Cairo, Egypt, the ancient city of congenial smiles, is cranky. Scuffles and the boots of riot police rattle through streets ahead of tomorrow's parliamentary elections that are not likely to ease public anger over President Hosni Mubarak's squeaky, but powerful, political machine. There is no doubt the National Democratic Party will sweep to victory from the southern deserts to…
November 27, 2010
Citing concerns that terrorists and criminals could exploit telecommunications traffic in the Arab world's financial hub, the United Arab Emirates said yesterday that it would suspend e-mail and web browsing on BlackBerry services beginning in October. Shortly after the UAE's announcement, media reports quoted officials in Saudi Arabia as saying the kingdom would take similar steps…
August 2, 2010
Facing intense regional diplomatic pressure, Egypt yesterday opened its border with the Gaza Strip, a day after Israel's deadly commando raid blocked a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid from reaching 1.5 million Palestinians living in the coastal enclave. The Egyptian decision highlights the sensitivity Cairo faces in its uncomfortable relationship with Gaza. The government of…
June 2, 2010
The al-Qaida wing in Yemen that claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing last week of a Northwest Airlines flight has as many as 2,000 militants and sympathizers exploiting the country's economic and political chaos to create a base for jihad at the edge of the Persian Gulf, according to a Yemeni terrorism expert. The group, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, is…
December 30, 2009
Dubai is a clever blend of audacity and architecture, a monument to the egos and ambition that turned a tiny emirate into a Middle East financial giant. Russian oligarchs stroll along man-made islands shaped like palm trees, and sheiks race down a ski slope built inside a shopping mall. Lacking its neighbors' oil reserves, Dubai's ruling family created a parallel economic reality…
November 30, 2009
Saudi Arabian warplanes attacked Shiite rebel strongholds inside northern Yemen yesterday in a surge of fighting along the border following the death of a Saudi security official at the hands of insurgents, according to news reports. Saudi fighter jets targeted up to six rebel positions inside Yemen and along the mountainous border. Saudi troops were reportedly heading toward the…
November 6, 2009
Iran
In a brazen attack on Iran's military elite, a suicide bomber yesterday killed six Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and 26 others at a gathering of tribal leaders in a southeastern province near the Pakistan border known for drug running and religious extremism, according to the official Iranian news agency. The assault was carried out by a lone man who reportedly disguised…
October 19, 2009
iran
Iran accused the U.S. yesterday of involvement in the disappearance of an Iranian nuclear scientist it claims vanished after leaving for a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in late May. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Shahram Amiri has not been heard from since shortly after he entered the Saudi kingdom, a close U.S. ally agitated over Iran's nuclear program. Iranian news…
October 8, 2009
Yemen
European aviation authorities had raised safety questions two years ago about the Yemeni Airbus 310 jetliner that plunged into rough seas yesterday with 153 people aboard on its approach to the island nation of Comoros in the Indian Ocean.
July 1, 2009
Worried that piracy could scare ships away from the Suez Canal, Egypt yesterday held emergency talks with nations bordering the Red Sea on how stop brazen Somali gunmen from hijacking oil tankers and other vessels.
The Cairo meeting was called amid concerns that lawlessness was disrupting sea lanes and creating panic that might force shipping companies to avoid sailing the Red Sea…
November 21, 2008
Desert winds blow, sands shift, archaeologists dig, and one day you find a pyramid. Egyptian authorities announced yesterday that they discovered what's left of the base of a pyramid estimated to be 4,300 years old near Saqqara.
The site has been under excavation for 20 years and is believed to have belonged to Queen Sesheshet, the mother of King Teti, who ruled the Sixth Dynasty…
November 12, 2008
United Arab Emirates
A British couple whose drunken escapade led to sex on the beach, tabloid headlines and a clash between Western permissiveness and Islamic values was sentenced yesterday by a Dubai court to three months in prison.
October 17, 2008
An Iraqi lawmaker belonging to the anti-American party of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was assassinated yesterday by a bomb that exploded as the politician's motorcade passed near a Baghdad military checkpoint.
Saleh al-Auqaeili was a former spokesman and ranking member in the al-Sadr bloc, which has 30 seats in Iraq's 275-member Parliament. The killing came amid two weeks of increased…
October 10, 2008
An al-Qaida in Iraq leader suspected of executing a Russian official and orchestrating a recent wave of bombings in Baghdad has been killed by U.S. forces in a shootout, the military said yesterday.
Mahir Ahmad Mahmud Zubaydi and his wife were killed Friday when U.S. troops surrounded a building in an attempt to capture him in Baghdad's Adhamiya neighborhood. Security officials…
October 5, 2008
