“History is ruled by an inexorable determinism in which the free choice of major historical figures plays a minimal role”, Leo Tolstoy 01/01/07 “Information Clearing House” — — When the powerful US Vice-President Dick Cheney made a rare long haul to Riyadh in November , reportedly it was to create against Iran , Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon , a …

Book review of: Jeremy R. Hammond’s ‘The Rejection of Palestinian Self-Determination The Struggle for Palestine and the Roots of the Israeli-Arab Conflict’ (Lulu, 2009). Reviewed by Jim Miles – VERNON The story of Palestine is poorly represented in western media, generally taken out of context and generally – as a strong cohort to the lack of context – with a …

–    A post war view of the Sri Lankan economy and the role of Islamic Finance in it Muath Mubarak presently works for First Global Group, a Sri Lanka-based conglomerate of companies involved in the Islamic finance industry. He is a Final level student of CIMA-UK and Associate Fellow Member of Institute of Islamic Banking and Insurance (IIBI)  – UK, …

My generation grew up at a time when colonial hang up was at its peak. Our older generation had been slaves and had a huge inferiority complex of the British. The school I went to was similar to all elite schools in Pakistan. Despite gaining independent, they were, and still are, producing replicas of public schoolboys rather than Pakistanis. I …

QALANDIA, West Bank, Aug 31 (IPS) – The future of East Jerusalem and of Palestinian access to it has again been brought under the spotlight. Thousands of Palestinians were turned away at West Bank checkpoints leading into Jerusalem by Israeli security forces as they tried to attend Friday Ramadan prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque. IPS witnessed dozens of heavily armed Israeli …