Two more Bahraini and 13 Asian Bahrain-based fishermen returned to Manama on Thursday afternoon following their release by the Qatari authorities.
Only one Bahraini, Adel Al Taweel, now remains in Qatari custody and will know his fate next Thursday when he appears before a Qatari court for allegedly entering Qatari waters illegally and not heeding warning shots to leave the area. Adel, 37, was shot by Qatari coastguards and treated at a Doha hospital. continue reading…
The secret meeting between Turkey’s foreign minister and an Israeli minister official in Switzerland was apparently held due to pressure from the Obama administration, sources in Israel said on Thursday.
The White House prompted and coordinated the meeting between Israeli Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, the source said, according to Israeli daily Haaretz.
The meeting was held Wednesday without permission from Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who reacted furiously to the news that such talks were held without his knowledge or consent. continue reading…
Kuwait has launched an all-women moral police whose tasks include a fight on genderqueers, transsexuals and transvestites, a Kuwaiti daily said.
“The special police force will patrol shopping centres and marina clubs throughout Kuwait and will chase women imitating men and men imitating women (transvestites),” Alam Al Yawm reported.
The policewomen, in their fight against “negative phenomena” will also focus on “flirtatious young men and women, beggars and rowdy people.” continue reading…
Nine Bahrain-based fishermen who were released by Qatar last Thursday are now home in Bahrain amid a deluge of good wishes.
The seven Bahraini and two Asian men said that they could not leave Qatar because of the bad weather and that they were grateful to be home after an ordeal that last several weeks.
The fishermen said that they were arrested by Qatari coastguards for allegedly straying into Qatari waters.
According to the fishermen, only three Bahrainis remain in Qatar amid expectations that two of them would be able to sail back home today. continue reading…
A private university in Bahrain has rejected criticism that it disregarded Arabic, the country’s official language, after it conducted its first batch graduation ceremony in English. “The graduates this year are from 13 nationalities and most of them do not understand Arabic,” Riyadh Dhaif, Deputy Registrar at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland-Medical University of Bahrain (RCSI-MUB), said. “The university has students from 36 countries and around 40 per cent of them do not speak Arabic,” he said.
The university on Wednesday came under heavy criticism from a local columnist for holding its graduation ceremony this week in English. “We may accept that communication within the university is in English. However, we find it shocking that Arabic is totally ignored at the ceremony even though most, if not all the graduates were Bahrainis,” Jamal Zouaid wrote in Akhbar Al Khaleej, a pan- Arab newspaper. “We condemn this attitude and blame the organizers for not respecting our language. There is no excuse for resorting to another language.” continue reading…
