Search

The international commission investigating the murder of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri was widely expected to take one look at the challenge it faced and throw its hands [...]

As Hillary and Obama slug it out in the Democratic primaries, wits in Beirut have been remarking that the United States will probably acquire a new president before Lebanon does. [...]

The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, attracted some rare sympathetic coverage last month when he visited Israel to raise the cases of two British citizens shot by the Israeli army in [...]

We are a nation in training. Britain is echoing to the industrious sound of stonemasons' chisels, carpenters' saws, chefs' whisks and hairdressers' blow-dryers. The 2003 World Skills Competition in St […]

Memorials are inevitably political. What is selected as worthy of remembrance, what is emphasised, dictates the contemporary meaning of the remembered thing. This is particularly true of the mass exterminations [...]

Michael Gove, assistant editor, the Times At the time (15/9/01, the Times): 'While England wept, while they were mourning in America, there were eyes unclouded by tears, hearts untroubled by [...]

Antony Beevor's war tomes Stalingrad and Berlin have been selling like Elastoplast at Agincourt. David Starkey earned £75,000 an episode for his last Channel 4 series, and Simon Schama topped [...]

What with a special commission investigating last summer's disastrous conflict with Hezbollah, you'd think the Israeli government had enough on its plate. But a committee of politicians, generals and legal […]

WB Yeats wrote, when asked for a war poem in 1914: 'I think it better that in times like these/A poet keep his mouth shut, for in truth/We have no […]

Having some kind of work experience or internship under your belt is rapidly becoming as essential as a degree for graduates seeking jobs in politics. Think-tanks, news editors and MPs [...]

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things Jon McGregor Bloomsbury, 275pp, £12.99 Jon McGregor's first novel--a surprise inclusion on the Booker Prize longlist--is at once an irritating and a moving paean [...]

This article focuses on Detlev Mehlis, the German state prosecutor in charge of the international commission investigating the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. Mehlis has worked his way up the power structure of Lebanese politics in his quest for the truth about who was behind the bomb that killed Hariri. Now his report on the case is due. The big question is whether he will point the finger of blame at Syria, which is widely believed to be behind the murder. Mehlis' temperament and record made him well suited to the job; he is clearly not without cunning or political instincts. Even if Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad himself is not implicated, that would not necessarily save his regime. The chaos that might follow could affect Syria's stability. In Lebanon itself, normal life has come to a standstill until Mehlis' report is released.

In this article, published in April 2008, the author discusses the fact that Lebanon has been without a president since November 2007 when the post was vacated by Émile Lahoud. The stalemate between the Lebanese government and the political opposition controlled by the Hezbollah organization is described.

The article discusses England's Attorney General Lord Goldsmith. Goldsmith recently traveled to Israel in order to resolve the issue of the Israel Defence Forces generals visiting England. The author describes how and why these visits have been a problem since 2005. Israel's Major General Doron Almog is also looked at.

Reports on the status of the planned Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, Germany. Controversy over the project; Argument over the form of the memorial; Exploitation of the memory of the Holocaust for political and financial capital.

Compares the views of several authors on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. and a year after the bombings. Michael Gove, assistant editor of the 'Times'; Robert Harris, novelist and columnist; Amanda Foreman, historian.

Reports on the popularity of mass media products related to British history, as of August 2002. Value of the deal between author David Starkey and television firm Channel 4; Description of the purchasing power of readers; Assessment of the financial significance of history to the British government.

The article reports that the Israeli government body that rules on symbols and ceremonies declared the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon to be known officially as the Second Lebanon War. The article refers to other official names for the conflict, including that of Hezbollah. The author discusses the significance of referring to the fighting as a war.