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Following the drive-by shootings in Nag Hammadi on Tuesday night, Coptic Christians marked their Christmas Day by going on the rampage yesterday. Here is the New York Times' account.
Once again, though, it is the Emirates-based paper, The National, which has the most perceptive… Read more
You may find it entirely unsurprising – and perhaps uninteresting too – to learn that until last year no Saudi royal had ever performed in a music video.
But that was before Prince Faisal bin Mansour bin Thunayan Al Saud, who previously "worked" as a bodybuilder and motorcyclist decided to embark… Read more
Seven people were shot dead outside a church in upper Egypt late last night following a mass to celebrate the Coptic Christmas. Al-Jazeera says three men in a car drove past and opened fire with machineguns in Nag Hammadi, 40 miles from Luxor.
A local bishop was quoted as saying he and… Read more
Following the introduction of internet censorship in Algeria (reported here last weekend), an online petition has been organised to oppose it.
The petition, which is in Arabic, French and English, says:
We, the undersigned, individuals and organisations, oppose the Algerian… Read more
For the first time in several months there are renewed hints of a possible ceasefire in northern Yemen's Houthi conflict. President Ali Abdullah Salih has set out a revised list of six conditions:
1. A full ceasefire, the re-establishment of safe passage on roads, and the surrender of… Read more
Yemeni security forces opened fire on a sit-down protest outside the offices of the banned al-Ayyam newspaper in Aden yesterday,according to Reporters Without Borders.
The Paris-based press freedom organisation accused President Salih's government of "taking advantage of support from foreign… Read more
Concerned about the "regional and global threat" from terrorists in Yemen, Gordon Brown is to host an emergency summit in London later this month. Yemen, at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, is a country that tends to be off the radar except when something untoward happens affecting… Read more
Once again, a Filipina domestic worker has plunged to her death from a balcony. Theresa Otero Seda, 28, died in the Sanayeh district of Beirut. She had apparently slashed her wrists before falling.
Matthew Cassel's blog describes the scene, highlighting the off-hand attitude of emergency… Read more
The Jordan Times reports on the case of Ishara Hemanthi, a 23-year-old Sri Lankan domestic worker in Amman:
"They would whip me with a phone cord or a water nozzle, and sometimes would pull my hair if I did not finish the tasks they had set for me during the day," she said, adding that… Read more
The British prime minister's decision to call an international summit on Yemen is widely reported this morning. It appears to have support from the US and the EU, and there are suggestions that Saudia Arabia and other Gulf states may get involved.
The talks will be held in London on 28… 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
