GCC and other regional groupings: Tensions and opportunities, Sudan challenge

Kuwaiti takes over UN commission: Economist Rola Dashti took over as executive secretary of the Beirut-based United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) on 7 February; she is also a UN under-secretary-general. Dashti is a former Kuwaiti planning and development minister, and was one of four women who became the first to be elected to the National Assembly (parliament) in May 2009. She has also served as minister of state for parliamentary affairs.