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 »

Saudi Arabia is planning the creation of the country’s first nuclear power plant. The project is being developed by the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology located in Riyadh, the Arabian Business reports. Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, which is resp... 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 »

A woman in Tunis might break the world's record in multiple pregnancies since she is currently expecting 12 children. Currently the record holder is a woman from California who gave birth to octuplets. The pregnant Tunisian woman and her husband are both teachers. They got married in 2007, and since then the woman had 2 miscarriages, ... Read more »

UAE and China have signed five agreements aimed at improving bilateral ties. The most significant is the deal between China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and, from the UAE side, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC). The deal envisages joint work on oil projects, including the construction project in Singapore where oil storage facilities will be built. A defense systems supplier from UAE has signed a cooperation ... Read more »

Qatar is working on establishing a modern genetics centre, which will be the first in the GCC. It is to be accredited in October. Such centres are extremely hard to set up and are very expensive to run. This centre is being set up in the framework of the Newborn Screening Programme. To date, over 70 thousand newborn babies have been screened by the laboratory, ... Read more »

The Iraq’s cabinet of ministers has approved a bill which requires all top officials in the country to renounce foreign citizenships or quit their posts. Now the bill is awaiting approval by the parliament, the Middle East Online reports. The law will apply to Iraq’s president, prime-minister, parliamen... Read more »

The Security Council has approved unanimously a one-year extension of the mandate of the UN mission in Iraq. The mission has 1104 troops in the country. The previous mandate has just expired, the Gulfnews reports. The Security Council has announced that it will review the terms of the new agreement ... Read more »

A new city in Qatar, Lusail, is being built. It will cover an area of 35 thousand square km, while the area of Beirut is only about 20 thousand square km. The city will be home to 455 thousand residents. It will be divided into 17 mixed-use districts, including a golf district, commercial districts, a business district, entertainment district, marina, resort islands, as well as residential areas with an interna... Read more »

The streets of Algiers are now quiet after the clashes that erupted this week between Algerians and the Chinese subsided. As local citizens report, the clashes rose from a confrontation between a Chinese driver and a local shop owner. As the result, 10 Chinese people were injured and 5 shops owned by Chinese immigrants were looted, ... Read more »