the synthetic jungle
Opinion / Analysis
Google flashes some Chrome
Google has launched a new web browser, in the usual beta build, aimed at optimising the online application experience. Only announced a day earlier in an “accidental” email, the web giant touts its piece of software – called Chrome – as the logical successor to current web browsers. Browsers, it says, were designed in the [...]
Sami back at Al Jazeera
Sami al-Hajj, the Al Jazeera’s journalist held for 6 1/2 years at Guantanamo Bay, has returned to Doha – headquarters of the channel – to a hero’s welcome. A throng of about 200 supporters greeted him at the airport, waving flags and launching white doves in the air. Back at the Al Jazeera compound, a [...]
Lebanese leaders break 18-month political deadlock
Leaders from across Lebanon’s political spectrum – meeting in Qatar – have reached an agreement under Arab League mediation to reconvene parliament after 18 months of crisis. In the deal, to be acted upon immediately, both governing coalition allies and the opposition agreed to elect Michel Suleiman, head of Lebanon’s army, as president, form a [...]
Capturing the ‘contrasts’ of Dubai
Its been dubbed the city of superlatives, it calls itself the land of “captivating contrasts”. Skyscrapers rise out of every corner (although these are two of the eldest), and construction is underway in every nook and cranny – more so even than here in Doha.
Vanity Fair’s Gaza “bombshell”
Vanity Fair magazine has published a report revealing plans by the US government dating back to 2006 to overthrow the newly elected Palestinian government it deemed illegitimate. After failing to anticipate Hamas’s victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part [...]
Gaza in tatters
Israel has ramped up its attacks on the “sinking ship” (to quote a colleague) that is the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military conducts daily raids both in the West Bank and Gaza – Palestinian territories that continue to be occupied – but since Wednesday, those attacks have intensified to the tune of more than 100 [...]
Bhutto and Bin Laden in the rumor mill
Benazir Bhutto, the late twice prime minister of Pakistan, has been killed at a political rally while campaigning for a post she was constitutionally barred from holding. With her killing, and its prominent coverage across mainstream Western media, interest in and rumors surrounding the twice-dismissed-from government politician has ratcheted up across the web. But while [...]
Tracking Hajj
Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage, has begun in Makkah (Mecca), with an expected more than two million pilgrims on the road to nearby Mina. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry announced 1.6 million pilgrims had arrived from around the world, with another half million expected to participate from within the kingdom. Scouring international news organisations for in-depth [...]
Eyeing change in India
Bovine in Baroda The view from Haji villa, in the Gujarati city of Baroda. As Hindus revere cows, it’s no surprise to find them wandering freely on most of India’s streets, even in Muslim areas. Combined with dust-covered roadways and trash strewn by the curbside, the image is typical of the world’s largest democratic nuclear [...]
Petraeus fights Iraq war in cyberspace
General David Petraeus, commander of US forces in Iraq, has delivered testimony to the United States House of Representatives on the Iraq war alongside Ryan Crocker, ambassador to Baghdad. In his report on Monday on the effectiveness of a US troop buildup in Iraq, which is to be followed by testimony in front of the [...]
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