Livni: did she or didn't she?                  Women vs.male pussycats

Ahmadinejad's Newest Old Drivel:
Al-Manar TV (Hizbullah mouthpiece) reports that Iran’s Ahmadinejad has opined again that “Israel will soon be wiped off the map” and that the “satanic forces of the United States face destruction”. He was talking to a group of foreign visitors. No reports if there were any Israelis among them. The McCain campaign is furiously trying to find a video clip of the whole thing.

Media Notes:
“Syria is waging a silent and noisy battle against the Saudis.” Asharq alawsat

“Mubarak calls for an international solution to the food crisis at Rome meeting.” Alahram

“Sectarian Fitna (agitation and divisiveness) is an Iranian industry.”Al-ittihad, UAE

"Vice President Al-Hashimi asserts that there is an Iraqi concesus among Iraqis to reject the draft long term security treaty with the United States."

"Saudi religious clergy attack Shi'as and Hizbullah." Alquds Alarabi

"An Islamic conference for a Shi'a-Sunni dialog starts in Mecca this Wednesday. Saudi clergy object that a dialog with non-Sunnis is a Fitna that should not be called for." Saudi online media

"Worries about press freedom in the Middle East at Newspaper Editors' Conference in Stockholm." Elaph.

"(Tzipi) Livni was a Mossad agent and had a role in assassination operations." Various Arab media.

"Emir of Qatar deserves a Nobel Peace prize for brokering a deal between Lebanese factions." Qatari writer and others on Aafaq.

Scared of Hair, Over There!
"Nine Salafi and other Islamist and tribal deputies boycott opening session of Kuwait'a assembly because the two female ministers do not wear the Hijab."

"Majority of deputies votes to have a committe look into the 'legality' of the two cabinet members' action, of not covering their hair, that is."
Actually there may be a silver lining in all this. If they cannot attend the sessions when two women are there with uncovered hair, perhaps they will boycott all sessions. The country will definitely gain from their absence. They may even be able to spend more quality time with their wives, all their wives.
Still, shouldn't they stop all their travels to Europe where women uncover more than just hair?

In a Desert Kingdom:
“A young Saudi man (23 years) awaits the results of an investigation by an apparently high-powered committee formed from the following:

Representative of His Highness the Prince of Hail- The Investigation and Prosecution Authority-

The Police- The Organization for the Spread of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (theological or religious cops).

He is accused of being caught alone with a 75 year old woman who may in the end turn out to be the woman who had wet-nursed (as in breast-fed) him when he was an infant”. She said that she was wife of one of his uncles.
It is illegal to be caught alone, even in a public place, with a woman who is not a wife-sister-mother-aunt and who is anywhere between between the ages of 10 and 101, or is it 105?. The commissar of the local branch of the Virtue-Vice claimed that they had received a written tip that two men were alone with the elderly woman (Confucius say: too much idle time make one spy on neighbor).

When the two men came out they were promptly arrested (no, no Miranda rights over there). One man (50) testified that he had driven the younger man over to deliver some bread to his older relative.
In the kingdom of all virtue and all frustrations, and not a few dirty minds, someone is scraping the bottom of the barrel. But who is that?

Kissing a Prince, will he turn into a frog?:
S. Attallah, on Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, owner of Asharq alawsat, in a column published in Ashraq alawsat, of course:
“Biographies of good men do not last long, because they are full of deeds and events. The past half century of the Emirate of Riyadh seems like one continuous event: a model of a man who feels his loftiest responsibilities with the highest degree of modesty.  Salman Bin Abdulaziz (al-Saud, notice how he left out Prince as a sign of modesty) still drives his own car to the office every day (doesn’t say if it is a Trabant or a Yugo). He gets there before most of his staff, and still leaves after most of them, visiting the citizens, their hospitals and their simple lives.” (What about his domestic life?)
Cheers
mhg