The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have inscribed its first ever Saudi Archaeological Site in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia onto its World Heritage List. The site chosen was The Archaeological Site of Al-Hijr or Madaen Saleh! This site is extremely historically significant as it is the largest conserved site of the civilization of the Nabataeans south of Petra in Jordan.
Photos from Madaen Saleh Historical Site
I’m very much into ancient history and so the news of a Phoenician ship sailing around Africa was absolutely thrilling! The Captain of the ship is British adventure lover Philip Beale along with a crew which consist of up to 20 people at any one time from all over the world. The voyage will last around a year and they will be taking the route trading ships used to endure thousands of years ago. Even more exciting was the sailing of this ship from Syria to begin its 27358 KM journey!
Celebrities and royalty take some time off to relax just like we do ... but they do it on a bigger scale!
Queen Rania, U2 frontman Bono and the Sarkozys enjoyed a bit of off time and dinner this week at a villa in Cap Negre, in the Var region of the French Riviera.
A helicopter picked up Queen Rania, who has been on vacation, and Bono from St Tropez to the estate, which belongs to the family of Carla Bruni.
I wonder what they discussed over dinner? Politics or humanitarian issues? Or did they just blabber casually about everyday stuff and unimportant issues?
Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish has taken his last trip to his home country Palestine this morning.
Darwish was transported from the states to the Jordanian capitol Amman this morning.
A funeral service was held for him at Marka Airport with the presence of hundreds of VIP's and personalities.
After the service, he was transported to a military helicopter that flew him to Ramallah, his final resting place.
A funeral ceremony is currently underway in Ramallah, tens of thousands of people are awaiting to walk in his funeral procession to see him laid to rest on top of a hill overlooking Jerusalem.
During the ceremony, President Mahmoud Abbas will deliver a speech, followed by one by Darwish's family and then a speech by renowned Palestinian poet Samih Al Qasim.
A book about Prophet Mohammad and his wife Aisha was supposed to be hitting shelves today ... but it hasn't!
The novel entitled The Jewel of Medina, was going into publication by Random House, but everything was halted after they were advised the book "might be offensive" to some Muslims, and "could incite acts of violence".
Prof. Denise Spellberg from Texas University says: "the novel makes fun of Muslims and their history." She also classifies the novel as "ugly" and "stupid".
On the other hand, Sherry Jones, the author of the novel, says she wrote the book respectfully and her intent was for the book to be a bridge-builder.
So, Random House won't publish the novel, but Jones is free to take her book to other publishing companies.
What do you think?
The airship that could pave the way to space tourism is no longer just a concept. On Tuesday hundreds of people made it a point to be at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Los Angeles so that they won’t miss the unveiling of the WhiteKnightTwo mothership. This mothership will be the one to carry the SpaceShipTwo passenger ship to outer space.
Once in outer space, the spaceship will loosen itself from the WhiteKnightTwo’s hold and shoot up in low Earth orbit. Passengers will then have a chance to experience floating in a zero-gravity environment. During the event, the financier of the project Sir Richard Branson popped champagne outside the aircraft while the press feasted their eyes on the machine which has an image of a blonde woman holding the Virgin company flag.
My husband and i were thinking of taking a few days off and jetting over to Istanbul for a bit of site seeing and relaxation. We decided it wasn't a good idea because of the unstable political situation in Turkey and the recent bombings in a busy shopping area in Istanbul!
Have you not heard? Two bombs went off on Monday in a busy shopping street killing 15 and wounding about 150 people! No thanks, i'd rather stay home!
Although no one claimed responsibility for the bombings, it sure sounds like a terrorist attack!
Although i can't wait to check out the palace were the series Noor was shot and take a boat ride on the Bosporus and maybe have dinner at Kiz Kulesi (Maiden's Tower), but i wouldn't want to go when things are tense! Will you be going to Turkey any time soon?
Have you heard anything lately about Rula Saad? No, not the singer, but the little lady that's in charge of Star Academy! Well, i have.
Rumor has it that Rula Saad has packed her stuff and has left the building! Literally!
Reports have it that Rula has resigned from her all her duties at LBC and has totally left the station! What do you think of that?!
What happened? Has she gone into a huge misunderstanding with the manager of the station? What happened?
If you're not familiar with the name Thomas Beatie, you'll sure be very familiar with the pregnant man who spilled the beans on this bizarre experience on Oprah!
Well, a few weeks ago, Beatie gave birth to a healthy baby girl, whom he and his wife have named Susan Juliette.
Beatie now speaks to PEOPLE magazine and reveals some details about bringing Susan home and being a dad:
"She's so precious, I just can't stop staring at her. Just holding her is the best feeling in the world."
So, who's breastfeeding the little one? Not her dad for sure, but her mom!
Beatie's wife, Nancy is going through an induced lactation process, using hormones and physical stimulation with a breast pump.
What do you think? Cute or Freaky?
With summer, comes a flow of tourists to places like Cairo and Dubai and whilst we all want visitors to have a good time, all we ask is that our culture be respected. Well, respect was something Michelle Palmer and her boyfriend Phineas Acrous forgot about before being arrested on Jumeriah beach in Dubai after having sex in public! The 36-year-old and her boyfriend are facing up to 6 years of jail and apparently the British Embassy claims they will give them no assistance other than providing a list of local lawyers.
Usually it is the actors who get awarded and honored for their work, but in all honesty there is an entire crew that may not appear on our screens that work perhaps more than the actors. One director who has made her mark and impressed people all over the world with her ability and her perseverance is Lebanese director Nadine Labki. Nadine was recently granted the French Medal for the Arts and Literature, a great honor especially for an Arab artist.
When one thinks of blogging, the picture of young guys and girls sitting facing the computer and writing away comes to mind. But, that's not the complete picture, around this vast world, there are many elderly people who take up blogging and pass their time writing their stories and spreading their wisdom on the net.
The world's oldest blogger, Olive Riley, would have turned 109 in October, but her time was up and she passed away after falling ill on Saturday.
Olive posted 70 entries on her blog 'The Life of Riley' and wrote about her current daily life in addition to living through two world wars and all that happened in between!
According to Ines Ligron the Miss Japan National Director, Miss Egypt has displayed less than queenly behaviour during the recent Miss Universe pageant. Ines has written the following in her blog...
"Gossip of the day:
Miss Egypt is a real pain in the neck; she slapped Riyo backstage when by mistake she stepped on her dress. Then she was horrified when she realized she just had slapped Miss Universe! LOL She was saying –“I am sorry I did not know that it was you!!”… Riyo told her: “it is okay, but you should not do that anyway to anyone, this is not really nice”. She was mortified.
Also she shares the room with is Canada and she smokes cigarettes after cigarettes and Miss Canada asked her kindly to pls go outside when she wishes to smoke. She turned around and said: “why? This is MY room?!” Nice girl indeed! Sometimes I wonder why this kind of girl bothers to come here..."
Ms Ligron did not state the kind of slap dealt to the current Miss Universe Riyo Mori by Miss Egypt Yara Naoum, but I gather it was not more than a slap to the shoulder due to frustration and a knee-jerk reaction, otherwise Yara would be sent home. True it was a rude and vulgar action, but given the stress these girls are under and the fact that Miss Egypt is there alone with no one to support her, did she deserve the "Sometimes I wonder why this kind of girl bothers to come here"?; We all know the catty behaviour that occurs backstage during these competitions, do you believe Miss Egypt was unfairly singled out?...
Photos of Miss Egypt Yara Naoum
Good news for women living in Dubai! Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority intends to launch a bus service that is exclusive for women. This is a positive action by the Transport Authority to the complaints filed in its office that bus drivers do not stop to pick up women passengers because there are no more seats available for women. It seems that in every bus that operate on the road, only twelve seats are allotted for women passengers. What?! That’s not even half of the total seats available in a bus!
