Having scammed his way to centre stage, Terry Jones pivoted at the last moment. He cancelled his plan to burn the Quran, but only on the basis of an utterly

The Arab world today is ruled by contradiction. Turmoil and stagnation prevail, as colossal wealth and hypermodern cities collide with mass illiteracy and rage-filled imams. In this new diversity may

Their President of 29 years is very ill. But with no nominated successor, an uncertain future awaits, writes Robert Fisk in Cairo

Christopher King calls on Britain’s coalition government to release the postmortem report – so far kept secret – on the death of Iraq war whistleblower and UN weapons inspector David

THE fate of the Arab world’s two most important states lies in the hands of ageing autocrats. Hosni Mubarak, an 82-year-old air-force general who has ruled Egypt since 1981, is

The most senior Shiite cleric in Lebanon, Grand Ayatollah Fadlallah, has died. The intellectual guiding force of the Shiite Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, Fadlallah supported the armed fight against Israel

Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Lebanon, has said this may be Turkey’s century because it’s the only country in the Middle East actually pointing toward

This year has seen a dramatic increase in political dissent and workers' protests in Hosni Mubarak's Egypt. In the first installment of this three-part series, Mostafa Omar looks at the

Christopher King argues that it is likely that the American CIA – or Israel acting on its behalf – is responsible for recent atrocities in Iraq, in order to extend

Paul J. Balles views the campaign by Israel lobbyists in the US administration and Congress to impose sanctions on Iran as a precursor to direct aggression à la Iraq, and