Blog archive all
You may remember a flurry of media excitement a month or so ago over whether Hizbullah would win the Lebanese elections. It didn’t, and so Lebanon dropped off the world news map again.
Almost three weeks on, incoming prime minister Saad Hariri (or Mini-Hariri as the Angry Arab likes to… Read more
The Obama administration seems to be dusting off old Clinton-era plans for peace between Israel and Syria, looking at the stumbling blocks last time around and checking for new ways to overcome them. Fred Hoff, an adviser to George Mitchell’s Middle East team, has been in Israel this week … Read more
Two men have been arrested in connection with thetriple killing in Lahj province last Friday. They are said to be a son and brother of the main suspect, Ali Saif Mohammed. It is not clear if they are actually suspected of involvement in the killing: the Yemeni authorities often… Read more
I'm not posting here today.Instead, I have written for Comment Is Free about the Palestinian ban on al-Jazeera and the wider pattern of government-media relations in Arab countries.
The blogger known as “The Egypt Guy” reports that a ground-breaking new book has gone on sale in Cairo – apparently with the approval of “state security”.
Written by journalist Mostafa Fathi, Fi Balad el-Walaad (In the Country of the Boys) “tells the story of one young… Read more
Shine, shine, you who shine on all of us
Shine, shine, you who shine wherever you go
No one can shine like you shine
You made people feel confused and lost
You made people feel happy and lost
Are you shocked by these lines of verse? Aghast at their temerity? Their author has… Read more
A Yemeni politician has demanded the closure of al-Jazeera’s office in Sana’a, accusing the TV channel of damaging the country’s security and stability, the Yemen Post reports.
Ali Jusaed al-Lahbi, a member of parliament for the ruling General People Congress, said: “It runs stories which… Read more
It’s a bit like like those pre-nuptial agreements where celebrities sort out the divorce terms with their lawyers in advance of getting married – except that the people involved here are not celebrities but poor Egyptian factory workers.
Reporting on exploitation in the sweat-shops of the… Read more
Yemeni forces yesterday dispersed a rally of 200 people in Aden who were demonstrating against the suspension of al-Ayyam newspaper, Reuters reports. About 15 of the paper’s employees were arrested during the rally.
Established in the 1950s, al-Ayyam is Yemen’s oldest independent daily… Read more
An article by Fred Dardick for Canada Free Press (reproduced
here by the Campus Watch website, but presumably not for its academic merit) announces: “Obama is no friend of Israel”.
Among numerous other offences, the Obama administration is accused of suggesting – horror 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
