مطالب

Rhetorical structure is helpful in improving how the writers maintain cohesion in their writings. This study examines how the Iraqi writers maintain cohesion in the text by analyzing the various rhetorical moves in Azzaman, an online Iraqi newspaper. To this purpose, twelve opinion articles from Azzaman Iraqi newspaper, published from January 2013 to June 2013 were analyzed. The findings revealed a common rhetorical pattern: the introduction section, the intermediate section, and the coda section (conclusion stage). All these were frequently used, but the use of intermediate section (solution stage) and coda section (moral stage) were less frequently-used in comparison with the introduction section. The findings of this study reflect the way Iraqis write opinion articles in English newspapers, and generally show that the use of similar patterns in the rhetorical structure mirrors the writing of second language writers’ writing to convey information to second language readers.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US and Russian Federation relations have been experienced ups and downs. The period of believing the end of long-lasting competition between the two countries after the cold war was too short enough to approve the optimistic analysis of Westerners politicians. The next developments showed quickly the distance between Moscow and Washington’s views on issues of international peace and security. On the one hand, Russia’s growing concerns about the former republics on its own periphery were intensified by the increasing effects of the Global War on Terrorism. On the other hand, the US growing presence in West Asia, Afghanistan and Iraq, and then Syrian crisis, Iranian nuclear program and deployment of the US Missile Defense System in Europe, prepared the ground for creating more confrontation between them. A decade after the independence of the former Soviet Republics, Russian president, Vladimir Putin, crafted and fixed a pragmatic foreign policy. Dmitry Medvedev, the next President of Russia, put this policy on the path of “reset”, which is now facing with complicated problems. However, the question raised by this article is: “What internal, regional or international factors changed the Russian and US relations during Medvedev's presidency? This paper is based on a descriptive-analytic method, and to examine the mechanisms of this change from the Russian point of view, it studies the positions of its experts.

Development and progress are ideals that always different countries have pursued. Everybody welcomes a developed country with people free from development obstacles. Indeed, realization of such a goal requires developmental planning in national and local scales taking into account the population growth rate, economical, social, cultural, and political problems, and generally, imbalances and dualities from which the whole country suffers. Hence, it seems inevitably and vitally necessary to pay attention to regional planning in Iran, and, more rapid growth and development of the country can be achieved with the aid of such planning and through growth and flourishing of different regions commensurate with their capacities and capabilities. The current paper is attempted to comparatively assess the performance and efficiency of Iranian provinces in terms of development level using Taxonomy and Morris models. It also aims at analyzing statuses of Iranian in terms of inequality extent in enjoying development benefits using standard score method. The research results are suggestive of the fact that Sistan and Baluchistan Province assumes the lowest rank (30th among the 30 provinces) in all three methods under study. Due to presence of some obstacles and lack of proper grounds, it is an inevitable necessity to rethink and make fundamental planning in this respect.

Migration of people to urban areas from the rural areas usually comes with its challenges in terms of infrastructural requirement and housing to cater for growing population. One of the challenge for the urban dwellers in Nigeria is that of adequate housing. The inability of the government to meet this demand has seen the people concerned seeking alternative solutions to housing need. The resulting settlements are usually unplanned hence becoming a challenge for government to manage in terms of providing infrastructure facilities. With the growing incidence of global warming and the attendant increase in flooding in most urban areas of Nigeria, especially between year 2000 and 2013, the safety of the people who live in slums have become a concern to the state governments due to issues of flooding and collapsed buildings. Government usually evicts such people and clear the settlement; however the people simply relocate to another area. The aim of this paper is to exامینe how community participation can be used to provide housing for the urban poor based on their living requirement, drawing from the experience of selected case studies from Kenya. The research method adopted for the study is a qualitative research method using case studies of selected communities in Kenya and selected communities in Nigeria. A comparative analysis is drawn with these communities. The research concludes by proposing how community participation process should be incorporated into provision of housing for the urban poor.