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In a little-noticed move, President Obama signed an executive order this week extending "the national emergency with respect to Yemen" for a further 12 months. The official announcement says:
"The actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Yemen and others continue to… Read more
Armed groups withdrew from Libya’s foreign and justice ministries at the weekend, ending a siege which lasted almost a fortnight, and bringing some respite – if only temporarily – in the country’s political crisis.
An agreement to call off the siege came after the armed groupshad been… Read more
Preserving and promoting Arabic as "a linguistic identity" in the GCC countries was the aim of a three-day conference held in Riyadh last week.
Fears that Arabic – or at least the more formal standard version of it – may eventually cease to be the universal language of Arabs are by no means new.… Read more
Abdelkader Kherba
An Algerian campaigner who distributed leaflets about unemployment has been convicted under a new law designed to restrict civil society activities in the country.
Abdelkader Kherba, a member of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH) and the… Read more
When a Gulf regime needs to state in public that relations with its most important ally are "robust and strong", we can be pretty sure that something is amiss. Thus, Bahrain's insistence that all is well between Washington and Manama comes amid increasing friction between the two… Read more
Photograph published by the Yemen Times, said to show Yemenis rounded up for deportation from Saudi Arabia
Amid growing controversy over the mass expulsion of foreign workers from Saudi Arabia, Arab News reports that the governor of Riyadh, Prince Khaled bin Bandar, has… Read more
Bahrain's foreign ministry has expressed "dissatisfaction" with the US State Department's annual country-by-country report on human rights.
It says the section on Bahrain "lacks objectivity and impartiality, and overlooks Bahrain’s progress in maintaining and promoting human rights issues… Read more
To mark the tenth anniversary of the Iraq war, I am re-posting diary entries that I wrote at the time for the Guardian's website...
American tanks and troops entered the main square of Tikrit early this morning. As Tikrit is Saddam Hussein's birthplace there were… Read more
To mark the tenth anniversary of the Iraq war, I am re-posting diary entries that I wrote at the time for the Guardian's website...
An Iraqi general who was in charge of liaison with United Nations weapons inspectors before the war gave himself up to American forces in… Read more
To mark the tenth anniversary of the Iraq war, I am re-posting diary entries that I wrote at the time for the Guardian's website...
On one of the bleakest days since the invasion began, US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday shrugged off turmoil and looting in… 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
