Rory Carroll is free. Al hamdulillah.

AFP interviews Makarem Al Deiri, one of the only two female candidates the Muslim Brotherhood is fielding in next month’s parliamentary elections:
The only woman candidate backed by Egypt’s influential Muslim Brotherhood, the 55-year-old mother of seven insists there is no point arguing for sexual equality, as such a demand “goes against nature”.
“Women are men’s partners [...]

Rather good review on Robert Fisk’s new book in this week’s Economist:
Mr Fisk is a gifted writer and an accomplished storyteller, so those who have not read him before will enjoy the famous correspondent’s colourful narrative. Mr Fisk tries to tell the story of the Middle East, but he does not flinch from telling the [...]

You have to start worrying when Egypt becomes a byword for fake elections:
Indiadaily.com - Nepal on its way to become Egypt? Seven major parties including Nepali Congress Party will join the boycott of April 2007 parliamentary elections:
Nepal still is dragging its foot on bringing multi-party democracy back. The King is stubborn and there are [...]

As I was watching Seinfeld on the Saudi channel MBC4 last night, the show got interrupted to bring news that King Abdullah had given his first TV interview as king to the American channel ABC. The transcript is here. I can’t say I find anything remarkable about the platitudes contained inside it, but found this [...]

A few quick notes from a busy day:
Nick Blanford, one of the best Beirut-based foreign correspondents, give his two cents here, and concludes:
“I have just been talking to a very prominent Damascus analyst, who predicts that Kanaan will be blamed for the Hariri assassination.
“This would lift the international pressure off the Syrian regime, and avoid [...]

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has just released a letter from Ayman Al Zawahri to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, It makes for fascinating reading, because, in no particular order:

It suggests that Al Qaeda in Iraq keep in mind international Muslim public opinion when planning attack;
Specifically advises to refrain from civilian attacks on [...]

All the Arabic news channels are now breaking with news that Ghazi Kanaan, Syria’s Interior Minister, shot himself in his office earlier today. I’m not sure where the original story comes from, but one can safely assume that this is coming from the Syrian government. Kanaan was at the center of the probe into Rafik [...]

Apparently Al Jazeera has hired David Frost, the veteran British broadcaster, as part of its top line-up. I find that rather unfortunate. Breakfast with Frost was a dreadfully boring current affairs show and Frost is way past his sell-by date. This sounds like an attempt to inject British patrician authority into the channel rather than [...]

Sigh:
The US and British militaries have suspended their training programs for Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan after more than 800 troops from these countries deserted, and many reportedly joined militant groups, such as al-Qaeda and Chechen rebel forces.
According to intelligence sources quoted in the media, the deserters escaped with weapons, including [...]

According to a poll, many Americans believe their country should not encourage democratization in the Middle East. The poll, by the Knowledge Networks for the Program on International Policy Attitudes and the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, has the following answers when asked “Do you think the US should or should not put greater pressure [...]

RSF says:
Reporters Without Borders today called on the Internet Services Unit (ISU), the agency that manages Web filtering in Saudi Arabia, to explain why the weblog creation and hosting service blogger.com has been made inaccessible since 3 October, preventing Saudi bloggers from updating their blogs.
“Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that censors the Internet [...]

Vincent Battesti, a French anthropologist who just left Cairo after over three years studying green spaces and gardens here, is keeping a blog of his journey from Cairo to Istanbul on the CEDEJ’s blog. It’s also worth checking out the CEDEJ site overall–it’s full of interesting research information, articles, publications etc… And throughout Ramadan they’re [...]

There’s a newish blog called Egyptian Hopes that’s worth bookmarking. He/she hasn’t updated in a couple of weeks, but let’s hope they continue. I liked this comparison of Al Ahram and Al Akhbar during the 1982 and the 2005 elections. Funny yet depressing.

The International Crisis Group has a new report out on Egypt, the first one that looks at the general political situation in a while. It’s pretty much essential reading for anyone who is interesting in contemporary Egyptian politics or even the wider question of Arab reform.
Whereas their first report on Egypt concentrated on political reform [...]

Rather wonderful editorializing in today’s Washington Post:
Gen. Musharraf claims to champion a “moderate Islam” that respects the rights of women. But when Mukhtar Mai, a victim of a gang rape whose attackers have not been punished, tried to visit the United States earlier this year, the president barred her from leaving the country. In an [...]

Once again, the administrative court has postponed issuing a verdict on whether Al Wasat, a moderate Islamist party founded by former members of the Muslim Brotherhood that also contains a few Christians, should be able to form a legal political party. The most immediate impact of this decision is that since the court will not [...]