Algeria suffered its worst violence since its long civil war on Wednesday when terrorists affiliated to al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for twin bombings in the capital, Algiers, that killed up to 30 people and wounded more than 100 others. Algerian Prime Minister Abdel-Aziz Belkhadem condemned what he called "cowardly and criminal attacks" after separate blasts at his own office.
Arab leaders closed ranks to appeal to Israel recently to overcome its long-standing reservations and accept a landmark offer that could lead to a breakthrough in the Middle East peace process. Saudi Arabia, abandoning its customary reticence to host its first Arab League summit for 30 years, bridged its quarrels with Syria and persuaded the Palestinian Islamists of Hamas to stay.
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/ 29 January 2007
Yusif Agoub is proud of the fleshy Masgouf fish from the river Euphrates swimming in a tiled pool in his kitchen and the rough Iraqi bread baking in the wood-fired oven. It feels like Baghdad but the carp are imported from Syria and this is one of the best restaurants in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Ehud Olmert spent a few hours last Monday at an airbase in southern Israel, and was photographed easing his angular frame into the cockpit of an F16 fighter. Olmert is not a martial figure like so many previous Israeli prime ministers; Ariel Sharon would have cut more of a dash. But there was no doubting the sincerity of his praise for the pilots flying sorties against Hezbollah and other targets in Lebanon.
If people happen to have been discussing constitutions anywhere in the world recently, it’s a fair bet they were talking about the European Union, not Iraq. Yet what is happening in Baghdad probably matters much more than any knife-edge referendums in Paris or The Hague. Iraq’s constitution is the centrepiece of the US and British exit strategy, so the stakes could not be higher.
No prizes for predicting that apathy and ignorance will ensure yet another record low turnout in this week’s European elections — just at the moment when 350-million people across the continent are eligible to vote. And that’s not only in the veteran European Union member states but, alarmingly, also in several of the eastern newcomers.
Osama bin Laden or like-minded terrorists could kill thousands of people and wreak global havoc by detonating a crude nuclear device in the heart of Europe, security experts warned this week. ”We are in a race between cooperation and catastrophe,” said the former United States senator Sam Nunn.
The European Union is to withdraw the massive subsidies it pays to tobacco growers following a bitter battle among agricultural ministers in Brussels. The decision to withdraw payments for what is the most subsidised crop in Europe reflects unease about helping tobacco farmers while EU states campaign to get people to give up smoking.
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern this week launched consultations to salvage a deal on the European Union’s controversial Constitution. Hopes suffered a blow on Tuesday when Spain flatly rejected a German-backed compromise on the crucial issue of voting weights in a union of 25 members.
It was 10am on Monday morning when the usher called the International Court of Justice to order to hear the case against Israel’s West Bank ”security fence”. Inside the United Nations building, officially called the Peace Palace, everything went smoothly.