Early today things got heated and took a new turn in Lebanon.
Hezbollah have taken control of most of Beirut, which has lead to the forceful shut down of Future TV and the headquarters of Al Mustaqbal newspaper and radio.
Things don't look good ... the airport is closed down now and the scene reminds the world of the dark days of the civil war.
The situation exploded on Thursday, after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that the government had declared war by claiming that Hezbollah's communication network was illegal.

We pray with all our hearts and wish that things get better in Lebanon.
We sure don't need another war!!!

I really do not get it! Do some people like to be disgustingly outrageous and out of line just to get attention? Or are they just plain thick?! What I am referring to is the reprinting of the Danish cartoons of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) with a bomb in his turban. This idiotic act came as a reaction to a murder plot against 73 year old Kurt Westergaard the cartoonist who drew these atrocious images. After the plot was foiled more than 17 newspapers reprinted the image as a stance against ‘self-censorship’. You may remember that last time these images were printed a huge ban on Danish produce was initiated and their economy suffered greatly. It’s like those people are trying to rub salt in an already infected wound.

I have always been one to encourage development in the Arab world especially in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and hopefully by the end of this year there will be a new development: women will be able to drive. After a petition was delivered to King Abdullah at the beginning of this year steps to allow all women to get into the drivers seat are underway. Apparently this process has been long coming ever since the Royal court realized that if ‘girls have been in schools since the 1960s they have a capability to function behind the wheel’.

Congratulations to the world ... Congratulations to Jordan & the Jordanian people ... Congratulations to Petra! Petra made it as one of The New 7 Wonders of The World!
The New Seven Wonders of The World have been chosen ... History has been made!
The atmosphere here in Petra is unbelievable! People are shouting & jumping & dancing! Live broadcast from all over Jordan show the excitement & happiness; people are out on the streets celebrating their own Petra, the magical city.
We can't believe it! This is fantastic! I'm jumping with joy!
As for the whole list, the New 7 wonders are:

Last night at the Starac 4 concert in the Tunisian city of Sfax, things didn't go as planned.
Just after the stars of Star Academy appeared on stage, the audiences huddled together in a moment of frenzy ... which resulted in what appeared to be a stampede!
This stampede resulted in 7 dead & around 12 severely injured!
The concert was immediately stopped, the students were taken off the stage & taken back to their hotel in Tunis.

"It was between 02:30 GMT and 03:30 GMT and the whole thing (Execution of Saddam Hussein) was filmed," Foreign Ministry official Mariam Al-Rayis, who attended the execution, told the state television Al-Iraqiya.

Photos of Saddam Hussein 1937 - 2006

The last video of the Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein after he was executed by hanging is of him lying lifeless in a white shroud in the back of a vehicle. The video showed Saddam with his head twisted at the neck, a bruise on his left cheek and what appeared to be bleeding at the point on the left side of the neck where the noose was tightened.

Saddam will be buried Sunday in the same cemetery as his sons.

Could it be that Saddam's date with death is only hours way?
It has been reported that the US had handed over the custody of Saddam to Iraqi officials & that means that's the final step before going ahead & carrying out the ruling of the court.
A Judge in Iraq also told the AP that he would be hung by no later than Saturday. Officials wished to carryout his sentence last night, but could not due to logistical reasons.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said: "our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence."

-Update December 30, 2006: Saddam Hussein has been hanged Saturday at dawn.

Gerald Ford, who was President of the United States from 1974-1976, died today at the age of 93. He only stayed 2 years in office but ironically, he lived longer than any other president in US history.

"My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age," said his widow Betty Ford.

Ford was the only president to not to be elected. He succeeded Richard Nixon after the Watergate scandal and pardoned him for all crimes a month later. On August 9th, 1974, Ford gave his first address to the country as President, stating his famous comment "the long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works."

Gunmen wearing Police uniforms raided and kidnapped 150 people, Sunnis and Shiites at gunpoint the Higher Education Ministry in Baghdad

Women employees were separated from the men and locked in a room after having their mobile phones confiscated by the gunmen.

Iraq's higher education minister, Abed Theyab, ordered universities to be closed until security improvements were made.

"I am not ready to see more professors get killed," he said.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced to hang after a court found him guilty of crimes against humanity for the killings of 148 people in the Iraqi Shiit city of Dujail. The killings occurred after a failed assassination attempt on his life in 1982.
Saddam yelled out, "Long live the people and death to their enemies. Long live the glorious nation, and death to its enemies!"

Saddam had previously demanded that he be shot to death if found guilty as he said he was a military man and under Iraqi law, military men sentenced to death are shot. But apparently, the judge has striped him of his military status and sentenced him to death as any common criminal.

I thought it was just a rumor -& that was comforting- … but now it’s real! Google made their biggest deal in two years; they bought YouTube for $1.6 Billion!!!
February 2005, Hurley, Steve & Jawed Karim, founded YouTube. - Karim left YouTube to continue his studies in Stanford - Now these guys & their 65 employees will join Google.
YouTube is the largest video-sharing site on the Web, with an audience that watches more than 100 million clips a day.
This acquisition illustrates how established Internet & media companies are snapping up start-ups.
Now get this, shares of Google rose $8.50 to $429 at 4 p.m. yesterday New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. They have risen 3.4 percent this year.
AAAAAAAAAH !!!

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is believed to have died from a severe disease according to a Saudi intelligence services.
This information was published in the French newspaper L'Est Republicain on its website on Saturday. The newspaper printed what it said was a copy of a report dated September 21 and said it was shown to Jacques Chirac, the president and Dominique de Villepin, the prime minister and France's interior and defense ministers.

Do you know what humanoids are? They are primates who split from apes million years ago. The skull, torso & limbs show both human & ape-like features.
The most famous humanoid fossil found until recently is Lucy! She was recovered in Ethiopia in 1974.
But now a new fossil, which astonished paleontologists around the world, has been excavated from the region of Dikika, again in Ethiopia.
The fossil is that of a 3.3 Million-year-old skeleton of a 3-year-old child, probably a girl.

Abdullah al-Amiri has been replaced as the chief judge in the trial of Saddam Hussein.
This move comes as Amiri was accused of being too soft on the former President. Also, protesting this sudden change of judges, the defense team walked out of court today. Defense lawyer Wadoud Fawzi said: “We don't expect this court established under the occupation authorities to be fair, so we decided to withdraw from this trial,"

Well congratulations everybody! We have proven to the world two things:
1- That we not only do not have the capability to overthrow our own dictators
2- We can’t even trial them ourselves!

Amiri is the third judge to be replaced by the court, what is this baseball or something?