On March 1st - this coming Monday-the premier episode of a 90 part series, "Sleepless in Gaza...and Jerusalem" will be launched on YouTube. It will be a video diary about four young Palestinian women, Muslim and Christian, two living in Gaza and two in Arab Jerusalem/West Bank. PINA TV Production camera crews will be covering Ashira Ramadan, a broadcast journalist based in Jerusalem; Ashira... Read more »

Ministry of Social Affairs Launches Emirates Social Award, and Invites individuals, Foundations, private and government sectors to participate effectively for the Awards. In order to stimulate community initiatives, Ministry of Social Affairs announced that nomination is now open to "Emirates Social Award" which gives individuals, companies, private and government sectors recognition of outstanding... Read more »

The health minister of Saudi Arabia has announced that within 3 weeks the country will receive 1 million doses of swine flu vaccine. After this first batch another 6 million doses will be delivered, the Arabian Business reports citing the minister. Apart from this, the ministries of health and education have introduced an awareness campaign about the swine flu pandemic. This week medical workers in... Read more »

Egypt has decided to close all foreign schools and universities until 3 October to prevent the spread of swine flu. After the classes begin, the school week will be extended to six days, and classes will be reduced in size. Authorities of Saudi Arabia also decided to start the academic year later. High and middle school students will start studies on November 10, while elementary schools will open doors o... Read more »

Egypt has defended its border guards, who are accused of easily using their guns to stop illegal migrants trying to cross the border with Israel. Recently, 4 people from sub-Saharan Africa were shot dead by Egyptian border guards while trying to cross into Israel. They didn’t carry any ID on them and, according to the guards, were shot when they attempted to escape. In total 12 illegal migrants were kille... Read more »

The Health Minister of Egypt has announced that Egypt has bought five million doses of swine flu vaccine. The first batch will be delivered already in October, the Egypt News reports citing the minister. Egypt, the most populous country in the ... Read more »

In UAE two offices of a marriage agency have received licenses and operate legally and according to Islam laws and traditions of the UAE. Anyone can come to the offices with a list of requirements for their future spouse, the Gulfnews reports. The payment must be done only after a suitable partne... Read more »

In Qatar there are almost four men for each woman, according to a recent census. The number of men in the country as of august was about 1.25 million, while women – about 350 thousand. The results of the census, published a few days ago, gave no explanation to this phenomenon. However, the current situation can be put down to large number of male foreigners living in Qatar without their families, alone. I... Read more »

The Gulf Cooperation Council is planning to conduct the first-ever combined census in 2010. The six member states will carry out the census separately, but will use the same survey form. It is expected that the census will be synchronized among all those countries. It has been announced previously, that the UAE will carry out the census in April. The last time the country carried out a census was in 2005, while... Read more »

A Syrian militant, who had been detained at a high-security prison in Lebanon, has managed to escape. He was detained on charges of terrorism, including organization of bombings. He is a member of Fatah Al Islam group whose ideology is similar to that of Al Qaida. According to officials, he is very “dangerous”. Currently, the police is searching for him. The militant managed to escape with the help of other inm... Read more »