A R A B I C A ارابيكا
By Kristen Gillespie
TENSION RISING
Lebanon’s A-Nahar daily reports on the growing acrimony between the new Hezbollah-backed government and the March 14 opposition faction, headed by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
The UN’s Special Tribunal for Lebanon last week indicted four men, believed to be members of Hezbollah, in the February 2005 assassination of Saad Hariri’s father, ex-Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. Both factions have maintained armed militias, which raises the stakes for all Lebanese as the crisis over whether to proceed with prosecutions in the Hariri cases becomes more contentious.
TENSION EBBING
Bahrain appears to be emerging from months of martial law, while Saudi, Emirati and Kuwait troops sent it to control violent protests slowly begin to withdraw. Still, the Bahrain February 14 Revolution Facebook group is not giving up. The Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, the largest opposition bloc in Bahrain, is holding a “popular festival” this Friday. “Our demand for the nation: elected government” reads the poster advertising the event to be held on July 8th at 5pm in Karaneh village. While the event invitation attracted 120 “likes’ in the 20 minutes after it was posted, one commenter wrote, “I probably won’t be there because of Al-Wefaq’s participation in the national dialogue” with the government.
HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE
The UAE daily Al Emirat Al Youm reports that Abu Dhabi is considering major changes to its high school curricula. The paper did not elaborate on the changes, but quoted the director of the Abu Dhabi Education Council Mugheer al-Khelee as he spoke on the sidelines of a graduation ceremony at the Institutes of Applied Technology. He said that scientific education has arrived late to the UAE, but that the institutes are moving quickly to fill the gap.
POP STAR
Algerian singer Souad Massi says that the wave of revolutions hitting the Arab world will not happen in Algeria because “the situation is very different.” The people “really love the current president and he genuinely changed things,” she told Reuters.
July 5, 2011
photo credit: illustir