Palestinian officials are compiling a register of residents in the northern refugee camp of Baddawi to crack down on Islamist militants and to prevent unrest, one of them said on Saturday. “Rumors have spread concerning the presence of outlaws in Baddawi camp,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. “As a result Palestinian faction […]
I was already late to dinner, so I decided to take a taxi from the street. Not surprisingly, I got caught in a traffic jam. Oh well. Beirut at night. The driver starts telling me about Lebanese women. I said they are beautiful. He disagreed. Actually, he said that maybe 20% have beautiful features, but […]
Free Patriotic Movement leader Gen. Michel Aoun will make an official visit to Tehran on Sunday for meetings with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other senior officials. … During the visit, the first ever by Aoun to Tehran, a ceremony will be held in his honor, the daily As Safir said Friday. It said Aoun […]
When I am outside Lebanon following the political trends, I do it, thinking that X event or Y incident is going to have an impact. Truth is that nothing thus far had a meaningful impact on the system as a whole. I feel Lebanon is kind of a hopeless case… People were assassinated and for […]
The BBC's Julia Wheeler sounds an optimistic note on the Gulf economies in these tough times. All I have to say is, knock on wood.
Human Rights Watch released a report yesterday calling on the Jordanian government to address the widespread practice of torture in its prisons. (Link is to HRW press release; read the full 95-page report here or go to the LA Times summary here). Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East Director, says that the mechanisms in place […]
Lebanon seeks a legal ruling declaring hummus Lebanese and demanding Israel repay the country for decades of lost revenue for Lebanon by marketing hummus as an Israeli product. Apparently Greece once won a similar case against France over feta cheese. David Kenner at the FP thinks it won't win the government any points; we will […]
Amal Suleiman Afifi is now Egypt's first female marriage clerk. In response to the assertion that men may resign to protest her appointment, she said “there are many qualified women to take their places.”
Tzipi Livni may face new challenges in forming a governing coalition thanks to Ehud Olmert's comments on the necessity of certain concessions on the part of Israel. Olmert's frank admission that Israel will probably have to withdraw from East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights pushed Kadima (Olmert and Livni's party) to the […]
… according to Deputy Secretary of State Negroponte. Is this going to be like the provincial elections, where they agree to not agree yet about the hard things, and then sign off on the decisions that were reached months ago? Since the contested presence and status of military contractors is such a sensitive issue, for […]
Dr. Qanta Ahmed, an American Muslim who spent some time practicing medicine in Saudi Arabia, answers questions for VOA on her new book about Saudi Arabia, In The Land of Invisible Women. She objects to Wahhabiism and calls it a “bastardization” of Islam, enumerating the injustices done to women in particular under the Saudi regime […]
Rami Khouri at the Daily Star enumerates the reasons why Arab countries should be concerned about the downturn.
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