It seems Nigel "Spud" Ely got a little carried away while working in Iraq in 2003. The Englishman somehow got a hold of a fragment of a toppled statue of Saddam Hussein. That piece just happened to be a buttock. A picture accompanying the article provides little help with determining whether it was the left or right…
Another GOP debate was held last night, providing ample opportunity for disconnected rich old white men to say ignorant, mildly racist things. Stem-cell experiment/bad suit wearing mannequin Rick Perry is widely acknowledged to have made the gaffe of the night for the answer he provided on an oddball question…
Steve Jobs "didn't like what [he] learned" about Abdulfattah John Jandali, his Syrian-American biological dad, and therefore never reestablished a relationship with Jandali before his death in October. But that absence of connection hasn't stopped Jandali from defending his son's products—and, in a sense, his…
Here's a delicious template for peace in the Middle East: Coney Island Bialys and Bagels — at 91, the oldest bialy shop in New York City — was on the brink of shutting down after the founder's grandson had called it quits. But the bialys will live on, thanks to two Muslim businessmen harboring a deep fondness for the…
The Iranian football federation has scrutinized controversial footage of Persepolis defender Mohammed Nosrati (below, left) squeezing teammate Sheis Rezaei's (right) firm buttocks following a goal during the Persian Gulf Cup, and ruled that the two players be fined $40,000 each and "banned indefinitely from all…
Vice's man in Libya noticed that a flag flying above the courthouse in Bengahzi, the cradle of the now victorious Libyan revolution, belongs to Al Qaida.
President Obama announced that he'll pull (very nearly) all 41,000 remaining U.S. troops in Iraq by the end of the year, fulfilling his earliest campaign promise and finally wrapping this whole debacle up. This is fine news.
Haaretz is live blogging the exchange of the first group of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held by Hamas militants for five years. He'll be the first captured Israeli soldier returned alive in 26 years.
Afghanistan never charts particularly highly on any lifestyle magazines' annual "Best Countries in the World For Jews" lists. But who knew it's come to this? According to a Report on International Religious Freedom from the U.S. State Department, the number of Jews currently residing in Afghanistan amounts to one (1)…
"A verdict has been issued for Marzieh Vafamehr," the declaration went. "Sentence is a year in jail and 90 lashes."
Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, American travelers who spent two years of an eight-year sentence in Iran's notorious Evin prison for hiking near the wrong border at the wrong time, were back on U.S. soil on Sunday. The two men, both 29, emerged from their plane on the JFK tarmac at 11 a.m. surrounded by loved ones,…
Iranian President/huge Whitney fan Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked walkouts at an address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday. What was the big deal?
For the past two years, an Iraqi gangster had a lucrative little auto-theft business going. He'd send one of his men to hail a cab in Baghdad — preferably a new car — and ask for a ride to Dujail. (Dujail is the Iraqi town where Saddam Hussein had 148 boys and men killed in 1982.) When the taxi got to a deserted…
Israel evacuated its Cairo embassy early Saturday morning after groups of Egyptian protestors—breaking off from a peaceful demonstration in Tahrir Square—broke into the building. Two people died in the clashes and as many as 1,200 were injured.
You know how you know you're probably a miserable, murderous, Middle East tyrant? When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls you up and says, "Bashie? Mahmoud here. Oh, good, good. Azam and the kids are terrific! Thanks for asking. Listen, Bash, I absolutely adore your work. You know that. Great stuff. There's…
On tonight's Report, Robin Wright (the journalist/author, not the Sean Penn ex-wife) stopped by for an interview with Stephen Colbert about her new book, Rock the Casbah, which argues that the recent Middle East uprisings prove the United States' post-9/11 policy of "gunboat diplomacy" was both misguided and…
Renowned Syrian political cartoonist Ali Ferzat was found severely beaten early this morning on the Damascus Airport road, apparently by plain clothes government thugs, or shabiha. A picture from the hospital today shows both of his hands appearing to be severely injured. Long critical of the Assad family, Ferzat was…
According to reports, "hundreds of Libyan rebels" have stormed Muammar Qaddafi's compound at Bab al-Aziziya. There's still fighting going on, though Reuters reports that Libyan rebels have entered Qaddafi's home in the compound. Jubilant rebels are bringing out official government files from the compound and showing…
After Saudi Arabia demanded that Bashar al-Assad "stop the killing machine" in Syria and recalled its ambassador, Kuwait has followed suit, although with much softer language: "We have decided to recall our ambassador from Syria for consultations."
Starting today, New Yorkers with Time Warner and Verizon FiOS cable can watch Al Jazeera English for 23 hours a day through a subletting deal the channel reached with a suburban New York channel, RISE. [NYT]
