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By: Brian Whitaker
An angry mob stormed a privately-owned television station in Kuwait on Sunday. The group, said to number at least 150, smashed windows and overturned furniture at Scope TV. About 10 people were reportedly injured. The Kuwait Times says the station accused the attackers of being… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
The Yemeni authorities say they have arrested Saleh al-Raimi, who was wanted for financing al-Qaeda activities in Yemen. Raimi, a 33-year-old Yemeni living in Saudi Arabia, was captured at Sana'a airport on Friday when he arrived from the kingdom,according to the interior ministry. Meanwhile,… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
Arab states account for almost half of the worst performers in the World Economic Forum's latest survey of the Global Gender Gap. As in previous years, four Nordic countries – Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden – top the list. The best-performing Arab country – the UAE – is ranked at number 103 (… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
Chile is a long way from the Middle East, perhaps in more ways than one. As I watched the rescue of the miners earlier this week, a question came to mind which has been niggling me ever since: What if the accident had happened in one of the Arab countries? How would the authorities have handled it… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is planning to form an army in Aden and Abyan with the aim of establishing "God's law", according to a recorded speech by its military leader, Qasim al-Raimi, which has been posted on the internet. In the recording, he described the proposed… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
I won't say much about Ahmadinejad's visit to Lebanon, which is being extensively covered elsewhere. But I was delighted to see that Memri, the "media research institute" described by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman as an indispensable tool, has got another scoop.  Yesterday… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
In an article for Middle East Report Online, Mariz Tadros takes a detailed look at the current sectarian tensions in Egypt. "For six weeks," she writes, "Egypt has been sitting on top of a sectarian volcano. Protesters, men and women, have been exiting mosques following prayers… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
In what is widely seen as an attempt to stifle opposition activism in the run-up to next month's parliamentary election, the Egyptian authorities have have announced restrictions of the sending of text messages to multiple mobile phones. News organisations that send out alerts to phone users have… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
Ghazi al-Samawi, a criminal investigations officer named on an al-Qaeda hit-list, was killed in Zinjibar (Abyan province) on Sunday night. A Yemeni official said two men on a motorbike shouted "Allahu akbar" as they shot him and sped off. Motorbike attacks have become a common… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
  A charity in the Saudi city of Jeddah is tackling the problem of child beggars ... by having them deported.  The Al-Bir Welfare Society, which runs the kingdom's first welfare centre for child beggars, has organised the deportation of 6,000 children during its first seven years of… Read more