Asia

Picture of the Day

A baker beckons customers to his shop bakery decorated with nan-i-afghani flatbread in Kabul on Sunday. Afghanistan’s national bread, which is baked in a tandoor, are also popular in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East. (AP)

Commentators acquitted on all charges

By Rana Husseini AMMAN – The Amman Criminal Court on Sunday decided to acquit two commentators on charges related to political remarks they made in separate TV talk shows regarding Jordan’s involvement in Afghanistan. Presiding Judge Nas-ser Salamat declared Mwaffaq Mahadin, a columnist at Al Arab Al Yawm daily, and […]

US, UK and European envoys trapped in Yemen embassy

(CNN) — The American, British and European Union ambassadors to Yemen are trapped in an embassy surrounded by gunmen angry about efforts by Arab mediators to ease President Ali Abdullah Saleh out of power, the American envoy told CNN. U.S. Ambassador Gerald Feierstein said the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, […]

Bhutan’s 31-year-old king to marry

The 31-year-old king of Bhutan, an Oxford-educated bachelor crowned in the remote Himalayan country in 2008, set up another royal wedding on Friday by announcing his engagement. Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who helped usher in democracy in the Buddhist nation, revealed his intention to marry student Jetsun Pema in an […]

The ‘Turkish Model’ and the Middle East

Hugh Pope, Transtlantic Academy | 13 May 2011 The Middle East’s season of popular revolts for greater freedoms has thrown a critical spotlight on Turkey’s ambition for a leading role in the region, whether as an actor pursuing a ‘zero problem’ foreign policy or through the gravitational pull of its […]

Netanyahu’s rejection of Obama’s Mideast speech underestimated the president’s strength—and could hasten the Israeli leader’s political demise.

by Michael Tomasky Bibi Netanyahu could have reacted any number of ways to Barack Obama’s mention of the “1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps.” Let’s say, actually, four ways—embrace, circumspection, suspicion, tantrum. That he chose the last—saying immediately after the Obama speech that he “expects” to hear Obama in essence […]

$4 billion Saudi aid for Egypt

By ARAB NEWS RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has pledged $4 billion in aid to Egypt, the chief of Egypt’s ruling military council said Saturday. The aid will be in the form of soft loans, deposits and grants, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the council, was quoted by Egypt’s MENA […]

Maids Who End Up as Wives

by Jamal Abdul Khaliq Muhammad Al-Ghamdi says that he was happily married to his first wife, who bore him three sons. When household duties became too much for her, she asked Muhammad to hire a maid. The maid was a pretty Indonesian Muslim who was well treated by the wife […]

Iraqis returning home from Syria

By REBECCA SANTANA | AP BAGHDAD: It’s easy to identify the Iraqis fleeing the violent uprising in Syria as they arrive by bus in Baghdad. They’re the ones carrying a sad array of worldly possessions: blankets and mattresses tied with cord; TVs and curtain rods; boxes once filled with food […]

Let actions speak…

So what’s it going to be: Israeli chutzpah or Barack Obama’s audacity of hope? Predictably, Israel’s Netanyahu has lost no time in trashing President Barack Obama’s call for a “viable Palestine” along the 1967 borders. The Israeli PM has virtually rubbed Obama’s nose in, dismissing the borders that existed between […]