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The Yemeni government has taken the unusual step of publishing the names of several illegal arms dealers. Most prominent among them is Faris Mana’a, who headed the committee mediating with the Houthi rebels and is also brother of the governor of Saada.
Others named are mostly well-known tribal… Read more
Choosing a baby’s name ought to be a matter for the child’s parents, but it’s not always so simple. In Morocco, the parents of Tiziri el-Bechnaoui are struggling to register her name, six months after her birth.
The problem is that Tiziri – which means “moon” in the Berber language, Tamazight… Read more
With just three weeks to go before Tunisia’s presidential and parliamentary elections, the Ettajdid Movement (one of the permitted opposition political parties) is complaining that half of its parliamentary candidate lists have been rejected by the authorities “without any convincing… Read more
A briefing note from the UN refugee agency highlights the extraordinary numbers of people who risk their lives crossing the sea from the Horn of Africa, hoping to find safety in Yemen:
September and October are the height of the sailing season and the number of arrivals by sea is… Read more
The Saudi campaign against young men wearing low-waist jeans – which has already resulted in hundreds of arrests in Riyadh – has now spread to Madinah.
Police in the holy city, aided by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, have begun apprehending youths… Read more
The Yemeni military lost a MiG21 warplane over Saada province yesterday.
The Houthi rebels said they shot it down, and named the pilot as Lieutenant Shamsan Mohammed Abdo Mufleh (it is unclear if he survived).
The government said the aircraft was flying at low altitude and carshed “… Read more
Writers and civil society activists in Egypt face a growing threat from “hesba” lawsuits, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) warned this week.
Hesba (or hisba) cases are prosecutions instigated by individuals rather than the authorities. They are usually brought… Read more
The Moroccan interior ministry has swung into action over a cartoon (above) published in the daily newspaper, Akhbar al-Youm, last weekend.
Police detained and interrogated editor/publisher Taoufik Bouachrine and cartoonist Khaled Kadar for more than 24 hours. They also sealed off the paper's… Read more
Anti-government and separatist protests continued in several cities of southern Yemen yesterday. Reuters talks of thousands of demonstrators and some idea of the scale can be gleaned from the pictures on News Yemen’s website (report in Arabic).
The most serious trouble… Read more
Almost four months after the Lebanese election, bickering continues over the formation of a new government. Elias Muhanna, of the Qifa Nabki blog, has written a challenging article for The National which raises fundamental questions about the Lebanese political system. He writes… 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
