Last month, Wadah Khanfar, erstwhile Director General of Al Jazeera and now President of the Sharq Forum, an independent think tank dedicated to developing long-term strategies for Mideast development and social justice, visited London. Appearing at the Frontline Club , Middle East monitor , London School of Economics and the Chaltham House , Khanfar discussed the Arab Spring, Al Jazeera, and political Islam.

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Wadah Khanfar Discusses The Arab Spring, Al Jazeera, and Political Islam

Just after the first anniversary of the onset of the Arab Spring, the Obama administration announced in December an enormous arms sale to Saudi Arabia , with a price tag greater than the annual gross domestic product of more than half the countries in the world. The administration hailed the sale as a “ historic achievement ” that “reinforces the strong and enduring relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia.” The close juxtaposition of the anniversary and the apparent repair of the temporary rough patch in U.S.-Saudi relations highlights crucial overlooked realities about the Arab Spring and the U.S. response. Read full article > >

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Washington’s bow to Mideast monarchs

This article, written by Summer Nasser, appeared on Comment Middle East on December 30,2011 As the Arab Spring sweeps throughout the Middle East, it proves the strength of each country’s citizens. However, many do not show women in the frontlines of mass marches, with one notable exception: Yemen.

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The Women of Yemen: Breaking Barriers

The Obama administration on Thursday hailed a new $30 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia as both a hedge against Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf and an economic windfall that could create thousands of U.S. jobs over the next decade. The agreement to sell 84 top-of-the line F-15SA fighter jets to the Saudi air force also provided a needed boost to U.S. relations with the oil-rich kingdom after months of strain over the White House’s response to the Arab Spring uprisings, U.S. officials and Middle East analysts said. Read full article > >

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U.S. touts Saudi Arabia fighter jet deal as a foreign policy, security and economic boon

This year tweeters have been most interested in Charlie Sheen, the Arab Spring and the McLobster, according to Twitter.

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Twitter reveals 2011 hot topics

This year tweeters have been most interested in Charlie Sheen, the Arab Spring and the McLobster, according to Twitter.

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Twitter reveals 2011 hot topics

Lakia McDuffie was sleeping in her fourth-floor apartment at Wingate Towers & Gardens in Southwest Washington when a light flooding into her bedroom woke her up. Then her windows rattled. She wondered what was going on. It was a plane landing at Reagan National Airport . Since that night in the spring, incoming airliners have regularly flown by her building at late hours, McDuffie said. Read full article > >

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D.C. communities all shook up as Reagan National-bound planes change their landing patterns

RICHMOND — Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) will reveal his plans next week to run for governor in 2013, according to well-placed Republican sources. Cuccinelli, a tea party hero who garnered national attention for suing the federal government over the new health-care law, expects to make a formal announcement after the legislative session in the spring, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so they could speak freely about his plans. Read full article > >

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Cuccinelli will announce governor’s run within days, GOP sources say

Pippa Middleton is no stranger to parties. Between managing an online magazine to promote her parents’ party planning business, to helping with the wedding reception this spring of her sister, Duchess Catherine of Cambridge, the royal-sister-in-law has had some valuable experience. At least the Penguin Group thinks so. Read full article > >

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Pippa lands $600,000 book deal

This article, written by Mohamed Irani, appeared in Comment Middle East on 08 November 2011 The Arab Spring has challenged the statute of tyranny in numerous countries in the Middle East. Countries such as Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have successfully ended years of despotism, while the people of Syria, Yemen and Bahrain are on the path to freedom.

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Arab Spring reignites the Green Movement

Sometime after making a star appearance at Halloween, bats in the Mid-Atlantic region will fly into caves for their annual winter hibernation. And if a disturbing trend holds, most won’t fly back out in the spring. Bats have been nearly wiped out in states including Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and Vermont by white-nose syndrome . A survey of six species at 42 sites in those states found that their numbers have declined by almost 90 percent. Read full article > >

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Study links fungus to bat-killing disease

The leader of the Islamist party which won Tunisia’s first free election appealed for calm in the town where the “Arab Spring” began, accusing forces linked to the ousted president of fanning violence there.

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Fresh Post-Vote Clashes in Cradle of Tunisia’s Revolt

Polls open in Tunisia in the first free election of the Arab Spring, nine months after the fall of former President Zinedine el Abidine Ben Ali.

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Landmark Tunisia vote under way

First Arab Spring elections.

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Tunisia Begins Historic Vote

STUART, Va. — For more than four years, Democratic leader Ward Armstrong has clashed with the Republican majority in Virginia’s House of Delegates with passionate floor speeches, pithy sound bites and occasional theatrics. Republicans had enough. They eliminated his largely rural Southside district when they redrew legislative maps in the spring. Read full article > >

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Va. House of Delegates race between Armstrong, Poindexter turns heated and costly