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Two articles from the Institute for War & Peace Reporting highlight a growing language gap between Arabs and Kurds in Iraq.
“Arabic is officially the second language of Kurdistan and the primary language of Iraq,” Najeeba Mohammed writes. “Though studying Arabic is currently compulsory in… Read more
Three-quarters of web users in Algeria regard the internet as "indispensable", more than 90% of them go online at least once a day and on average they spend one to two hours a day in front of the screen.
These are some of the findings from a survey of almost 6,000 Algerian internet… Read more
Morocco's fun-loving king, Mohammed VI, has run into trouble with environmentalists for having one of his luxury cars flown to Britain for repairs.
The car, an Aston Martin DB7, travelled from Rabat in a specially-chartered Hercules transport aircraft. The Sun newspaper hasphotographs of… Read more
Food is running out for tens of thousands of civilians displaced by the conflict in northern Yemen, the UN warned yesterday.
"The continuation of hostilities, the failure of the truce and the closure of roads has prevented humanitarian agencies from coming to the aid of the displaced," spokeswoman… Read more
I hadn’t been intending to say any more about Farouk Hosni and his unsuccessful bid to become head of Unesco, but his unseemly behaviour yesterday – blaming a Jewish conspiracy – merely confirms his unworthiness for the post.
Sections of the Egyptian media are spinning a similar… Read more
Four Emiratis – two men and two women, all in their twenties – have been jailed for six months each in Dubai for having sex in a five-star hotel.
One of them, a married woman, was convicted of adultery along with her lover. Her unmarried sister-in-law was found guilty of having sex with a lover.… Read more
There’s satisfaction in the Egyptian blogosphere today at the Mubarak regime’s failure to foist culture minister Farouk Hosni upon the rest of the world as head of Unesco.
Reporting of the contest for the job (eventually won by Bulgarian diplomat Irina Bokova) focused mainly on… Read more
Amnesty International has called on the Yemeni authorities to “clarify the whereabouts” of journalist Muhammad al-Maqalih, who was seized by plain-clothed men last Thursday.
“Amnesty International suspects his apparent disappearance is the result of his strong opposition and criticism of… Read more
The drought in Syria – now in its fourth year – is affecting an estimated 1.3 million people. More than 800,000 of them have lost their livelihoods and around 300,000 farmers, herders, and their families have abandoned their homes for makeshift urban camps, the Christian Science Monitor … Read more
More harassment of the Tunisian regime’s critics:
Abdallah Zouari, a journalist for the Islamist newspaper al-Fajr, spent 11 years in jail for "membership in an illegal organisation" (al-Nahda party) and "attempting to overthrow the state".
Following his release, he was forced to live in… 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
