Here’s another chapter in the bizarre relationship between North Korea and Egypt. I understand it all begun when North Korea effectively ran Egypt’s air force (at least in Upper Egypt) around 1970, later sold scud missiles and related services, in 1989 built a war panorama, but also furnished Cairo with some of its best foreign [...]

As every internet addict in Egypt knows, yesterday one of the main cables linking Marseilles to Alexandria was cut, bringing down most internet access in Egypt and elsewhere in the region (and even India). Some very limited access is still possible thanks to the undamaged cable going through the Suez Canal, but only to certain ISPs (TE [...]

Al Jazeera English has started airing a nine-part series on Arab unity, of which the first two episodes have already aired and are available on Youtube. I’ve watched the first one (below) and while it’s nicely produced, it lacks some detail and makes some historical mistakes, such as saying the Egyptian Free Officers’ coup in [...]

The Washington Independent is a new online magazine, mostly about Beltway politics. Spencer Ackerman has an intriguing piece on how the CIA had to learn interrogation and torture techniques from Middle Eastern countries after 9/11 has its own staff were largely untrained in them.

But 9/11 changed all that. Despite having nearly no off-the-shelf experience, the [...]

Automatically posted links for January 27th through January 28th:

The Root | TheRoot.com - New African-American webzine
Mort de George Habache - Carnets du Diplo - Alain Gresh
Obituary: George Habash - David Hirst
Killer noise pollution in Egypt - Average Downtown Cairo “like spending the day in a factory”
Iran’s Literature Today - Contemporary Iranian lit in translations (and [...]

Automatically posted links for January 25th through January 26th:

The Arab - New London-based magazine on MENA
MidEast Brief::Egypt - Newish website links to articles on region
Egypt says will keep border open and help Gazans restock - Unable to stop flow of people, Egypt maintains borders open
Abbas: No talks with Hamas despite Gaza border chaos - Abu [...]

Automatically posted links for January 23rd through January 24th:

Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi : “La Mauritanie n’est pas un pays de prédilection pour les terroristes” - Afrique - Le Monde interview with Mauritanian president
Egypt holds scores from Brotherhood over Gaza protests - Backlash against MB for organizing first major protests since 2006
Gazans flood through Egypt border [...]

Automatically posted links for January 22nd:

Defusing the Gaza Time Bomb - Rob Malley op-ed on Gaza
L’Iran soupçonné de traficde matière radioactive - Uzbek catch shipment of Cesium 137 on train, Iran suspected
THE ANNAPOLIS OPENING HAS CLOSED - Former Israel negotiator with Syria explains why another opportunity for new peace track has gone
BibliOdyssey: Arabic Machine Manuscript [...]

Automatically posted links for January 20th through January 21st:

al-Qaida Solicits Questions Online - Questions include “why haven’t you opened a new front in Egypt” and more depressing idiocy
Measuring liberty | When freedom stumbles | Economist.com - Look at the charts: in 1982 Egypt was “partly free,” now it is “not free”
Economics focus | [...]

Automatically posted links for January 15th through January 19th:

Comment is free: Out of Egypt - Khaled Diab talks about the wave of Egyptian exile
Hussein Agha and Robert Malley - Middle East Triangle - Argument for three-way deal between Hamas, Israel and Fatah
Rantings of a Sandmonkey » Google takes down Kefaya - SM says Google is [...]

Automatically posted links for January 14th:

Daily Kos: Bush fawns over the U.A.E. - Great takedown of Bush’s appraisal of UAE as “model society”
Total, Suez, Areva to build two nuclear plants in Abu Dhabi - The Middle East nuclear race that really matters
Bush Nudges Mideast on Democracy - Story number 129747247 on Bush abandoning democracy talk
Official [...]

Automatically posted links for January 13th:

Arab Stereotypes in American Film - Jack Shaheen short
Barack Obama - I’m sure we’ve seen him somewhere before - Armando Iannucci on Obama: it’s dead on
Comment is free: Laughing at dictatorship - Ibrahim Hudaibi on Mubarak jokes
Arabs eye £500m Liverpool buy-out | Sport | The Observer - Dubai group [...]

Automatically posted links for January 12th:

The Lost Archive - Recovery of lost German archive of early Qurans
Egypt?s cartoon revolution - Yemen Times - Profile of Destour cartoonists
Rival Egyptian families agree to end ‘mustache war’ - Saidi mustache vendetta ends in reconciliation
Egypt’s new golden age of television | Menassat - Review of Egypt’s [...]

Automatically posted links for January 11th:

Islam and democracy | The practice?and the theory | Economist.com - Rather flawed piece since it alleges democracy not discussed in Muslim lands
The Arabs | Between fitna, fawda and the deep blue sea | Economist.com - “IT IS not easy to be an Arab these days”
George [...]

Automatically posted links for January 9th through January 10th:

??????? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ?????? ?«?????» ??????? - Egypt cuts subsidies on food oils, etc.
151,000 civilians killed since Iraq invasion - WHO, Iraq Gov says revises death tool (1/4 that of Lancet)
Has the Era of Cheap Oil and Food Prices Ended? - Walid Khadduri addresses top [...]

Automatically posted links for January 7th through January 8th:

Bhutto Killing Roils Province, Spurring Call to Quit Pakistan - WSJ.com - Sindhis outraged, some call for armed insurgency, secession!
Trip Notes from the Middle East - White House blogs during Middle East trip
The Clash - Fouad Ajami, with hindsight, agrees with Huntington and fears for West
Menassat [...]

Automatically posted links for January 6th:

Report: FBI translator says Israel planted nuclear ‘moles’ in U.S. - Another twist the Larry Franklin affair / Israeli spy operation in US
Interview with Khalil Enani - Author of new book on Muslim Brothers
Egypt police torture mentally handicapped boy - Can a day pass without one of these stories?
Egypt court [...]

Automatically posted links for December 19th through January 5th:

Fashion and Faith Meet, on Foreheads of the Pious - NYT article from Dec 2007 on that bizarre Egyptian fetish, the zebibah
Al Jazeera appelée à présenter ses excuses - Al Jazeera called on by its Algerian staff to apologize for poll about Algiers attacks
Le Monde.fr : Le [...]