Many great armies have rolled through Maiwand. Over the centuries Persians, Moghuls and Russians have traversed the ramshackle hamlet on the sun-baked plains of western Kandahar. But nobody has forgotten the British. ”Even a child knows the history,” snorted 85-year-old Muhammad Amman, recalling a battle 126 years ago.
A simple house and its inhabitants in Butovo, on the southern outskirts of Moscow, have become a cause célèbre throughout Russia. The Prokofyev family who live in it are the talisman of local residents struggling to protect their homes from demolition by the city’s government.
Iraqi assassins are being asked to take aim at hundreds of intellectuals whose names appear on a hit list circulating in the country by an unknown group, according to media reports. The list’s existence suggests that the ongoing assassination of Iraqi academics is more organised and systematic than previously thought.
Many of the the slew of alleged atrocities committed by the United States military in Iraq have produced their own investigation and, inevitably, their own version of shock and bore among the American public. Amazement that US soldiers could be involved in such despicable actions is soon followed by a lack of interest in the consequences.
United States mining company Phelps Dodge sealed a -billion deal last week that will create the world’s largest nickel producer and the leading publicly quoted supplier of copper. The agreement is part of a frantic scramble for mining companies as the price of commodities is driven higher by the red-hot Chinese economy and its demand for raw materials.
”What has happened in Mogadishu is a miracle,” said Abdi Haji Gobdon, the 62-year-old director of Voice of Peace radio in the Somali capital. ”We are still trying to take it all in.” Three weeks ago, the last of Mogadishu’s warlords were chased from the city by a combination of Islamist militia fire power and what people here describe as a ”societal uprising”.
China and Russia rubbed salt into the United States’ Wimbledon wounds on Monday by underlining their status as the emerging superpowers in women’s tennis. Li Na became the first Chinese player to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam while Russia saw three women make up the last eight with wins for Maria Sharapova, Elena Dementieva and Anastasia Myskina.
Now that the banks have increased their prime lending rate from 10,5% to 11%, it is important to take stock of the Reserve Bank governor’s suggestion that there may be a need for further interest-rate hikes. What are the costs and benefits of maintaining the country’s real high interest-rate regime — and what are the implications for economic growth?
On a hot summer’s day, veterans of Iraqi cinema, government officials and their bodyguards join a clutch of diehard fans for a ”special evening” at Baghdad’s main theatre. The event is billed as the ”first Iraqi film festival” since the United States-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, but it is more like a tribute to the good old days.
The threats directed against gay Arabs for besmirching the family’s name reflect an old-fashioned concept of ”honour” found in the more traditionalist parts of the Middle East. Homosexuality tends to be viewed either as wilfully perverse behaviour or as a symptom of psychiatric disturbance, and dealt with accordingly.