with Iran in spite of U.N sanctions;a report from Reuters has revealed. The deal was reached at the end of November when the US fell short in its supposed arms deliveries despite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s visit to Washington lobbying for extra […]
Three years down the road from the wave of Arab Spring revolutions that affected the Middle East and North Africa region, MENA economies remain depressed. Egypt’s gross domestic product contracted by about 3 percent in the second quarter of 2013 while the growth rate amounted to only 2 percent last year, when compared to 2.3 […]
Libya has become free of all chemical weapons it inherited from dictator Muammar Gaddafi, after having destroyed these banned deadly weapons and completed the disarmament process which begun under the former regime but interrupted by the war that rocked the North African country According to Libyan foreign minister Mohamed Abdelaziz, “this achievement would not have […]
In Saudi Arabia, near the coast of the Red Sea, the first evidence of dinosaurs was uncovered by an international team of scientists. Findings in the region have proven scarce or difficult to itemize. Dr. Benjamin Kear, a paleontologist at Uppsala University in Sweden, and the study’s lead author, attested to the fact that it’s […]
While we enter a new year, the emerging consensus among observers of the Middle East and Northern Africa is that the Arab Spring has turned into a frosty Arab Winter. Nothing speaks to this perception as strongly as the ongoing civil war in Syria, where the embattled Assad-regime, propped up by Hizbollah and Iran, is […]
International Anti-Corruption Day was celebrated all across North African earlier this week with dismal news on the fight against bribery. Overall, the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) from Transparency International showed little to no improvement in graft around the region. For example, in Libya, the situation got even worse when the country was ranked as […]
Syria rebels are faced with a new dilemma after the United States of America and Great Britain announced that they will be holding back lethal support due to recent developments in the country. The Free Syrian Army (FSA), which is backed by the member countries of the group Friends of Syria, has been forced from […]
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has called on Egypt and Israel to emulate Syria and join the convention banning chemical weapons. Both countries are believed to be in possession of chemical weapons and the head of OPCW Ahmet Uzumcu thinks that it is time for them to “reconsider” their decision. The […]