Blog archive all
9th July 2010
I didn't post here yesterday because I was busy writing for Comment Is Free about the sacking of Octavia Nasr, CNN's senior editor of Middle East affairs.
While I do think her tweet about Ayatollah Fadlallah was ill-judged, the way she was hounded out of her job is worrying. Writing for Salon,… Read more
7th July 2010
A Yemeni security officer named as Ali Khanbash survived an assassination attempt at his home in Zinjibar yesterday, al-Sahwa reports. Another person was injured.
It was the fourth such attack in the southern Abyan province in the space of a month. On July 3, an army officer was found shot dead in… Read more
7th July 2010
Don't stop, make it pop
DJ, blow my speakers up
Tonight, I'm a-fight
'Til we see the sunlight
Tick tock on the clock
But the party don't stop, no
The extraordinary video has been doing the rounds on YouTube. It shows Israeli troops from the Nahal Brigade’s 50th Airborne Batallion patrolling… Read more
7th July 2010
Four men were convicted yesterday in a multi-million-dollar bribery case involving expansion plans for Jordan's only oil refinery. Those convicted are:
Adel Qudah, a former finance minister and former chairman of the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company (JPRC)
Ahmad Rifai… Read more
6th July 2010
A remarkable investigation by a Yemeni newspaper, al-Masdar, has discovered that slavery persists in Yemen, long after if was officially abolished. Five hundred or more people are said to be living in servitude in parts of Hajja and Hodeida provinces. Sheikhs and members of the local authorities… Read more
6th July 2010
Nasr Abu Zayd, one of the leading liberal Islamic thinkers, died in Egypt yesterday at the age of 66. (Reports: Reuters and al-Masry al-Youm.) In the 1990s, he was at the centre of a notorious "hesba" divorce case after being targeted by Islamists.
The trouble started when Abu Zayd, who was… Read more
5th July 2010
There was an extraordinary conversation on the BBC Radio 4 programme, The World This Weekend, yesterday, in which a prominent American neoconservative claimed that European governments have been "penetrated" by the Muslim Brotherhood.
On Wednesday, the European parliament will be voting on a re-… Read more
4th July 2010
The body of a Yemeni army officer was found in the Khanfar district of Abyan province yesterday, "close to the site of the army unit in which he served," according to a local official. He had been shot.
In a similar incident on Thursday, also in Abyan province, an intelligence officer was shot dead… Read more
4th July 2010
A five-storey building fell down in Cairo on Friday, killing up to eight people who were inside. The accident happened in Abdel Fattah Nasser Street in the city's Shubra district.
Collapses of buildings are a frequent occurrence in Egypt. Regarding the latest accident, al-Masry al-Youm says a… Read more
4th July 2010
Writing in the Saudi-owned paper, as-Sharq al-Awsat, Hussein Shobokshi discusses the recent visit to Syria by senior figures from leading American IT companies: Microsoft, Dell, Cisco Systems and Symantec.
He points out that the ability of these companies to do business in Syria is at present… 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
