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Four inmates and several staff were injured when a riot broke out at a women's prison in the holy city of Mecca last Friday. Predictably, the head of social affairs in Mecca described it as a “mutiny” and threatened harsh action against the instigators.
A few years ago, that would… Read more
The international conference on Yemen, due to be held in London on January 27, is expected to last only a couple of hours, Ivan Lewis, the Foreign Office minister responsible for the Middle East told parliament yesterday.
This does sound rather a short amount of time to spend on… Read more
A 22-year-old Jordanian man has been arrested for uttering "an insult against an Arab head of state". The head of state in question was Hosni Mubarak and the incident occurred outside the Egyptian embassy in Amman during a demonstration protesting against he construction of the border… Read more
As Saudi Arabia moves to set a minimum age for females to marry, the Jeddah-based Arab News reports that and 80-year-old man in Buraidah has married a 12-year-old girl.
The child's mother, who is divorced from the father, is seeking to have the marriage annulled.
Posted by Brian Whitaker… Read more
The US State Department has criticised the arrest of a group of activists and bloggers in Egypt who attempted to visit the town of Naga Hammadi and offer condolences over the killing of six Christians and a Muslim security guard. It said in a statementissued on Saturday:
The United… Read more
A group of religious leaders and other prominent figures in Mauritania have issued a fatwa against female genital mutilation (FGM).
The fatwa says FGM "has been proven by experts to be detrimental, immediately or subsequently. Hence, such a practice, as is performed domestically, is… Read more
At least 18 activists, including some of Egypt's most prominent bloggers, were arrested yesterday when they attempted to visit the town of Naga Hammadi and offer condolences over the killing of six Christians and a Muslim security guard last week.
They were intercepted on arrival,… Read more
The Saudi authorities – who operate one of the world's most sophisticated internet filtering systems – receive on average 850 requests per day from members of the public to block access to websites, Asharq Alwsat reports. Requests to unblock websites are running at around 200 a day.
This is a… Read more
An email received from Yemen suggests the widely-reported killingof Adbullah Mehdar (or Mihdar) may not have been the victory against al-Qaeda that it was made out to be.
My correspondent writes: "The informed thinking down here is that Mehdar was not al-Qaeda but a senior tribes-type… Read more
Mohammed al-Alwani, managing editor of the Yemeni websitesahwa.net (linked to the Islah Party) has received a telephoneddeath threat from a man claiming to work for the government's Political Security Organisation.
Harassment of Yemen's non-governmental media has been stepped up… 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
