Reading in May

Also this week, the 60 years of Arab-Israeli conflict dominates media and my selection (last week it even got a posting of it's own). Civilians are still being killed (article by Bitte Hammargren in Svenska Dagbladet).

But I'll start elsewhere in the region and with a review from last year of a Swedish book on Yemen. Gunnar Wetterberg wrote in Sydsvenska Dagbladet on Eva Sohlmans book on Arabia Felix.

This week, violence in Lebanon is in focus again. Dagens Nyheter here on Hizballah in Beirut. BBC shows a set of pictures here. ICG's latest report was published yesterday.

Bitte Hammargren interviewed an old man in Shatila, published here in Svenska Dagbladet. BBC has photos from Shatila here and interviews a family living there here.

LA Times published an op-ed by Benny Morris on Israel's unhappy birthday. BBC interviewed conductor Daniel Barenboim here. (Barenboim's webpage can be found here. His Israeli-Palestinian orchestra will play at the Stockholm Baltic Sea Festival in August.)

Dagens Nyheter published an op-ed by Joschka Fischer on the "new Middle East".

Björrn Kumm writes in Svenska Dagbladet on Swedish actions taken on the murder of Folke Bernadotte.

Dagens Nyheter reports here on plastic surgery as a social trend in Iran.

Svenska Dagbladet featured the Stockholm Jewish film festival which took place this week (festival web site here).

Dagens Nyheter reports on the trend of fair trade products.

In Sweden, defence politics are hotly debated. Svenska Dagbladet shows pictures of the so-called Nordic Battle Group here.

Gulf News highlights the Cityscape Abu Dhabi.