After a much-fan-fared buildup, Arab Idol has well and truly-arrived, with no shortage of drama to add to an ordinarily heated region. The Arabic edition of the notorious talent show, American Idol, shown regionally by MBC, comes as a tweaked Arab 'Superstar' - its predecessor from the Lebanese channel, Future TV. After Arab Idol's forerunner had ran its course, MBC bought the rights to broadcast the show in a similar format, changing the name to the internationally branded, 'Idol' series. Uniting the Arab world from the Arabian Gulf to the ...

While co-Arab nations are undergoing turmoil and labor pangs of 'change', in Iraq it's business as usual. Suicide bombings, accusations and counter-accusations flying around to name perpetrators, unemployment, power cuts, repression and revolution in equal measure. Here, we catch up with Iraq at a time when the media seems to have lost interest, since Pre-Arab Spring this nation had its own peculiar set of circumstances and causes for complaint. Throughout the 2000's Iraq had already lived a wave of protests and civil resistance to the occupation, both peaceful and armed ...

With the results of Bashar al-Assad's poll to detect his popularity in, we cast our eyes on those Syrian super stars and movie-icons. How did they place their ballots? Was it a Yay or Nay to their President's (indecent) proposal: the r eferendum to approve a new constitution that pledged oodles of reform, while he continues to bombard the people of Homs. Said the President to the People President Bashar al-Assad's government announced already that voters had overwhelmingly approved a new constitution in a referendum that wracked up a convincing ...

While Jordan's 'corruption' files have been on the radar now arguably since the 1980's, the renewed interest has no-doubt had something to do with the ever-threatening Arab Spring that Jordan has coyly kept at bay. To date, Jordan's interplay with the Arab uprisings could be described as paying lip service to the Arab revolution fever, (with a steady share of protesting and pro-reform activism to show for its pains) but not really engaging it as seriously as neighbors have. Jordan has still not gone that extra revolutionary mile to insist ...

Celebrities in the Arab world, as elsewhere are premium, hot stuff. They are stalked, chased, and hunted down by anything from paparazzi to people with snazzy phone cameras. Their's is a life of pressure and oftentimes distress, as they live every moment in the public gaze, devoid of privacy and the space to keep anything, let alone private marriages, from the media lens. Scandals, while more commonplace in the western world, can still cause big upsets, marring lives in the Eastern world. Sex is still taboo and strictly for marriage ...

Firmly into 2012, how are the Arab revolutions developing? Perhaps they are bored or tired out of the protest gig of 2011 already. We check in with some of the Arab protest pictures to gauge to what extent they have reached revolution saturation, or on the contrary are just getting started. Are they showing signs of protest fatigue, or instead symtoms of a revolutionary frenzy? Are they picking up momentum or tapering off to a standstill? Have these Arab awakenings spread as far as they can go into the protest- ...

Where is the love in the Middle East this Valentine's Day? In light of Valentine's Day and Whitney Houston's untimely death , so close to the calendar day on which we traditionally enjoy her love ballads, we decided to pair some of her greatest hit titles with some loveless Arab leaders, and some defining moments from the Arab Spring plus general war-torn region. While not without its moments of love and unity, this Arab season, more recentlly steeped in ongoing conflict, has been quite devoid of love. With no Whitney ...

Egypt marked the first anniversary of the ouster of Hosni Mubarak yesterday, February 12th, 2012, with a poor turnout for a strike called by activists to protest the snail pace of change from military rule to a veritable people power. This half-hearted protest exposed the country's ambivalence towards the progress made since that fateful day February 11th a year ago. Or perhaps the people of Egypt were suffering protest fatigue. The general 'strike', another form of protest, called people to demand the immediate departure of the military council SCAF that ...

In the winter months, people are obviously in need of warming foods, such as soups and winter casseroles. Even the Middle East, more renowned for its summery salads and room temperature olive oil dishes, has something to serve up when those scorching summer months turn a deadly shade desert chill! 2012 has dished up a protracted cold spell in the Middle East as well as in the wider globe and Eastern Europe. Morocco, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon and even extremities of the Arabian peninsula as Kuwait have shivered through the ...

Some newcomers to the MIddle East familiar celebrity set dominate the music scene in 2012, while the regulars carrying on strutting their stunning stuff in the second month of the year.

Egypt demonstrates to us what happens when sport meets politics and gets ugly. At Port Said on the1st February, a calamity for sport and Egypt- still-in-revolution unfolded to a world that could no longer be shocked by events flooding out of Egypt. A football match-turned violent aftermath will go down in Egyptian and world history. More than a football scuffle or altercation, yesterday's tragic bloodbath at Port Said's stadium took place when sport was very likely infiltrated by politics, ending in death and Egyptian football being suspended for the second ...