Blog archive all
4th October 2009
A briefing note from the UN refugee agency highlights the extraordinary numbers of people who risk their lives crossing the sea from the Horn of Africa, hoping to find safety in Yemen:
September and October are the height of the sailing season and the number of arrivals by sea is staggering. More… Read more
4th October 2009
The Saudi campaign against young men wearing low-waist jeans – which has already resulted in hundreds of arrests in Riyadh – has now spread to Madinah.
Police in the holy city, aided by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, have begun apprehending youths who are “… Read more
3rd October 2009
The Yemeni military lost a MiG21 warplane over Saada province yesterday.
The Houthi rebels said they shot it down, and named the pilot as Lieutenant Shamsan Mohammed Abdo Mufleh (it is unclear if he survived).
The government said the aircraft was flying at low altitude and carshed “because of a… Read more
3rd October 2009
Writers and civil society activists in Egypt face a growing threat from “hesba” lawsuits, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) warned this week.
Hesba (or hisba) cases are prosecutions instigated by individuals rather than the authorities. They are usually brought by religious… Read more
2nd October 2009
The Moroccan interior ministry has swung into action over a cartoon (above) published in the daily newspaper, Akhbar al-Youm, last weekend.
Police detained and interrogated editor/publisher Taoufik Bouachrine and cartoonist Khaled Kadar for more than 24 hours. They also sealed off the paper's… Read more
1st October 2009
Anti-government and separatist protests continued in several cities of southern Yemen yesterday. Reuters talks of thousands of demonstrators and some idea of the scale can be gleaned from the pictures on News Yemen’s website (report in Arabic).
The most serious trouble occurred in ad-Dhali’ where… Read more
1st October 2009
Almost four months after the Lebanese election, bickering continues over the formation of a new government. Elias Muhanna, of the Qifa Nabki blog, has written a challenging article for The National which raises fundamental questions about the Lebanese political system. He writes:
In Lebanon, where… Read more
1st October 2009
Saudi police, together with the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, have arrested more than 100 people at a mixed-gender party in the city of Taif.
“Women took off their abayas and danced and mixed with men,” one Saudi news website reported.
Meanwhile there is media… Read more
30th September 2009
A Swedish journalist/blogger is awaiting deportation from Egypt after being declared persona non grata.
Per Bjorklund, who has lived in Egypt for the last three years, was detained on arrival at Cairo airport yesterday. He told friends by phone that immigration officials had stopped him because his… Read more
30th September 2009
Three Jordanian brothers have been accused of murdering their 40-year-old sister because of her “bad reputation”, the Jordan Timesreports.
The men killed the divorced mother of five after finding photos of her sitting with her alleged lover, police said. They stabbed her 15 times then set fire to… 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
