Ok, umm, let's see. Food riots in Egypt, political standoff still ongoing in Lebanon, there's Iraq naturally, and possible impending land invasion from Turkey into Iraqi Kurdistan now the snow has thawed, church construction allowed in Qatar of all places, Libya getting access to French nuclear technology, that Moroccan disaster, US air strikes in Somalia, rumoured peace talks between Syria and Israel. Nothing to write about, really, and I'm not about to wank on to my own embarassment.

Food riots in Egypt, political standoff still ongoing in Lebanon, there's Iraq naturally, and possible impending land invasion from Turkey into Iraqi Kurdistan now the snow has thawed, church construction allowed in Qatar of all places, Libya getting access to French nuclear technology, that Moroccan disaster, US air strikes in Somalia, rumoured peace talks between Syria and Israel.

I don't know, but I see the hidden hand of {readers may insert favorite conspiracy villain here} up to their usual tricks.

I can haz conspiracy?

I would like it most if someone explained to me who will succeed Mubarak, because that has been on my mind for some time. I don't know anything about Egyptian politics, but there has been an awful lot of Omar Suleiman in the media as of late: is he a candidate?

As for Lebanon, they really don't seem to need a president. They should drop the post, or just rename it "ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic": the only post Syria does not want to put its candidate in.

Other things to add to the list:

1. the Syria-USA-North Korea menage-à-trois.

2. Bouteflika finally seems set (again) to launch his bid for constitutional rewrite to secure a third term, if he doesn't die of poor health first.

3. biggest, the fact that Yemen is racing towards becoming the next Afghanistan. Now weekly strikes by al-Qaida, massive south/north troubles, price rices, oil running out, death of four-decade Islamo-tribal kingpin shaykh Abdullah al-Ahmar (which will set the country's main Islamist party off in every conceivable direction), Somali refugees flooding in from the s/w, and with looming disaster between Eritrea/Ethiopia giving no reason for optimism, plus piracy in Bab el Mandeb, a perpetual Zaydi rebellion in Saada (n/w), and zero attention from policy-makers either in the US, Europe and or Gulf; and as usual, there's more guns than people in the country, so whoever wants to start a rebellion has his arsenal ready; and the only response of government so far is to shut down newspapers and rail against Mohammed cartoons. That, my friends, is the political equivalent of nitroglycerin.

alle, who could actually do something about it even if they cared about anything? The U.S. is not particularly skilled at preventing civil implosions anywhere...

Yemen is racing towards becoming the next Afghanistan. Now weekly strikes by al-Qaida, massive south/north troubles, price rices, oil running out, death of four-decade Islamo-tribal kingpin shaykh Abdullah al-Ahmar (which will set the country's main Islamist party off in every conceivable direction), Somali refugees flooding in from the s/w, and with looming disaster between Eritrea/Ethiopia giving no reason for optimism, plus piracy in Bab el Mandeb, a perpetual Zaydi rebellion in Saada (n/w), and zero attention from policy-makers either in the US, Europe and or Gulf; and as usual, there's more guns than people in the country....

And you say all that like it's a bad thing.

Sorry mates, have been buried. Starting a new company plus pretending to manage my regional offices.

Uh, plus I lost the password. Found it again in looking through archived mails last weekend.

New company? Does your old employer know? Anything related to the client that was arrested?

ooooh so exciting to speculate on. Since I'm sure you can't say a word anyway, except to tease us out of our minds.

Not relaed to arrested clients, no.

Oh, fuck.

I was just about to ask about that. Since there is no Lebanon commentary here atm, could anyone direct me to a couple of decent blogs on Lebanon?

Abu Muqawama is likely to keep up with things. The Beirut Report may or may not - Habib's good, but he'll probably have pro journalism stuff to do as well.

Oh, and of course the angry arab is carpet-bombing as per usual.

I'm just hopin' it's simply the Re-enactors going overboard.

Apologies from my end as well. Have acquired many gold stars at the new job, now aiming for the position that supervises me.

Good thing I didn't lose my password though, else you'd all be fucked.

Oh the tragi-comedy: the UAE complains that Emirati visitors aren't given the same treatment in the USA as American citizens. I believe the only proper response would be for the USA to start treating Emirati visitors exactly as the UAE treats its own foreigners.