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Some reactions to Nasrallah's press conference in Lebanon on the assassination of Rafiq Hariri.
Writing in the Daily Star, Rami Khouri says the Hizbullah leader had four related aims when he made his statement accusing Israel:
Deflect attention from the widely expected… Read more
Hassan Nasrallah's statement tonight was every bit as dramatic as his broadcast during the 2006 war when he announced than an Israeli naval vessel, hit by Hizbullah, was ablaze off Beirut.
The drama this time came from his revelation that for a number of years Hizbullah has been able to intercept… Read more
The Saudi Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (the Haia) is to issue "regulations and guidelines" for the practice of ruqya (faith healing) "in an effort to stop the unlawful forms of the treatment often used by sorcerers," Arab News reports:
"Some people earn… Read more
The targeting of members of the security forces (here, here andhere) continues in southern Yemen. Yesterday, three more wereshot dead in Zinjibar near the intelligence headquarters by masked men riding a motorcycle.
In what may be an unrelated incident, a soldier blew himself up in… Read more
Shortly after the new government took over in Britain, the Quilliam Foundation, a "counter-extremism" thinktank which received around £1m in funding from the previous Labour government, wrote a private briefing paper setting out recommendations for Britain's anti-terrorism strategy. The document… Read more
Good fences make good neighbours, according to an old proverb – the idea being that friction is less likely if those on both sides of the line know exactly where they stand. On that basis, the border fence between Israel and Lebanon is a bad one ... Read my full article at Comment Is Free… Read more
With Saudi Arabia and the UAE in a tizz about the evil that might result from unrestricted use of BlackBerry phones, the satirical website, NewsBiscuit, has come up with an idea: BlackBerry burqas. "With the veil in place only a tiny slit remains revealing just the time and date, thus preserving… Read more
Following last week's report that the Houthi rebels had captured200 Yemeni soldiers and a subsequent official denial (of sorts), the picture is clearing.
On Saturday, the Supreme Security Committee admitted that the rebels had "kidnapped" 228 soldiers and tribesmen… Read more
The Gay Middle East website has a compilation of attacks in Iraq last month directed against men who are gay or not looking sufficiently "masculine". Some were beaten up, some disappeared and others were murdered, according to the website's sources.
As a report by Human Rights… Read more
The decision by the UAE and Saudi Arabia to suspend BlackBerry data services from October has been widely reported, so I won't repeat the details here. But it's a tussle that has far-reaching implications. The Gulf states, as I've said before, want the economic benefits of modernity (and… 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
