You can learn a lot about a country by whether beauty pageants play a significant role within its cultural landscape. Women with nervous smiles, lathered in foundation, all donning barely-there bikinis amidst a backdrop of economic or social unrest, somehow seem to go hand in hand. The more a country may struggle, the more the…
The never-ending story: The AMIA Investigation
July is a time of year when Milanese office workers race to complete must-do tasks, as the humidity and balmy days beckon many to the sunnier and beachy south. As the city begins to relax, for those who remain, the ambiance is hard to resist, even for officialdom. Yet in July 1994, for the staff…
Nixon and the Shah
In 1953, after an arduous journey across Asia, US vice-president Richard Nixon and his wife Pat finally arrived in Tehran, which was scheduled as their final destination before returning to Washington. As Nixon would later recall in a speech given during a visit by the shah, “despite the deep depression of spirit which seemed…
The President Versus the Generals: Algeria’s Latest Power Play
In September this year, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced that he had replaced the country’s head of intelligence, General Mohamed “Toufik” Mediène, who had served in the role for the past twenty-five years. In the eyes of many Algerians, Mediène had obtained an almost deity-like status as an aloof and feared military official—a secretive…
Master of Deception: The Tale of Yehuda Gil
In the mid-1990s, a precocious young journalist named Stephen Glass was building a reputation as one of Washington D.C.’s hottest new journalists. His articles were appearing in Rolling Stone, Harper’s, and the late John F Kennedy Jr.´s publication George. However he was most known as the New Republic´s plucky young staffer. His abilities to sniff out stories…
Behind the Shades: Umm Khultum
The great Armenian-Egyptian painter Chant Avedissian is famous for his colourful depictions of Egypt’s most iconic personalities. None more so than the legendary Umm Khultum. Avedissian colourfully immortalised her signature beehive and jewel dotted black sunshades in his work Umm Khultum’s greatest hits and for anyone who views it, the painting exudes the mysteriousness of…
Ariana Afghan Airlines
Some years back, a video appeared on YouTube, which was taken from inside a plane bound for Kabul. While the plane is still sitting on the tarmac, the passenger pans around the interior, films the outside and then leans his camera down to film the rim below the window. The plastic cover that sits at…
In the Shadows: Hunting Iran’s Scientists
Four years ago on a late November morning in Tehran, Majid Shahriari, a physics professor from Shahid Beheshti University was on his way to work, when in the middle of heavy traffic, he noticed a motorcycle moving closer to his car. A moment or two passed, then he heard a loud bang on the side…
The Red Prince
In the summer of 1972 the world convulsed with shock after nine members of the Israeli Olympic team were killed during a failed rescue attempt by West German police at the airport of Fürstenfeldbruck near Munich. They were killed after a fire fight erupted between police officers and eight members of the Palestinian terrorist group…
Insurgency 101
I have to get something off my chest. It really is time for a good ol’ kvetch. There once was a time when you could simply fill out a form for a magazine subscription, send it to the postman with your credit card details and in less than a fortnight, your lovely new magazine would…
From Brussels to Beirut 