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12th December 2016
The death was reported today of Mohamed Tamalt who had been serving a two-year jail sentence in Algeria for insulting President Bouteflika on Facebook.
Tamalt, 42, who had dual British and Algerian nationality and had been living in Britain before his imprisonment, was arrested on June 27 while… Read more
8th December 2016
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A British flag flying shamelessly alongside those of repressive Gulf regimes at the GCC summit in Bahrain yesterday signalled the opening of what prime… Read more
6th December 2016
Britain's prime minister, Theresa May, is in Bahrain today for the annual summit of the rich autocrats' club, the Gulf Cooperation Council. As the official announcement from Downing Street excitedly points out, she is the first British prime minister – and the first woman – ever to attend a GCC… Read more
5th December 2016
The Doha Centre for Media Freedom was set up by the emir of Qatar in 2007. Press freedom and quality journalism, its mission statement says, "are vital for empowering citizens to participate in social and political life. Well functioning media are crucial for healthy societies and sustainable… Read more
21st November 2016
Visiting Syria in 2004, Brad Hoff, an ex-Marine from Texas, went looking for cheap beer and chanced upon a bar where – to his surprise – most of the customers were gay.
The existence of such a bar in Damascus, Hoff writes after visiting it again recently, is "symbolic of the nuance and… Read more
16th November 2016
Amid chants of "Allahu akbar", huge and angry crowds gathered outside the Supreme Court in Mauritania on Tuesday demanding the execution of a man who complained about religion being used to justify social discrimination.
In December 2013 engineer Mohamed Ould Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir wrote an article… Read more
15th November 2016
The war in Yemen has reached a point where all parties now want to halt the fighting, former vice-president Khaled Bahah said on Monday. But he warned that if they fail to seize the moment there may not be another opportunity for six months.
The latest peace efforts are focused around a road map… Read more
10th November 2016
Four weeks ago there was a flurry of media excitement over Iranian warships that were supposedly about to confront the US Navy off the coast of Yemen. In case you are wondering how the battle went, it didn't happen and was never likely to happen.
On October 13, Fox News reported:
"Iran deployed… Read more
6th November 2016
At the end of June the UN Human Rights Council decided it needed someone to monitor "protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity" and voted to appoint an "independent expert". In September, the role was assigned to Vitit Muntarbhorn, a professor of… Read more
4th November 2016
Egypt's Sisi regime has raised the price of fuel dramatically overnight, hours after a decision to let the Egyptian pound "float" (i.e. sink). Both moves are seen as preparing the way for a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.
Prices of government-subsidised diesel and gasoline… 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
