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By: Brian Whitaker
Move to expel Norwegian TV from Egypt GNRD's ally seeks reprisal over accusations   An Egyptian human rights organisation has filed a lawsuit which seeks to have the Norwegian state broadcaster, NRK, banned from reporting in Egypt. The legal move was initiated by Maat for… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
Salem Humaid, founder of al-Mezmaah Studies and Research Center in Dubai which donated money to GNRD The Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD) is a strange human rights organisation based in Norway and founded by a man who once ran a fake university. I have been investigating its… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
DIDN'T Arianna Huffington realise what she was getting into when she decided to launch HuffPost Arabi? In the first three weeks it has certainly been attracting attention, but mostly of the wrong sort. The new Arabic-language website was born amid a show of bravado from Ms Huffington. Avoiding "… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
Entrance to the University of Jordan in Amman A session of Jordan's parliament was suspended amid uproar on Tuesday as dozens of MPs demanded the sacking of Labib Khadra, the higher education minister. The MPs were accusing the government of trying to abolish an "exception" system which… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
There are few things more likely to infuriate Arab citizens than blatant abuse of privilege – when those with powerful connections behave as if the law does not apply to them. This is what led to a rare public outburst at the weekend in the Syrian city of Latakia in the Assad regime's heartland.… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
The UAE has some of the world's toughest laws against drugs. Convicted drug traffickers are liable to be executed and possessing even small amounts of illicit substances can lead to a lengthy jail sentence. Not only that. The British Foreign Office warns travellers arriving in the UAE or… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
Rather belatedly, the United Nations has taken its first concrete step towards ending impunity for chemical attacks in Syria. Although any criminal charges are still a distant prospect, the move may be aimed more immediately at halting the use of chlorine as a weapon.  On Friday the Security… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
The document below, which has no official status, is a draft circulated by the Global Network for Rights and Development at a conference in Geneva on 16-17 February 2015. It proposes establishing an "International Council for Counterterrorism", closely modelled on the… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
Privacy policy at al-bab In case you are wondering about the pop-up box (which you should have seen by now) asking you to agree to the use of cookies, here's a short note of explanation.  It doesn't indicate a change in the use of cookies at al-bab. It's to make the existing… Read more
By: Brian Whitaker
The launch of Huffington Post's Arabic website earlier this week has had a surprisingly favourable media reception considering that it's a joint venture with a Qatari-owned company, that its editor-in-chief is a longstanding member of the Muslim Brotherhood and its editorial… Read more