Middle East & Africa

Diplomacy by other means
Israel again rattles its sabre at Iran

A military response is readied as hope for a nuclear deal fades

Democracy in Africa
Sudan’s democratic transition is upended by a second coup in two years

The generals acted just months before they were due to hand power to civilians

Probing too deep
How an investigation led to a gun battle in Lebanon

Most politicians do not want the probe of Beirut’s port explosion to find answers

Capital cities
Three places that dream of becoming Africa’s Singapore

But plans for international financial centres worry tax campaigners

The far-fetched pavilions
At the Dubai expo, no one is eager to talk about reality

There are no politics at the Middle East’s first world’s fair

Ja to change
The meaning of South Africa’s most popular magazine

For more than a century Huisgenoot has reflected shifts in Afrikaner culture

Tired guns
Fighting returns to Beirut’s streets in an echo of the civil war

It was sparked by tensions around a probe into an explosion at the port last year

Vote first, fight later
Iraq’s dismal election prompts militias to threaten violence

Parties are talking war rather than wrangling over cabinet posts

Thomas Sankara’s ghost
Burkina Faso opens trial for the assassination of Sankara

But in a country ablaze with violence it may not make for harmony

The final countdown
A new crisis between America and Iran looms

Talks to restore a nuclear deal are going badly. The alternatives are grim