POLITICS-MOROCCO: Discussions Over King’s Position on Constitutional Chessboard

Moroccans are currently engaged in a debate about the possibility of reducing the constitutional powers of their king - this after a collective of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) issued an appeal titled 'For a New Constitution That Works'.

ECONOMY-ALGERIA: What is the Best Week End for the Weekend?

Many Algerian employers are lobbying for a return to having their country's weekends over Saturdays and Sundays, rather than Thursdays and Fridays, saying the current policy is cutting into foreign trade revenues.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: The Toll Taken by Illegal Migration Remembered

About a year ago, headlines were dominated by the latest tragedy to befall African migrants who try to enter Europe illegally. According to rights group Amnesty International, at least 11 were killed over the space of a few weeks as thousands of Africans tried to scale fences surrounding Ceuta and Melilla.

TRADE: Egypt Signs On to U.S.-Israel Model

High-level officials from Egypt, Israel and the United States signed a three-way trade deal Tuesday that would allow Israeli-Egyptian products duty-free access to the U.S. market, a further step toward launching a broader free trade pact in the Middle East.

IRAQ: Plight of Christians Provokes Calls for Special Protection

While the successful penetration by suicide bombers, who killed 10 people, including four U.S. nationals, of the carefully guarded ''Green Zone'' in downtown Baghdad grabbed headlines here this week, another measure of the deteriorating security situation in Iraq came from a more surprising source.

POLITICS: Mideast Reformers Warn of Backsliding

A landmark reform plan prepared by 40 civil society groups from 15 Middle East and North African (MENA) countries for a recent G8 meeting in New York is at risk of "a false start," according to one of its signatories.

TRADE: U.S. Business Pushes for Mideast Trade

Major U.S. corporations are joining forces to lobby for a U.S.-Middle East Free Trade Agreement (MEFTA) that President George W Bush proposed in 2003.

POLITICS-U.S.: Sidelined Neo-Cons Stoke Future Fires

Sidelined by their failed predictions for Iraq and U.S. President George W Bush's efforts to reassure voters he is not a warmonger, prominent neo-conservatives and their Christian Right allies are nonetheless trying hard to prepare the ground for future U.S. adventures in the Middle East.

POLITICS: State Department Bans Distinguished Muslim Scholar

Tariq Ramadan, a world-renowned Islamic scholar, sits in an empty apartment in Switzerland, unable to take up his new post at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana due to the last minute revocation of his work visa by the U..S. State Department.

EGYPT: Iron Fist Beats Terrorism, or Does It?

Brute force used in Egypt to contain terrorism has come at the expense of civil liberties, rights supporters say.

LABOUR-SPAIN: Summer Vacation Not for Everyone

The number of employees who sign temporary work contracts week after week, and thus have no right to paid vacation, is increasing among young people in Spain. But immigrant workers have even more to complain about, because they are offered no job contracts or benefits at all.

POLITICS: U.S. and France Begin a Great Game in Africa

France and the United States have begun a new race to compete for favours with undemocratic regimes in Africa. The competition is growing particularly in the oil- rich North and West Africa.

IRAQ: U.N. Absence Could Jeopardise Fair Elections – Official

The United Nations, which is supposed to prepare the groundwork for nation-wide elections in Iraq next January, is unlikely to send an electoral team to supervise the polls unless its workers are heavily protected in the violence-prone country, according to a report released Monday.

ECONOMY: Egypt Cashes in on Gulf Arab Tourists

Each summer as the temperature soars, well-off Egyptians abandon their dusty capital and head to a string of villas and beach resorts on the breezy Mediterranean coast. Filling the void are thousands of Gulf Arab tourists who flock to Cairo to escape the even more oppressive heat of the Arabian Peninsula. They come with one just one goal - to have a certain kind of fun.

GIBRALTAR: The Last Colony in Europe – 300 Years On

On the 300th anniversary of Britain's occupation of the Rock of Gibraltar, the British government actively took part in the celebrations, irking Spain, which continues to claim sovereignty over the enclave, the last existing colony in Europe.

IRAQ: Arab Troops Would Be Unwelcome

The appointed Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi faces vehement opposition to his move to deploy troops from other Muslim countries.

POLITICS: No Offers of Troops to Protect U.N. Staff in Iraq

The dramatic increase in kidnappings of foreign nationals in Iraq is threatening to undermine the creation of a new multinational security force aimed at protecting U.N. employees and humanitarian workers who are planning to return to the violence-ridden country.

POLITICS-US: Losing Arab Hearts and Minds – It’s the Policy, Stupid

If U.S. President George W Bush thinks his ''war on terror'' is winning Arab hearts and minds, he should think about conducting it much differently than he has over the past two years...

MIDEAST: Reshuffle Is Not Reform

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has sacked the cabinet and appointed a new prime minister, but analysts say real changes will not come without sweeping democratic and economic reforms.

RIGHTS: U.S.-Backed Tunisia Isolating Political Prisoners – Report

The North African nation of Tunisia is holding in isolation as many as 40 leaders of a moderate Islamist movement, who are among 500 political prisoners in the country chosen by U.S. President George W Bush as the base for his plan to democratise the Middle East, says a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

COMMUNICATIONS: Junk E-Mail Is ‘Epidemic’

All hopes invested in the ''information society'' could be dashed if current - and ever-increasing - abuses of the Internet and electronic mail persist, say experts meeting here this week.