EU foreign ministers formally agree to an oil embargo against Iran, as Western powers reinforce their naval presence in the region.

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EU approves Iran oil imports ban

EU foreign ministers formally agree to an oil embargo against Iran, as Western powers reinforce their naval presence in the region.

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EU approves Iran oil imports ban

In late 2010, on the eve of the Arab Spring uprisings, a Tunisian blogger asked Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah what democratic nations should do to help cyber­activists in the Middle East. Abdel Fattah, who had spent time in jail under Hosni Mubarak’s regime, argued that if Western democracies wanted to support the region’s Internet activists, they should put their own houses in order. He called on the world’s democracies to “fight the troubling trends emerging in your own backyards” that “give our own regimes great excuses for their own actions.” Read full article > >

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Why doesn’t Washington understand the Internet?

TEHRAN — Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday welcomed the U.S. Navy’s rescue of 13 Iranian fishermen held captive by pirates, just days after it had warned all U.S. ships to leave the region. U.S. officials announced Friday that the fishermen had been rescued by a Navy destroyer the day before, more than 40 days after their boat was commandeered by suspected Somali pirates in the northern Arabian Sea. Read full article > >

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Iran welcomes U.S. Navy rescue operation

For the U.S. Navy, it was like hitting the public-relations jackpot: An aircraft carrier strike group that just left the Persian Gulf stumbles across an Iranian fishing vessel in distress, hijacked by pirates. Forces from the U.S.S. John C. Stennis carrier strike group, whose presence in the region had provoked a rhetorical outburst from Tehran that spooked global oil markets , swiftly made the most of the moment. They seized 15 Somali pirates without firing a shot and rescued 13 hungry Iranian fishermen who had been held hostage for several weeks. Read full article > >

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U.S. picks up Iranian hostages, with good timing

2011 not only brought unprecedented social and political changes to the Middle East, it also created a wellspring of creative expression in the region. As censorship fears began to dissolve along with the governments that enforced them, new voices began to emerge in the arts.

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Five Arab Music Artist Worth Watching in 2012

Costa Rican exceptionalism is deeply ingrained in the national psyche of this country, a place that has long defined itself by the many ways in which it is not like the rest of Central America. Even through the darkest years of the Cold War, when hundreds of thousands were killed in civil conflicts across the region, Costa Rica remained a sunny, stable democracy that had proudly abolished its army and invested in public health and education instead. Read full article > >

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For Central America’s pura vida state, a drug war test

Following the cancer diagnosis of Argentina's president this week, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday wondered if United States could be infecting the region's leaders with the illness.

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Chavez: Is U.S. behind bout of cancer?

This article, written by Joyce Karam, appeared on The Majalla on December 19, 2011 How is the escalating conflict in Syria affecting Hezbollah’s position and standing inside Lebanon and in the region?

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Hezbollah’s Winter

LONDON — Euphoria over a move by the world’s major central banks to keep Europe’s debt crisis from choking off global lending was tempered Thursday amid renewed signs of the region’s slowing growth and reminders that European woes have no easy fix. Stock markets in Asia were broadly up on the coordinated move by central banks on Wednesday. But markets in Europe opened down, rebounded after relatively good bond auctions in Spain and France, and were mixed approaching midday. Read full article > >

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Dramatic move by central banks cannot solve Europe’s debt woes

Washington entrepreneurs Ted Leonsis and Steve Case have assembled a $450 million investment war chest with the aim of rebuilding a start-up culture in the region that once gave rise to the company that made them rich, AOL. For all its success, the Washington economy has a reputation for lacking the financial growth engines essential to entrepreneurial capitals such as Silicon Valley, New York and Boston. Read full article > >

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Leonsis, Case found $450 million fund to aid Washington area start-up firms

Eurozone finance ministers will meet in Brussels later to discuss ways to expand the region’s bailout fund.

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Eurozone to discuss bailout fund

BEIRUT — Turkey’s prime minister on Tuesday called for the first time for Bashar al-Assad to step down, in a fiery speech that likened the Syrian leader to Hitler and Mussolini and marked the final crumbling of Turkish-Syrian relations, according to analysts. “Without spilling any more blood, without causing any more injustice, for the sake of peace for the people, the country and the region, finally step down,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urging Assad to look to the fate of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, who was toppled by an internationally backed uprising and, last month, was killed . Read full article > >

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Turkey urges Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down

WASHINGTON — Hezbollah has partially unraveled the CIA’s spy network in Lebanon, severely damaging the intelligence agency’s ability to gather vital information on the terrorist organization at a tense time in the region, former and current U.S. officials said. Officials said several foreign spies working for the CIA had been captured by Hezbollah in recent months. The blow to the CIA’s operations in Lebanon came after top agency managers were alerted last year to be especially careful handling informants in the Middle East country. Read full article > >

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Hezbollah unravels CIA spy network in Lebanon as agency contains damage

ROME — Even as Europe’s debt crisis sharply escalates, the region’s two largest economies, Germany and France , appear increasingly divided over how and whether to deploy large-scale financial firepower to calm nervous markets . As France, Europe’s second-largest economy, becomes swept up in the market turbulence, it is calling for more radical steps. But Germany, by far the region’s largest economy and still viewed as a safe haven for investors, is far more cautious. Read full article > >

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European financial crisis: A growing gap between France and Germany