Blog archive all
28th November 2019
Amid preparations for a highly contentious presidential election in Algeria, the authorities have arrested Abdelhamid Amine, an artist who does satirical paintings and cartoons.
Amine (@Nime_BD on Twitter) was taken into custody on Tuesday when plainclothes police raided his workplace in Oran and… Read more
25th November 2019
For several weeks defenders of Syria's Assad regime have been chattering excitedly about the emergence of a whistleblower from inside the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The whistleblower – known by the pseudonym "Alex" – is said to have emails, text messages and "suppressed… Read more
21st November 2019
An anonymous whistleblower who recently emerged from inside the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has spoken of "huge internal arguments" over one of its investigations in Syria.
The whistleblower, known only as "Alex", says he was a member of the team investigating an alleged… Read more
4th November 2019
I don't often get emails from the Saudi government, but one arrived yesterday offering me $5,000.
It came from the Royal Commission for Riyadh City (RCRC) which is looking for "collaborative input" on plans to transform the Saudi capital into "a sustainable, responsible, inspiring place to live".… Read more
24th October 2019
A former head of the chemical weapons watchdog OPCW has accused the organisation of "irregular behaviour" during its investigation of an alleged chemical attack in Syria last year, according to reports circulating on the internet.
The remarks by José Bustani, director-general of the OPCW between… Read more
17th October 2019
An emeritus professor at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has angrily resigned from the board of a science journal after it declined to publish a paper he co-authored about a nerve agent attack in Syria.
In his resignation letter, Theodore Postol, an MIT expert on missile… Read more
13th October 2019
Where is Gaïd Salah? That's the question many Algerians are asking. Following the resignation of President Bouteflika last April military chief Salah emerged as the regime's dominant figure but now he has suddenly vanished from sight.
Theories abound, but evidence is scarce. According to the… Read more
11th October 2019
Twitter's hashtags offer a quick and easy way to find out what people are saying on a given topic. But for those who dislike what is being said there's also a quick and easy way to obstruct the discussion: they can summon an army of bots to flood the hashtag with irrelevant tweets.
This is a… Read more
9th October 2019
Contractors in Saudi Arabia have begun levelling the ground for a new section of the Haramain high-speed rail line, with instructions to have it completed within three weeks.
The new track, several hundred metres in length, will bypass Jeddah station which was badly damaged by fire on 29… Read more
2nd October 2019
Saudi Arabia's high-speed railway linking the holy cities of Mecca and Medina took 10 years to build and cost more than $16 billion. It was meant to be a triumph of design and engineering but on Sunday, less than a year after carrying its first paying passengers, the line was shut down when one of… 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
