The latest economic sanctions imposed by the US on Iran are designed to significantly constrain Iran’s ability to connect financially with the international business community. A new US law seeks to isolate Iran’s central and major banks (now ‘blacklisted’ by the US) by penalising any financial institutions around the ...

The recent London Conference on Somalia occurred with multiple Somali voices both inside and outside of the region indicating their claims, struggles and hopes for the outcome of the nth conference on Somalia. Many had already made up their minds, with few optimistic about achieving any durable solution to the long-standing conflict. This ...

1. A person suffering from autism stands in front of the camera and makes us witness the scars of the whipping and electrocution on his chest, legs and arms. His eyes are swollen, his cheeks black and blue, his lips split, yet he continues to smile. He is happy to be filmed and to soak up the attention. 2. The little girl lost her ...

When my friend Imranali Panjwani began speaking of the heritage lost when the main dome of Al-Askariyya shrine in the city of Samarra, Iraq was bombed six years ago, I really felt his sadness. Imranali is one of the few people I know who is truly immersed in what he does. From his doctoral thesis to his research work to even his youtube ...

‘Leaderless’ and ‘apolitical’ were the words repeated by Wael Ghonim in his account of the progressions during the course of 2010 which led to Egypt’s revolution - progressions in which he, Google employee, had played a causal role. Throughout the public discussion with Wael, held last month at the LSE on his ...

Overseas Malaysians like myself enjoy our political rants. We are not patriotic enough to actually go home and get our feet wet (or in Malaysia’s case ‘get ourselves wet’ as the Malaysian riot police routinely use their water cannons on activists). No, we’re not patriotic enough for that but when rising star ...

In recent weeks, a militant Islamic movement in northern Nigeria known popularly as Boko Haram has started to be noticed by the British press; it has even been the subject of a leader in The Guardian. It may therefore be of use here to outline some of the movement’s characteristics as it is often made to seem a newer phenomenon than it ...

To the Palestinians, the city is and will always be Al Khalil, the place associated with Ibrahim Khalil-ul-Lah, the friend of Allah and the first Muslim [according to the Qur’an]. The rest of the world knows it as Hebron, as old as Jerusalem if not older, and the place where Patriarch Abraham and his immediate family lie in eternal ...

It never fails to fill me with some pride when a friend visits Malaysia and returns with glowing reviews. They love Malaysian food (always the food gets mentioned first!), the cosmopolitan city of Kuala Lumpur (or KL) and the friendly people. All these things remind me of the Malaysia I left behind and makes me long for the familiarity of ...

Osama bin Laden’s murder in Abbottabad, generally known as “the city of pines”, certainly adds laurels to President Obama’s leadership besides underlining the otherwise immensely bruised invincibility of the American intelligence sleuths and military muscles. It has worked as the proverbial shot in the arm for ...