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"If it was happening in Iran instead of Tunisia, it would be on the front pages of all the newspapers." Complaints of this kind about coverage of the Tunisian uprising keep appearing on the internet – many of them suggesting that editors around the world are protecting Ben Ali's regime from… Read more
Tunisian demonstrators confront the police by singing the national anthem
With the disturbances in Tunisia showing no sign of abating, President Ben Ali decided to address his people on television last night. But his seven-minute speech, also relayed to the wider Arab world via… Read more
Demonstrations continued in Tunisia over the weekend and have now entered their second week – an extraordinary development in Ben Ali's police state.
Here is a YouTube video showing protests outside a government building in Kairouan, 120km north-west of Sid Bouzid, and here isanother… Read more
Protests in Tunisia spread to the capital, Tunis, yesterday when human rights activists, trade unionists and students held a demonstration in the Place Mohamed Ali in solidarity with the people of Sid Bouzid. The nawaat.org website has videos and photographs.
Meanwhile… Read more
A teenage protester was shot dead by police yesterday as rioting continued in Tunisia.
Demonstrators in Menzel Bouzaiene reportedly set fire to three police cars, a train locomotive, the local headquarters of the ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally party and a national guard post… Read more
Following an "incident" in the town of Sid Bouzid, Tunisia issued a statement to clarify "the groundless rumours spread by certain sides". It said:
"The matter has to do with a procedure carried out by the city of Sidi Bouzid’s municipal regulations services, as part… Read more
An Egyptian cleric has issued a fatwa authorising the killing of Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the IAEA who is campaigning for reform in Egypt.
The fatwa, from Sheikh Mahmoud Amer, which is posted on the website of the Ansar al-Sunnah al-Muhamadiya, says:
"We, in… Read more
It has emerged that the four people attacked in Sana'a last week (and described rather vaguely by the US embassy as "foreign residents" of Yemen) were in fact working for the CIA.
Their vehicle, a Toyota Hilux pickup truck, had stopped near the Pizzaiola restaurant in the Hadda district… Read more
Egypt's state-controlled Dar al-Ifta has issued almost half a million fatwas this year, according to its annual report.
"The edicts pertained to modern-day issues, such as a widow’s in vitro fertilisation, fetal gender determination, abortions, artificial heart valves made of pig tissue,… Read more
Yemen's southern separatists kidnapped an army officer near Habilayn (Lahej province) at the weekend – apparently as a bargaining ploy for the release of prisoners.
The officer, identified by the Yemen Post as Major Muhammad al-Khawlani and by AFP as Captain Mohammed Ali… 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
