Habari Post

Tetra Pak makes its packaging from sustainably harvested wood pulp, and the used packages are recyclable. But in many places they are not recycled but thrown into landfills with un-recyclable trash. This causes the unnecessary generation of greenhouse gases, and wastes a useful resource.

Ghost, Inc. is an Israeli-Palestinian company that provides a free, web-based virtual computer that lets users access their desktop and files from any computer with an Internet connection. Ghost is an acronym for Global Hosted Operating System.

Barack Obama told reporters that he would visit Iraq if he is nominated as the Democratic Party's candidate for president of the U.S.

The Iranian Parliament elected Ari Larijani as their new speaker on Wednesday. Mr. Larijani was a rival to Mr. Ahmadinejad in the presidential election of 2005. Mr. Larijani was elected as speaker in an unusually lopsided vote: 232 to 31.

Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, recently spoke in Dubai Maritime City to urge continued focus on energy-efficient building and other climate-friendly investment. "I’d like to see the Middle East investing for the post-petroleum future," he said.

The English version of the Al Jazeera news channel is available throughout much of the world, but not in the U.S. The media company is working to enter the U.S. cable space with a TV offering tailored to the U.S. market, including more news from the U.S. than it currently reports on.

Women and men are kept apart in Saudi Arabia, but that doesn't stop women from playing a key role in the marketplace. In cosmopolitan cities like Riyadh women-only gyms, women-only boutiques and travel agencies, even a women-only shopping mall, are sprouting up in recent years to serve women who did not previously have access to such places unless they were chaperoned by a male relative.

Following ongoing pressure from organizations like Human Rights Watch, the government of Dubai has instituted a series of reforms to protect the basic working conditions for immigrant workers. Enforcing the reforms has yet to be figured out and neighboring gulf countries are quite a bit further behind the curve.

Dubai continues to grow at a stunning rate, adding infrastructure, hotels and business complexes. Emirati cities Dubai and Abu Dhabi are growing at such a high rate of growth that locals are experiencing serious growing pains, such as an increased cost of living without an increase in disposable income.

United Arab Emirates is known for its oil. Can it also be known as a green country? This is a story about the UAE's most recent effort to build a city that, once built, will be run entirely by renewable energy. So, what is the motivation?

There is often talk about using nuclear power to desalinate seawater in the Middle East (http://www.arabenvironment.net/archive/2007/10/341216.html). Desalination may be necessary, but nuclear plants may not be.

This fascinating story is about how Zabaleens ("garbage collectors" in Arabic), along with some forward-thinking environmentalists, are bringing about a positive change in this age of global warming.

The Economist compares oil revenues of today in Gulf countries with the 1970s. A number of large projects aimed at drawing attention and growing the economy are underway in Saudi Arabia.

It seems that Iran's involvement in Iraq has declined since the capture of a few dozen Iranian operatives selling arms in Iraq in December of 2006.

This eye-opening book highlights parts of the Western legal system that I never realized how much I take for granted. Most Americans buy, sell or mortgage property in their lifetime. The ease at which one can acquire or transfer property rights and leverage assets to obtain capital is one of those processes that seems to take place beneath the surface in the U.S.