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7th August 2009
King Abdullah is still having difficulty with his cabinet appointments in Lebanon. He is discussing the problem with his prime minister designate, Saad Hariri. The Daily Star has more details.
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 7 August 2009
6th August 2009
Official sources in Yemen said yesterday that “outlaws” planted two bombs outside government buildings in Abyan province. One exploded near a police building, blowing a hole in a fence. A larger device consisting of a mine and a timer was defused near the Central Organisation for Control and… Read more
6th August 2009
The release of Hamas’s first feature film, produced in Gaza on a budget of only $200,000, is noted by the Guardian and theJerusalem Post. As might be expected in view of the filming location, it’s descibed as action-packed.
The film's producer, Fathi Hamad, is also the Gaza interior minister, so I… Read more
6th August 2009
ICANN, the body responsible for coordinating internet addresses (domain names) worldwide, has announced that website addresses in Arabic will be available from next year. At present, Arabic-language websites still have to use addresses in the Roman alphabet. The move will also benefit websites in… Read more
6th August 2009
Hwida Price, a reader of this blog, writes with more details about the heavy metal concert/party that was broken up by the Saudi authorities last Friday:
A number of youngsters have been in police custody since early hours of Friday 31 July 2009, at the Oliyyha police station in… Read more
5th August 2009
NewsYemen says three soldiers died when Houthi rebels attacked a hospital in Sakain area on Monday and 13 rebels were killed in al-Hesama district close to the Saudi border yesterday.
NewsYemen adds that farmers are suffering from the conflict. Roadblocks set up by the army and the rebels prevent… Read more
5th August 2009
Whatever is the world coming to when you can’t get decent servants any more. Under the heading “Mission impossible”, the Saudi Gazette reports on the trials and tribulations of finding a housemaid for Ramadan. They expect so much money these days, and they don’t like staying up all night cooking… Read more
5th August 2009
The campaign by Saudi conservatives against Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the liberal-minded multi-billionaire, has moved up a notch with calls to shut down LBC television’s operations in Saudi Arabia.
The Lebanese-based channel, which is 49% owned by Prince Alwaleed’s business empire, got into… Read more
4th August 2009
Mediation by a tribal leader from the Socialist Party has secured a truce between Houthi rebels and armed supporters of the Islah Party in al-Jawf province (north-eastern Yemen), according to the Yemen Observer.
The Shi’a and Sunni rivals had been fighting for a couple of weeks with light and… Read more
4th August 2009
It’s probably reassuring for Iraq’s neighbours that the “democratic” Maliki government is gradually acquiring the characteristics of a bog-standard authoritarian regime.
Its latest move, reported in the New York Times, is to ban websites “deemed harmful to the public, to require internet cafes to… 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
