AMMAN -- Chances of coming in from the cold are looking better for Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement ruling the Gaza Strip, as the world braces itself for crucial changes in political leaderships and power shifts that might also bring strategic policy turns in the Middle East.
BAGHDAD -- U.S. forces in the Iraqi capital are using local entrepreneurship and a helping hand to turn communities into inhospitable places for extremist gunmen.
EDITORIAL
The drums of war are beating louder, amplified by Irans pursuit of its nuclear agenda and the West and Israels determination not to let it do so. Continuing rhetoric by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about "wiping Israel off the map" does little to help. Meanwhile, the U.S. administration wants to see Tehrans uranium enrichment issue resolved before January 2009, when the next administration is sworn in. The clock is ticking.
OPINION
CAIRO -- Earlier this month Egyptian movie director Inas al-Dighaidy came under attack by an attorney affiliated with the ruling National Democratic Party for allegedly defaming Egypt in her film. Dighaidy is the latest victim of Egypts growing trend of hisba lawsuits, cases filed by private parties in the name of protecting state interests.
All successful U.S. presidential candidates have tried to infuse American democracy with mythology and folklore, going back to the founding of the nation. Whether its the fable of George Washington and the cutting of the cherry tree, the stories about honest Abe Lincoln, or the making of Kennedy Camelot myth, the right mixture of mythological imagery is almost necessary for a campaign to excite the general public.
