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16th January 2013
The Shoura Council chamber: women members will be segregated by a partition. Picture: Riyadh Bureau
Having spent the last few days writing about the London conference on Yemen (there's now a single-page compilation of my blog posts here), I missed some of the excitement surrounding King… Read more
15th January 2013
There is no doubt that southern Yemenis had a raw deal under President Ali Abdullah Saleh – though they were by no means alone in that. There is also no doubt that southern grievances and aspirations will have to be addressed in the forthcoming National Dialogue if Yemen's political transition is… Read more
15th January 2013
Since 2004 the Yemeni government has waged a series of wars against the so-called Houthi rebels in the far north of the country, close to the Saudi border. This conflict is currently in abeyance but a long-term solution will be needed if Yemen is to undergo a successful political transition.
In the… Read more
14th January 2013
Yemen has become the focus for "two quite different and fundamentally contradictory phenomena", Sheila Carapico, an American political scientist, told the London conference on Yemen last week. One of them is an uprising for social justice and and the other is "a not-so-covert military intervention… Read more
11th January 2013
A two-day academic conference on the future of Yemen opened in London on Friday. Organised by the London Middle East Instituteand the British-Yemeni Society, it comes at a timely moment as Yemen prepares for its national dialogue – a key step in the country's political transition plan.
The London… Read more
10th January 2013
Global Study UK is a company that promotes British universities by organising student fairs in various countries. One of its fairs will be taking place in Lebanon next month.
Ahead of the fair, Global Study UK posted a tweet which said:
Many Reasons to Study for British Degree! 1. Fees are Less… Read more
9th January 2013
You couldn't make this stuff up. The Bahrain News Agency reportsthat King Hamad of Bahrain "won the title of Humanitarian Personality of the Year with absolute majority of votes" in a recent poll conducted by a Kuwaiti newspaper, al-Sharq.
Apparently, "tens of thousands of personalities from the… Read more
8th January 2013
There's an interesting article – for once – in today's Gulf Daily News (GDN), a generally pro-government newspaper which bills itself as "the voice of Bahrain".
The article is an extraordinary attack on what its headline calls "PR mercenaries" – British and American "reputation management" firms… Read more
7th January 2013
Barring full-scale foreign intervention, a negotiated settlement in Syria is "becoming inevitable", Patrick Cockburn wrote in an article for the Independent last week.
As the dreadful carnage continues, shifting the battleground from Syria's streets to the conference table might seem an appealing… Read more
4th January 2013
Bahrain's habit of excluding foreign journalists, NGO representatives, politicians and others whose work it dislikes has long been common knowledge – though the government denies it.
Persisting in that denial may become more difficult following the publication of a report by Bahrain Watch which… Read more
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
