The Arab American News
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Bomb blast rocks north Lebanon
August 15th, 20080 A bomb explosion in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli has killed at least 18 people, including nine soldiers. The blast, which also left 45 others injured, hit a military bus in central Nour Square early on Wednesday, officials said. The explosion happened near a bus pick-up point in the busy commercial district as people...Israeli arms sales to Georgia raise new concerns
JERUSALEM (IPS) With the eruption of fighting between Russia and Georgia, Israel has found itself in an awkward position as a result of its arms sales to Georgia, caught between its friendly relations with Georgia and its fear that the continued sale of weaponry will spark Russian retribution in the form of increased arms sales to...Faith and Values Media announces winners of grants
NEW YORK � Faith & Values Media, the nation's largest coalition of Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith groups dedicated to media production, distribution and promotion, has chosen the winners for its 2008 member productions grants. The awards were given to Faith & Values Media members whose productions showed an innovative...
Series of break-ins concerns community
August 9th, 20080 A series of break-ins in a mostly-Arab American neighborhood in Southwest Detroit has citizens on edge, with residents claiming that local police aren't doing enough to keep their families safe. More than 12 burglaries have occurred in the past two weeks near the intersection of Lonyo and Dayton streets, which is close to the...Queen Rania uses Web to break stereotypes of Arabs
AMMAN � Queen Rania Al Abdullah already had something of an Internet following for her dashing beauty. Now her majesty is leveraging her relative celebrity to shatter stereotypes about the Arab world. With personal videos, slide shows, and documentaries, Jordan's first lady has created her own YouTube page in a virtual experiment...
The might of incumbency: Candidates advance to November ballot
August 8th, 20080 DEARBORN – Arab American state congressional candidate Rashida Tlaib triumphed over eight other Democrats in Tuesday's primary election, garnering about 44 percent of the vote in her bid to represent Southwest Detroit residents in the 12th District. Dozens of young Arab Americans also won seats as precinct delegates for the...
Best Home Furnishings – literally!
August 8th, 20080 DEARBORN � Plenty of furniture stores have come and gone in the East Dearborn part of Michigan Avenue, but most customers have never seen a store quite like Best Home Furnishings. While most furniture stores offer products made of pressed wood that's heavy and susceptible to breaking, Best Home Furnishings, the month-old store...
Dearborn Mayor O’Reilly yet to appoint new police chief
August 8th, 20080 DEARBORN � The Police Department will remain under its current, established chain of command until Mayor Jack O�Reilly appoints a new Chief, according to city officials. The department was left without an individual leader last week when longtime Chief of Police Michael Celeski died of a heart attack on July 28. "The Mayor will...
Leaders get “REV’d up”
August 8th, 20080 DEARBORN � Arab American leaders from human service agencies across the country gathered in Dearborn last week for a conference aimed at communicating methods of educating, registering and turning out communities to vote. The event was part of the REV Campaign: Register, Educate, Vote, recently launched by the National Network for...The 2008 Summer Olympic Games
The 2008 Summer Olympic Games will begin today in Beijing, China, and Arab nations will be well-represented. Participating countries from the Arab World include Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen,...Sadam Ali: First ever Arab American boxer to compete in Olympics
When Mohammed Ali's boxing career took off in the United States, he became an athletic pioneer who used his status as a platform for social change. Now, another boxer with the same last name is poised to blaze a new path for the Arab American community to follow. The 2008 Summer Olympics will kick off in Beijing, China with the...A path out of the wilderness
WASHINGTON (IPS) � Helena Cobban's new book, "Re-Engage! America and the World After Bush," is not aimed at a target audience of officials, policy wonks and Washington elite think-tank types. So much is clear from a tagline running across the bottom of the cover: "An informed citizen's guide." But that doesn't mean that all the...After ordeal, U.S. cancels some Palestinian Fulbright scholarships
Public disagreements between top Israeli and American officials are not too common. The most recent conflagration occurred over Israel's refusal to allow seven Palestinian Fulbright scholars to leave Gaza. It was widely seen as an embarrassment to American diplomats. After pressuring Israel to allow them...A one-state solution for Israel and Palestine
At first sight, the idea of a single state in Israel-Palestine is barely intelligible; the region is permeated by bitterness and hate, everyday life there involves pervasive fear and violence, and there is calculated interference by foreign lobbies and other states. Even the most conciliatory positions seem to offer some form of...Detroit Jewish Federation: Celebrating racism and making money at it
On Thursday, August 21, 2008, one of the country's wealthiest communities will celebrate the Nakba ? the violent ethnic cleansing and colonization of Palestine in 1948 ? in a poor neighborhood in Detroit. And if all goes well, a large group of folks, representing metro Detroit's large Black and Arab communities and other Palestinian......
How Victor spent his summer vacation
Victor MacDiarmid, a University of Toronto student from Kingston, Ontario, spent the first part of his summer vacation working with the International Solidarity Movement, a non-violent Palestinian organization resisting Israeli occupation. That was before the Israelis expelled him. As a witness to the happenings, he...U.S. convicts bin Laden’s driver at Guantanamo
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba � A military court on Wednesday convicted Osama bin Laden's driver of supporting terrorism but acquitted him on the more serious charge of conspiring with al Qaeda in the first U.S. war crimes trial since World War Two. On Thursday, he was sentenced to five and a half years. He is eligible for......
U.S. Army hopes to keep native Arabic speakers
Washington � The Army may begin paying a retention bonus of as much as $150,000 to Arabic speaking soldiers in reflection of how critical it has become for the U.S. military to retain native language and cultural know-how in its ranks. Only one other job in the Army, Special Forces, rates such a super-sized retention bonus. Now,...Obama’s Muslim advisor steps down
Washington � This week, Mazen Asbahi, volunteer Muslim-outreach coordinator to the Obama campaign, tendered his resignation. The Chicago-based attorney stepped down amidst personal attacks. "I am stepping down from the volunteer role I recently agreed to take on with the Obama campaign as Arab American and Muslim American outreach...Marketing Obama to evangelicals
OAKLAND (IPS) � For the past three decades, the religious right has dominated the religio-political dialogue in the United States. The right's growth, and its agenda � which revolved around so-called traditional family values issues including, but not limited to, opposition to abortion and to full equality for gays and lesbians...Hizbullah influence likely to hold
BEIRUT � Lebanon's politicians squabbled this week over whether or not to enshrine Hizbullah's resistance to Israel in a ministerial statement to be adopted by the fledgling national unity government. But with the balance of power in favor of the Shi'a movement laid bare since the May strife, analysts said there was little doubt the......
Egypt sentences opposition activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim
Washington � Leading pro-democracy activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim was on Saturday sentenced in absentia by an Egyptian court to two years in prison on charges of "tarnishing Egypt's reputation." The Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) condemns what has been an extended campaign to silence and demonize Ibrahim for exercising his...Medical care contingent on spying
Israel's secret police are pressuring Palestinians in Gaza to spy on their community in exchange for urgent medical treatment, according to a report released this week by an Israeli human rights organization. Physicians for Human Rights says the Shin Bet began interrogating Palestinian patients seeking permission to travel from......
New operation gets surprise support
BAQUBA (IPS) � A massive military operation in Diyala province has underscored the military and political gains by the Sahwa militia, despite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's earlier attempts to thwart them. Maliki has now apparently come around to involving the Sahwa rather than opposing them. The Sahwa are the "Awakening Forces"...Film captures essence of Lebanese spirit
As a fourth-generation New Yorker with no connection to the Middle East, Deborah Harse didn't know a whole lot about Lebanon. But she did know that it was a beautiful place, and when she saw a listing on the Web site www.marathonguide.com for the Beirut Marathon, the dedicated runner knew she wanted to go there and compete. Then,......
