It started with just a few lone pilots in Jordan but last night's bombing in the capital, Damascus, looked like the nail in the coffin for the Assad regime. As one after another of his closest men are either killed or defect, who does Assad have left ? So far the president has responded by quickly announcing replacements for the fallen and beginning indiscriminate shelling in the capital. If it looks like desperation, it probably is. Now FSA activists are warning Assad that a fate worse than Gadaffi is in ...

If you're wondering how you're going to stay cool through a sizzling peak summer Middle East Ramadan , set to start this week, avert your eyes from the sun, and cast them over this guide to chilling out in Ramadan 2012 and keeping it a nice-ice Ramadan! The media and weather experts have billed this Ramadan the hottest in 33 years, which has got people sweating with apprehension at the thought of fasting lengthy summer days in the Arab world. But that won't put off the region's steadfast Muslims from ...

Although Muslims habitually stay at home for Ramadan, living the holy month abroad is becoming more common in an increasingly mobile age. This year, Lebanon's minister for tourism even made a public appeal for Ramadan visitors to consider the arguably less obvious choice, while traditional tourism hot-spot for Ramadan, Saudi Arabia, has started up a tourist campaign to open up the Holy Kingdom to non-religious visitors too. For anyone planning on trying Ramadan abroad, whether for the experience of a travelling Ramadan, or out of necessity in times of political ...

Just days after the first Syria Leaks are trickling through, since the 5th of July, 2012, Al Bawaba brings you up to speed with the most salient files so far. Wikileaks' latest dispatch of emails, dated from August 2006 til March 2012, have been allocated the unique label "Syrian Files" by the notorious champions of electronic transparency. The trusty Wikileaks website promises to release their treasure trove of emails over the next couple of months, which include more than 2 million sent emails, belonging to Syrian officials from private and ...

More than 18 months since the winds of change started to blow, where has the Arab Spring taken the region? Al Bawaba brings you "Top of the Pops"- popular revolts not popular music: our Arab Spring Redux charts. See the pictures above to find out what's been shaken in the Middle East and North Africa: who's been dumped, who's been winning elections, who are the movers and the shakers, and who looks set to be the hottest act of 2013. While geriatrics cast their ballots in North Africa , little ...

Whether it's for the "pre-Ramadan Rush" as some have taken to calling it, or for the summer high season, Arabs love to flock to the European capitals and shores for shopping, spending and even drinking-splurges or gambling-sprees. All manner of sin and excess banned and shunned from their home-lives become fair-game while abroad. It's summertime, and distinctly for Muslim world Arabs, that time of the year just before the Ramadan stay-at-home family time kicks in. Which signals just one thing for these restive Arabs who are itching to squeeze some ...

The biggest footballing event of the summer 2012 has just ended and before the dust settles, we take a look at how it all went down - from start to finish, in a dramatic one-sided final that saw Spain clinching the title and most deservedly at that. Spain's journey to the top Spain secured the championship of Euro 2012 after a rather shaky start to the tournament in their group stage matches. They weren't all that convincing in their opening match in which they drew against the Italians 1-1 ...

Friday's grand finale of Arabs Got Talent was a good old reminder that Arabs had a whole bunch of talent up their sleeves besides wars, dictatorships and speaking a whole cornocopia of dialects across the diverse region and still understanding one another! Throw in nascent democracies , and put that in your Arab hookah and smoke it! Arabs had a lot to sing and dance about yesterday night. The final episode delivered a healthy mix of talents who qualified as fit contenders and potential ' Arab talents '. All were ...

Ok so we know where the US government stands and how the UN would vote, we even think we've figured out whose side the Russians are on, but the real question is: which Arab celebrities are pro or anti the Assad regime ? It's by no means a clean sweep for the opposition as many singers and actors favor Assad to stop the bloodshed, while others are hedging their bets by refusing to speak out publicly. But you can always rely on a few stars to speak their minds and ...

With the QFs behind us, the Editors at Al Bawaba present their picks from the teams that played the quarter final round in the Euro Championships, 2011. The teams that made it to the semis were the best performers, in a set of less-than-thrilling matches that failed to live up to the Quarter Final expectations. England v. Italy gave us a tense penalty shoot-out to compensate for an undewhelming game. In general the matches level fell short of expectations In a nutshell, Portugal breezed through against the Czech Republic ...

The line-up for the Arabs Got Talent final includes a dozen acts with nothing too radical or outlandish in the competition. A novelty act of drinking straw instrumentals was probably the most quirky element in the mixed bag of singing, dancing and acrobatics. With the Cirque du Soleil coming to town in the Middle East , a few acrobatic acts and circus talents enter the mix. Male opera singing and a Tom-Boyish Emirati singer added some spice to the usual suspects. In the singing stakes, a lot of the talent ...