The big news overnight from the Middle East was an announcement from the Arab League that the Syrian government has agreed to the League’s peace plan for Syria.
Saudi Arabia
Compare and contrast: Yemen and Saudi Arabia
Promises of reform in two neighbouring mid-east countries: in Yemen, president Ali Abdullah Saleh calls for early elections and says he is committed to a peaceful transfer of power. In Saudi Arabia, king Abdullah has announced that from 2015 women will be allowed to stand and vote in local elections.
Is Turkey the only solution to the Syrian slaughter?
While the world is focused elsewhere, the Syrian government continues to defy regional pressure to end its slaughter of its own citizens.
Syria’s neighbours looking out for themselves
The Arab spring has become bloodier than we all hoped, but the autocrats are still losing ground. And Saudi Arabi’s intervention is deeply worrying.
Mid-East uprising stopped in its tracks by West’s strategic uncertainty
The uprisings in the Middle East have been stopped dead in their tracks by a ferocious reaction from some of the world’s worst dictatorships, emboldened by international apathy.
WikiLeaks update: Corruption in Tunisia, an “Arab force” and the party of the decade
As Julian Assange fronted court in London this morning and the media storm continue to circle around the enigmatic whistleblower, his WikiLeaks website continued its drip feed of secret cables sent from US embassies around the world. Today, more than 100 extra cables were published. Here is a summary of the best of them.
Burying Saudi Arabia’s past
Saudi Arabia is rich with untouched treasures, just waiting to be dug up and studied, but the country’s ban on displaying or even discussing non-Islamic relics makes it a difficult and sometimes dangerous proposition for archaeologists.
Paul Howes’ u-propaganda is radioactive
Regurgitating industry propaganda might go down well at the Sydney Institute but it is no substitute for informed debate on nuclear power, writes Jim Green.
Guy Rundle: Are allied troops dying for an Afghan man’s right to rape his wife?
We have come to the end-point of the Afghan adventure. After eight years it is over, writes Guy Rundle.
Sharia compliant financing scare hits Wall Street
Before you know it, nasty beady-eyed Saudi wahhabist ayatollahs will be taking over the US economy, perhaps in the same manner as they took over Griffith University and News Corporation, writes Irfan Yusuf.
State of the planet
Frequent flier food … An indigenous perspective on climate change … Saudi Arabia seeks positive role in tackling climate change … Anatomically odd African dinosaur sucked up plants … Hurricane Katrina released large amounts of carbon
