Tag: MIDDLEEAST

Thousands of Egyptians filled the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and other cities today, in protest of their government's economic policies, and rampant political corruption. And, much like the Tunisian demonstrators who inspired them, Egypt's protesters have taken full advantage of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to spread information and organize their actions. Now, however, it ...

RIM has agreed to block porn sites on all BlackBerry devices within Indonesia, as part of the government's ongoing efforts to rid its country of online smut. In a statement released today, RIM confirmed that it's in negotiations with local service providers to find a "prompt, compliant filtering solution" before the government-imposed deadline of January 21st. If the company does not comply ...

Back in January, an Israeli hit squad assassinated Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh at a hotel in Dubai. Presumably operating under Mossad, the 11 assassins disguised themselves as tennis players in order to gain access to the hotel and do the deed, but, according to a new investigative report from GQ, they used a decidedly 21st-century technique to track their target. According to investigative ...

The Middle East may be once again on the brink of ornithological warfare, now that Saudi Arabian officials have detained an Israeli bird suspected of espionage. The bird was first spotted in a rural area of the country, wearing a transmitter and a leg bracelet that read 'Tel Aviv University.' Officials promptly took the creature into custody, and accused it of being a Mossad spy. Its tag would ...

Over the course of the past few months, the Egyptian government has taken a particularly hard-line stance against Facebook-based activism, many authorities believing it to pose a legitimate threat to President Hosni Mubarak. In March, a military tribunal unsuccessfully attempted to silence a controversial blogger named Ahmed Mustafa, barely three years after Egypt had jailed another writer for ...

Israeli law requires all citizens to spend some time doing military service, but women who claim to be observant Jews typically get a pass. Understandably, many women in Israel take full advantage of this loophole, even if they're not all that Jewish. Unfortunately for them, though, the Israeli military recently caught onto their scheme, and, with a little help from Facebook, has now outed 1,000 ...

For many women, strolling down the streets of Cairo is no walk in the park. Whether it's in the form of catcalls, leers or gropes, sexual harassment has become increasingly common in Egypt, where strict social norms and widespread public negligence have offered little recourse to female victims. A forthcoming site called Harassmap, however, may provide Egypt's women with a new voice -- and, ...

What's better than a machine gun-equipped military boat? A machine gun-equipped military boat that flies, of course -- and, apparently, Iran now has one. As part of the country's Sacred Week of Defense, which commemorates its eight-year war with Iraq, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps unveiled three squadrons of new flying boats yesterday to the delight of the handful of people who actually ...

In December 2009, Syrian security forces detained 19-year-old high school student and blogger Tal al-Mallohi without ever justifying their decision. For the next nine months, Syrian authorities prohibited the girl from communicating with her family, and never even offered an explanation for why they targeted her in the first place. On September 1st, al-Mallohi's mother finally issued a plea to ...

Multi-billionaires in Dubai and Abu Dhabi may soon have more trouble doing business on the go, as officials in the United Arab Emirates have announced that, as of October, BlackBerry users will no longer be able to send e-mails or instant messages within the country. As the New York Times reports, Sunday's announcement comes after a lengthy standoff between the Middle East nation and Research in ...

Here is this week's Reason That Twitter Should Be Banned. In yet another high-profile overshare, Octavia Nasr, the Lebanese-born Senior Editor of Mideast Affairs for CNN, was fired Tuesday for posting a single tweet about the passing of one of Hezbollah's most influential clerics. She wrote: "Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah... One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a ...

digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2009/11/08/quietube-provides-a-portal-for-censored-vids-in-the-middle-east/'; Back in March, James Bridle designed a bookmarklet called Quietube, a script that allows users to "watch web videos without the comments and crap." As a minimalist reversal of the hyper-glut that is YouTube, Quietube is a welcome departure from all the typical sidebar claptrap ...

If you find that figuring out and visualizing the exact location of an event or place referenced in the Bible has you wishing for a 1000 B.C. version of Google Maps, you're now in luck. The swath of land along the Mediterranean Sea, where many stories in the Bible take place, has changed hands, names, and borderlines enough times to confuse even the most zealous biblical geographer. However, a ...

By this point, you should fully understand that "Dubai" and "world's largest" go hand-in-hand, so it's quite fitting that said city is receiving the planet's most humongous LED screen. Designed by UAE development company Tameer Holding, the 33-story high display will reportedly be "embedded on an intended commercial tower in the Majan district of Dubailand," where it will stand tall and blast ...

Can there be virtual border disputes and rival claims to a country even online? Apparently so, as Facebook found itself being criticized by both Palestinian and Israeli members who live in the West Bank. The popular online social networking site was, for a time, identifying Israeli settlers whose homes are in the West Bank as being residents of Palestine. The settlers disagreed and threatened to ...