I don’t know how true this is…
Jordanian authorities have banned all events marking the “Nakba,” or Catastrophe, as Arabs refer to the creation of Israel 60 years ago. Several pro-Palestinian groups and Jordanian opposition parties has been planning to hold a rally in Amman on Friday.
But the authorities informed the organizers of the decision to […]

AMMAN (AFP) — A teenage woman was jailed for 15 years in Jordan on Wednesday for murdering her parents and two brothers by poisoning their orange juice, a court official said.
Hana al-Shamali, 19, was sentenced to prison and hard labour for the February killings in the city of Irbid, north of the Jordanian capital Amman, […]

Let me put aside the obvious shocking factor of being utterly disgusted by the event (is there a way to be shocked and yet not surprised), but there is something that interests me here and that’s the international media’s reaction. Did anyone notice that this crime took place in August of 2007 and is only […]

Well, how about everything?
I know it would be easier to read my own summary of this Washington Post article, but I truly thought it would be funner if you just read it for yourself. Trust me, you’re going to enjoy it.
MUWAQQAR, Jordan — A U.S.-funded program to train and equip Palestinian security forces is mired […]

As the story continues to develop, it has taken quite an interesting turn. Hospital staff at the Prince Hamzah Hospital staged a one-hour protest yesterday in defense of the X-ray doctor who has been accused by the Prosecutor General for being involved in the death of Hassan Hafnawi last week. More insight into the case […]

This might sound like deja vu, but this is Jordan and that feeling is consistent with our inability to solve the same problems. So, by now, everyone (specifically on the Jordanian blogosphere) is aware of blogger Who Sane’s dilemma last September when his father went missing for several days before being discovered at the […]

I’ve been following this story since early February and waiting to see if and when Mourtada would be charged by the Moroccan government for creating a Facebook profile of Morocco’s Crown Prince. I had initially thought he would eventually be let go for such a silly thing, since it wasn’t like he was blogging about […]

Human Rights Watch has appealed to Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a woman convicted of witchcraft. In a letter to King Abdullah, the rights group described the trial and conviction of Fawza Falih as a miscarriage of justice.
The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to […]

I’ve always wondered about this infatuation we have with license plate numbers. I mean it’s one thing to pay for specialty or vanity plates that have customized words/names, but the idea of paying thousands for just a pretty average number is kind of crazy. It’s been less than a year since license plates were changed […]

I’m as cynical as the next guy when it comes to Valentines day in the Arab world, but this may be going a tad too far, no? It’s funny in a sad way.
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s religious police have banned red roses ahead of Valentine’s Day, forcing couples in the conservative Muslim nation to […]

Emad Hajjaj has been using his artistic genius lately to issue a strong and dark statement about this latest disgusting social phenomenon, which I’ve personally dubbed “the dumpster babies”, that has been on the rise since the fall. At times he addresses the topic directly, an sometimes he uses these incidents as a metaphor for […]

The Fifth:
A new born baby boy was found early Monday in a bag left behind in an uninhabited area in Maan, the fifth abandoned infant discovered in the last four months. According to Maan police, a passerby heard the infant’s cry and discovered the black tote bag on a roadside in Al Mreigha district yesterday […]

The craziest news I’ve heard all week…
TYLER, Texas - A man killed his girlfriend, then filleted and cooked parts of her body before calling police to tell them what he was doing, authorities said Sunday. Christopher Lee McCuin, 25, called 911 on Saturday and told an emergency dispatcher he had killed Jana Shearer, 21, and […]

…heartless people…
AMMAN - The authorities said they will intensify measures to prevent retailers from stockpiling oil derivatives as several distributors of fuel and gas were reportedly arrested and referred to court Saturday…Officials said the new measures are meant to curb a trend among some petrol station owners and gas cylinder distributors to turn back customers […]

And this is how the story ends…
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has pardoned the teenage victim of a gang rape who was sentenced to 200 lashes and jailed for six months in a case that caused an international outcry.
If confirmed, the pardon would represent a rare occasion where a Saudi ruler has publicly challenged the […]

Here’s a collection of some of my delicious links I’ve been looking at these past few days:
- “Ahmadinejad” a film by Oliver Stone: Finally, a movie that will bring together America and Iran’s far right hatred of Oliver Stone.
- Young chimp beats college students: And these were Japanese college students!
- The 50 Richest Arabs: […]