Plans have been announced in the Irish Republic to translate the Koran.
The ambitious project aims to bring Ireland’s Gaelic-speakers and Muslim communities closer together.
The Islamic community is the fastest growing religious minority in Ireland, which is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic.
It is estimated around 18,000 Muslims live there, out of a total population of nearly four million.
Bearing in mind that the U.S. Army currently has troops stationed in 120 countries, is Abu Ghraib really the most suitable assignment for this American soldier?
[Via Lawrence of Cyberia, Je Blog]
The survey, released Thursday by Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Computer TakeBack Campaign and Clean Production Action, is among the first to identify brominated flame retardants on the surfaces of common devices in homes and offices.
[More: CNN]
Damn! Just when you thought your computer was your one and only true and safe friend, this came along.
[Via: Bouillabaisse]
Just found this Arabic shoot ’em up game called “Under Siege”. In this game, the player takes the role of a Palestinian resistant fighting the oppressing Israeli army.
The game was created by a company called Afkar Media, a Syrian company I think, who also previously released a game called “Under Ash”.
I haven’t tried the game, but the screenshots I saw on the site make it seem pretty good. The graphics and 3D stuff look rather well done too.
It’s good to see Arab companies are starting to venture into the gaming market. Other than this, I know of a Syrian company that worked on a strategy game and of a Tunisian company who worked on a game called “Haroun” that is an action game.
[Via Mouse Hunter]
After months of waiting, I finally got to see Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” last night.
Kicking back and relaxing on our beautiful new sofas, I really enjoyed this film.
It’s really simple and the story is a sweet and simple one too.
Two people’s lives cross in Tokyo, they relate, and they share a nice week together and then they move on.
Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson did a nice job on this movie.
This is the second Sofia Coppola movie, and after seeing both, I truly think she’s going to have a good future in writing and directing movies.
It’s been a while since we last went to the cinema. And usually when we do, we go to see an arabic movie because the foreign movies are old and we’d have already seen them.
So, this past Saturday we thought we’d go catch this Egyptian movie called “Haramiyyah fi Tayland” (Thieves in Thailand) starring Hanan Tork and Karem Abdel-Azeez.
It was a pretty good movie and we enjoyed it very much. But the true reason why we really enjoyed it is because of the scenes shot in Thailand.
They shot in Bangkok and in Phuket, and we found ourselves identifying places that we went to and took pictures at when we visited Thailand on our honeymoon.
From the Bangkok streets, temples and floating market to the Phuket downtown, touristic area and beaches to the Krabi islands.
They even shot scenes at the same resort we stayed at in Phuket; Le Meridien Royal Yacht Club Resort.
It’s so great to watch a movie and say: I’ve been there, yes I saw that, remember that?, we took a picture at that exact place, we swam there, we dived there…etc.
That’s how most of the movie was for us, bringing back some really beautiful memories and places, and further making me want to visit Thailand again.
The story is a nice one and I expect that even people who never visited Thailand would like the movie.
But for us, Thailand simply overshadowed the movie.
The announcement came after a series of confusing developments that began with the U.S. administrator for Iraq, Paul Bremer, and U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi telling al-Yawar their choice was Adnan Pachachi.
But after the latter announced that he would not accept the position, Iraq’s Governing Council voted to name its current president — al-Yawar.
It was less than an hour later when Brahimi issued a statement naming al-Yawar as his choice, but noting that he first offered the job to Pachachi.
The Brahimi statement also included his choices the two deputy presidential positions. Those selections were Dr. Ibrahim Jaafari, a Shi’ite Muslim and Dr. Rowsch Shaways, a non-Arab Kurd.
[More: CNN, Washington Post]
I think that what they’re trying to do in Iraq is something similar to the system in Lebanon where the President is always Christian and the Prime minister is always Muslim.
In Iraq, we see now that the President is Sunni, the Prime minister is Shiaa and Vice presidents are Shiaa and Kurdish.
The idea is to create a balance of power in the country so that no single group fully controls the government.
It worked for Lebanon.
Still I don’t think it’s that necessary if democracy is applied and diverse political parties have a role in the running of the country without certain roles having to be cut out for certain groups.
CIA stooge Allawi gets Iraqi presidency as reward for bogus WMD claim.
Exiled Allawi was responsible for the claim that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction could be operational in 45 minutes.
[Source: The Independent]
The naming of Mr Allawi who spent three decades in exile came as a surprise, he was evidently not the first choice of the UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. [BBC]
[Via Je Blog]
