The terrorist who attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day did so with 80g of explosives. Considering that 100g of this explosive – pentaerythritol trinitrate or PETN – is capable of destroying a car, as one expert put it, 80g would easily have ripped a gaping hole …

CAIRO: A hurricane is not a regular storm. It’s a very powerful storm, often accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain. But we live in Egypt, a country known for its moderate weather. Yet all of a sudden we were struck by thunder in a political storm with unimaginably far-reaching ramifications, shattering deep-rooted taboos in …

MEXICO CITY: Three years ago this month, Mexican President Felipe Calderón donned military fatigues and declared a full-scale war on drugs, ordering the Army into Mexico’s streets, highways, and villages. Back then, Calderón received broad support, both domestically and from abroad, for what was viewed as a brave, overdue, and necessary decision. Tangible results were …

RAMALLAH – Television penetration in Palestine is nearly 100 percent. Almost every home – no matter how poor the family-has a tube in its sitting room. Television viewership is higher than average amongst Palestinians for two main reasons: Because of the continuing conflict, people feel the need to watch television to keep up with the …

JERUSALEM: Thirty-nine young people from Gaza applied to attend a peace education workshop sponsored by the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI) that was held this past weekend in a school in Beit Jala. Thirty-five of them were denied entry by the IDF and did not have the opportunity to join the 70 other …

CAMBRIDGE: As governments around the world develop policies to deal with failing financial institutions, they should be sure to pick their beneficiaries wisely. In particular, they should study and avoid the mistakes made in the AIG bailout in late 2008. A United States Special Inspector General recently issued a report criticizing the US government for …

CAMBRIDGE: As I walked through the airport in Dubai recently, I was struck by the large number of travelers who were buying gold coins. They were not reacting to Dubai’s financial trouble, but rather were joining the eager rush to own gold before its price rises even further. Such behavior has pushed the price of …

FARAH: When the problems riddling Afghan society are listed – violence, insecurity, corruption, religious fundamentalism – one dominating factor is usually left out: the influence of customary law. In Afghanistan, there are three principal legal references: constitutional law, the Quran, and the system of customary law known as Farhang, the most dominant and strictest version …

MILAN: Investors have been hit hard by the current crisis. Lessons are being learned and investment strategies revised. The central lesson for investors seems to me to be that not all components of risk are static, but rather evolve in ways that are not yet fully understood – and that government regulation cannot fully address. …

WASHINGTON, DC: Perhaps a US president’s approval rating among Israeli citizens is somewhat trivial. After all, Barack Obama’s re-election will be decided in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, not in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Netanya. Nevertheless, the notion persists that a US president’s approval rating in Israel can significantly affect his ability to conclude a comprehensive …

CAIRO: I made a vow not to write a word about the dismal events preceding and following the Egypt-Algeria World Cup qualifiers last month. In both countries, the media’s frenzied, hysterical reaction to the violence following the Khartoum game was an abyss of ethical and ideological degeneration I refused to be dragged into when feelings …

Imagine being able to look at your mobile phone and see whether traffic is cruising along or standing still on the road up ahead. The Israeli firm Waze has made this possible with a free application allowing you to hit the roads stress-free. “The application is really geared towards daily driving and commuting, Noam Bardin, …

BRUSSELS: Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, the contours of world order are still in the making. But two ‘mega trends’ seem clear: the broadest and deepest wave of globalisation the world has ever seen, and the rise of new world players from Asia and …

LONDON: From next year, on swearing allegiance to the Queen, all members of Britain’s House of Lords – and I am one of them – will be required to sign a written commitment to honesty and integrity. Unexceptionable principles, one might say. But, until recently, it was assumed that persons appointed to advise the sovereign …

I often wonder why any Egyptian would condone the sickening torture inflicted on suspects in police stations, especially if these suspects are charged with crimes such as child molestation or rape. I often ask myself how people can so readily overlook the fact that a suspect is innocent until proven guilty in a court of …

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is seeking membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as part of an effort to build prosperity and the foundations of statehood but the Obama Administration and Israel are blocking the bid. The WTO could be “an engine for reform and an engine of state building, said former economics minister Basim …

BRUSSELS: There is a forgotten player in the global efforts to limit CO2 emissions: the consumer. Households consume one third of the final energy used in the European Union and produce around two-thirds of municipal waste. Moreover, food and beverages, housing, and private transport account for almost 80% of environmental pressures. So the potential of …

JERUSALEM: In the last few weeks, six more Palestinian families received notices that they are to be evicted from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. And once again we can expect to witness scenes that have by now become almost routine: settlers accompanied by police troops forcefully evicting residents and throwing …

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is seeking membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as part of an effort to build prosperity and the foundations of statehood but the Obama Administration and Israel are blocking the bid. The WTO could be “an engine for reform and an engine of state building, said former economics minister Basim …

CAIRO: It seems we’ve come full circle – 2009 is winding down on much the same note as its predecessor with a focus on the blighted Gaza Strip. Almost a year ago today, Israel was preparing to launch the deadly operation Cast Lead which killed over 1,400 Palestinians and left thousands homeless. But while the …

NEW YORK: Two years of climate change negotiations have now ended in a farce in Copenhagen. Rather than grappling with complex issues, President Barack Obama decided instead to declare victory with a vague statement of principles agreed with four other countries. The remaining 187 were handed a fait accompli, which some accepted and others denounced. …

COPENHAGEN: As winter approaches, many people in Central and Eastern Europe remember the chill caused last winter by Russia’s deliberate cut-off of gas supplies. That shutdown was a harsh reminder that gas is now the Kremlin’s primary political instrument as it seeks to re-establish its privileged sphere of interest in what it thinks of as …

MIDDLEBURY, Vermont: Having attended J Street’s first national conference in Washington, DC this October, I want to add my voice to the media controversy surrounding the new pro-Israel, pro-peace organization. I am writing from the perspective of a student, a connected Jew, a liberal, an Israeli citizen, and an American citizen when I say “finally …

SAN FRANCISCO: Last week, I wrote a 140-character hotel review on Twitter: “Galleria Park Hotel SF rejects noise complaint from ill-trained guest: ‘Next time, ask for an interior room, not just a quiet room.’ I was frustrated because the hotel management was not listening to me when I asked for a quiet room – or …

BERKELEY, California: Although the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic appears to have peaked, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the top flu expert of the World Health Organization (WHO) recently said a third wave could still be ahead. Third wave or not, there are sufficient data since April 2009 to show that this virus is less severe than …

PARIS: When Jerusalem was conquered in 635 AD, the second caliph Omar Ibn Al-Kattab refused to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, despite an invitation from the Christian patriarch Sophronius, for fear that his men invoke the precedent to turn the place of worship into a mosque and thus deprive the Christians of …

BUDAPEST: In the discussions now underway in Copenhagen, the fate of Earth’s climate is at stake. Although many of the participants recognize the urgency, the actions of many of them suggest that a business-as-usual approach will suffice. But it will not. The world needs a decisive break with the past, and that break needs to …

CAIRO: When 21-year-old American student living in Cairo Lily Sussman decided to vacation in Israel three weeks ago, she had no idea that her little trip was going to turn her into a big YouTube sensation on the Daily News Egypt channel. But before she became a YouTube favorite, Lily’s blog post “I’m sorry we …

GLENDALE HEIGHTS, Illinois: Listening to the radio one day, I was shocked to hear the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report on widespread occurrence of rape in Afghanistan. As a Muslim who knows that the core of her religion is about justice and mercy, I asked myself how the perpetrators …

CAMBRIDGE: China’s undervalued currency and huge trade surplus pose great risks to the world economy. They threaten a major protectionist backlash in the United States and Europe; and they undermine the recovery in developing and emerging markets. Left unchecked, they will generate growing acrimony between China and other countries. But the solution is not nearly …