LOS ANGELES: Mega-selling mystery author Dan Brown has taken over writing duties on the film adaptation of "The Lost Symbol."
ROSEVILLE, California: Fire officials say a Northern California mall was evacuated after nearly 5,000 holiday revelers showed up for a "flash mob" organized by a local choral society.
NEW YORK: Police stopped a driver for running a red light and discovered more than 500 pounds of marijuana inside his minivan, authorities said on Monday.
PARIS: British rocker Peter Doherty, who is to make his acting debut in Paris this month, said he is taking dance lessons to prepare for his new role.
The boundaries between professional historiography, moral commitment and fiction have been re-examined in new publications on the troubled land of Israel and Palestine. Professor Ilan Pappe, an acclaimed political historian from the University of Exeter and expert on Palestinian-Israeli relations, has recently published four challenging books.
French surgeon Dr. Maurice Bucaille (1920-1998) had a growing interest in studying Qur’anic verses in the light of science; consequently, he analyzed if they are compatible with modern science. Yet, he was not satisfied with the English and French translations of the Holy Qur’an that was available to him. Instead, he wanted to study the verses in their original language: Arabic.
No change in the Arabian Peninsula’s history has had so sudden and profound an effect as the revelation of Islam. Islam had a decisive and almost instantaneous impact on the material culture of Arabia as the archaeological finds from the Kingdom exhibited first in Paris and now in Barcelona show.
The Saudi Arabian exhibition, formerly at the Louvre, re-opened as Rutas de Arabia: Los tesoros arqueológicos de Arabia Saudí en España on Nov. 12 at La Caixa Foundation, Barcelona, Spain. It is open until Feb. 20, 2011.
The changes in Arabia that set in with the Bronze Age were incremental and far-reaching and the objects from Saudi Arabia displayed at the Louvre repeatedly demonstrated the point. These changes extended far beyond the implications of smelting metal, however useful a technical ability.
The magnificent objects displayed in the Routes d’Arabie — Archéologie et histoire du royaume d’Arabie saoudite, Roads of Arabia exhibition, at the Musée du Louvre in Paris and the intellectual coherency of the presentation gave an entirely new view of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its complex past.
I became familiar with James Zogby as soon as I arrived in the Kingdom in 1980, thanks to Arab News, which has regularly published his articles. For the past 40 years, Zogby has been trying to create a better understanding between the Arab world and the American people. He founded the Palestine Human Rights Campaign, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and Save Lebanon, but he is mostly known for creating the Arab American Institute in 1985, of which he is still president.
ROME: Another part of the 2,000-year-old Roman-era site at Pompeii crumbled on Tuesday, provoking more attacks on the Italian government from critics who say two collapses this month underscore the need for urgent action.
Wednesday 1 December 2010
A man with a transcendent vision and a remarkable skill to convey his thoughts through artwork and imagery, Abdulnasser Gharem is driven to go beyond the borders of his mind, his environment and without a doubt, his canvas.
WASHINGTON: At some point after leaving the White House, every ex-president comes up with his own version of his time in office. It's partly an attempt to frame history, partly a time to settle scores, always a way to reenter the spotlight, if only briefly.
Late September, a delegation of nine international journalists arrived in America’s heartland to take part in a press tour that promised to offer an “introduction to military structure, function, strategy, tactics and training.”
Shrabani Basu’s recently published book, “Victoria & Abdul” is a historical narrative about the comparatively unknown intimate relationship between a royal table boy, Abdul Karim, and the Empress of India, Queen Victoria. Basu is a London-based author, journalist and correspondent for two Calcutta newspapers: The Ananda Bazar Patrika and The Telegraph. She has authored “Curry: The Story of the Nation’s Favourite Dish” and the much acclaimed biography, “SpyPrincess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan.”
Half the Sky: How to Change the World” by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn is an inspiring book about amazing women and their efforts to change the world. This is the latest book for the married couple after “Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia.” The ex-foreign correspondents for the New York Times are the first married couple to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism for coverage of China’s Tiananmen Square democracy protests.
Princess Basma Al-Saud recently opened an art exhibition showcasing the work of students at Dar Al-Hekma College. The event — titled Room No. 5 — displayed five different styles of art: Photography, interior design, graphic design, fashion and creative art.
Moved by the 2006 Israeli attack on Lebanon, Kinda Hibrawi decided to participate in the humanitarian relief efforts as an estimated one million people were displaced and homeless. Thanks to her artistic talents, she decided to produce a limited edition print inspired by a poem written by the Syrian poet, Nizar Qabbani, and sung by the Lebanese singer, Majdah Al-Roumi.
Abu Bakr Omar, also known as Bakri, is a photographer, graphic designer and art director. He is also the founder of B&A; visual communication consultants, and founder of THE PASSIONATES for photography and digital manipulation.
The title of Talmiz Ahmad’s book, “Children of Abraham at War,” immediately sets our train of thoughts in motion as we try to grasp the scope of the subject. Following “Reform in the Arab World: External Influences & Regional Debates” (2005), Ahmad highlights in this second book the role of Jewish, Christian and Islamic messianisms in triggering hatred and violence among its followers.
One of Jeddah’s female-only colleges, Dar Al-Hekma, hosted a photography exhibit last week in the school’s Atrium Gallery to showcase their creative collaboration with two universities from the United States: the American University (AU) and the District of Columbia UDC).
Earlier this month, the Sunaidi Exhibition held its annual Deco Fair Furniture exhibition for the second time at the Jeddah Center for Events and Forums. It was a big improvement from last year’s, but that really isn’t saying much.
Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore,” says Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
That was a sentiment shared by many last Wednesday at an open-air concert of Italian opera in Jeddah. It was a very unusual affair for a typical Jeddah evening — selections from Aida, Norma and other operatic works performed by a chamber ensemble, I BricconCello, who flew all the way from Italy.
Ahmad Hamid has written a genuine and fitting tribute to Hassan Fathy (1900 – 1989), Egypt’s most famous architect since Imhotep. Even his name, which means the “benevolent opener,” symbolizes his uniqueness.
Photography arrived in Arabia in the mid-19th C. as one of the first harbingers of the modernization that was about to transform the Peninsula. Old photographs included in the Saudi exhibitions, first in Paris and now in Barcelona, and in the accompanying catalog, show how important photography has been as a source for the history of the Kingdom.
NEW YORK: After releasing a single with Ludacris, getting remixed by Kanye West and hanging with Drake, Justin Bieber is briefly setting aside his hip-hop ties to explore country music.
NASHVILLE, Tenn.: Country singer Shania Twain is engaged. Twain's manager Jason Owen confirmed Monday that Twain is engaged to business executive Frederic Thiebaud.
More than 300 children gathered at Roshana Mall last Thursday to compete in a reading competition. The competition was organized by Saudi publisher, Thuraya Batarji, who published the first Arabic children’s adventure book, “Moghamarat Bizarro Wa Qarasinat Al Ba7r” ("Bizarro’s Adventures and the Pirates of the Sea").
Passementerie is a French word used to describe any item such as braids, cords, pompoms, tassels, tiebacks, rosettes or decorative fringes, used as an embellishment to clothing or soft furnishing. assels and decorative trims have been used for both fashion and interiors for centuries.
