Blog archive all
28th February 2010
A 30-year-old Nepalese maid was found dead in her room at Hafr al-Batin, Saudi Arabia, on Friday. The unnamed woman is reported to have hanged herself. She was said to be "suffering psychological duress and had recently refused to work".
Less than a week ago an Indonesian maid died after falling… Read more
27th February 2010
The killing of Ali Tounsi, chief of the Algerian police, has been reported briefly in the international media. He is officially said to have been shot dead in his office by a colleague in a fit of madness.
His alleged assailant – named in the Algerian press as Choaïb Oultache – had worked with… Read more
27th February 2010
Stories are circulating on the internet that a young Egyptian named Ahmed Mustafa is about to be court-martialled for remarks he posted in a blog.
There are not many details but it seems that he complained about someone being removed from a military college so that a rich kid could take his place.… Read more
26th February 2010
No apologies for returning once again to the topic of Mohamed ElBaradei. A week after the former IAEA chief arrived in Cairo as a possible presidential candidate, Egyptian politics has become more interesting than at any time since the 1952 revolution.
I have said before that opposition parties –… Read more
26th February 2010
Back in November I cautioned readers of this blog not to believe what they read on el-Koshary Today, which bills itself as "Egypt's most reliable news source". Its stories about crocodiles attackingthe Aswan Dam, the construction of a new Disneyland in Ramallah to "improve the quality of life for… Read more
25th February 2010
With the suspension of hostilities between the government and the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen, this seems like a suitable moment for a brief update on the continuing separatist troubles in the south.
It is difficult to get an accurate picture because independent reporting of events in the south… Read more
24th February 2010
An opinion poll highlighted by the Qifa Nabki blog shows strong popular support in Lebanon for abolishing confessionalism. Fifty-eight per cent are in favour, plus a further 10% who favour abolition but think the time is not right. Only 22% oppose abolition.
Interestingly (but not surprisingly… Read more
24th February 2010
It happens all the time and no one seems to care. Yet another foreign domestic worker has plunged to her death from a building, this time in Saudi Arabia.
Arab News says the unnamed 25-year-old Indonesian woman fell from a two-storey building "while trying to run away from her sponsor" in Mecca.… Read more
23rd February 2010
It's intriguing that the first public figure Mohamed ElBaradei met after returning to Egypt was Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, who has also been mooted as a possible candidate in next year's presidential election.
What did they talk about? Well, neither man is saying very much,… Read more
23rd February 2010
“I do not think we have a real civil society independent from the state ... If you are not somehow connected to the regime, they will not establish you.” These are the words of Abdullah al-Faqih, Professor of Political Science at Sana’a University, quoted in yesterday's Financial Times.
Developing… 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
