In January, Heritage Senior Research Fellow Jim Phillips predicted that Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution would spark uprisings throughout the Arab world. Four months later, North Africa and the Middle East are experiencing substantial governmental transformations, and there is no end in sight. Tunisia As the first leadership casualty of the “Arab Spring,” Tunisia’s former president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, is now wanted by Tunisian authorities on 18 counts of criminal activity. Interpol has also issued an arrest warrant for the former president now seeking refuge in Saudi Arabia. Despite setting elections …
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced on Tuesday night that he would not run for re-election in September in a last-ditch effort to placate the opposition. Speaking after massive protests paralyzed Cairo and other major cities for the eighth straight day, the embattled president stated: “My first responsibility is providing security to the country to peacefully transition the power in a safe way for Egypt and give the country to those whom Egypt chooses in the coming elections.” Mubarak’s limited concession is unlikely to satisfy the demands of opposition leaders buoyed …
We’ve documented before how countries around the world are setting a break neck pace developing their own natural resources, while the United States, crippled by the environmental left, is failing to add energy production. Just this weekend, Jordan announced it was in talks with Royal Dutch Shell on an agreement to extract oil from the desert kingdom’s 40 billion ton oil shale reserves. Jordan’s Natural Resources Authority head Maher Hjazin told AFP, “If our plans succeed, it would be one of the country’s largest projects to help the Jordan become …
