http://www.alarabiya.net/rss/en_society_culture.xml Updated every 5 minute of every day - FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY en-us Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:55:12 Asia/Riyadh(AST) Copyright: 2009, Alarabiya News Channel. http://www.alarabiya.net/rss/en_society_culture.xml http://www.alarabiya.net/files/gfx/img/alarabiya.gif http://www.alarabiya.net The school dropout rate among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon is alarmingly high with 50 percent of 17-year-olds and 40 percent of 16-year-olds receiving no education, United Nations officials warned on Friday. "We are sounding the alarm that the dropout rate is too high amonghttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/20/91877.htmlAl ArabiyaThu, 19 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTHollywood's latest doomsday offering "2012" has caused a storm in Indonesia, with conservative clerics condemning it Thursday as a "provocation against Islam". Screenings have been sold out across the capital Jakarta following the film's success inhttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/19/91775.htmlAl ArabiyaWed, 18 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTAs Muslims prepare for the annual pilgrimage, or hajj, season, Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court announced late Tuesday that Arafat Day, when pilgrims stand in prayer on Mount Arafat marking the climax of Hajj, will fall this year on Nov. 26. The court ruled that a number of people had witnessedhttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/18/91639.htmlAl ArabiyaTue, 17 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTSwiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz on Tuesday told voters that the call of the muezzin, or Muslim imam who calls people to prayer, would not sound in Switzerland, as he campaigned against a referendum motion seeking to ban the building of minarets. "Muslims should be able tohttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/17/91623.htmlAl ArabiyaMon, 16 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTNearly 12 million Africans deemed at highest risk from yellow fever will be vaccinated next week against the virus, which can cause explosive epidemics in cities, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. The vaccination drive will span three countries, Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone,http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/17/91584.htmlAl ArabiyaMon, 16 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTLittle has changed in Egypt to move the poor from unsafe places and prevent a repetition of a rockslide in a Cairo shantytown that killed more than 100 people last year, Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday. The London-based rights group also criticized the government forhttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/17/91538.htmlAl ArabiyaMon, 16 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTMuammar Gaddafi disappointed some 200 Italian women after he invited them using an agency advertizing a "party" where the Libyan leader proceeded to lecture them on Islam, Italian media reported on Monday. The ad, by the Hostessweb agency, was very specific in the kind of woman thathttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/16/91470.htmlAl ArabiyaSun, 15 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTAn Egyptian court sentenced two Christian men to death on Sunday for killing the Muslim husband of a female relative who converted to Islam against the wishes of her family, court sources said. The brother and uncle of Mariam Atef Khilla were convicted of breaking into her Cairo home in 2008 andhttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/15/91373.htmlAl ArabiyaSat, 14 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTA hint of incense in the dark and narrow alleys leading to the 410-year-old Hamam al-Abhar in the Yemeni capital's old city reminds the visitor that each step taken is one farther back into history. For centuries, the traditional Turkish-style bathhouse, hamam in Arabic, hashttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/15/91325.htmlAl ArabiyaSat, 14 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTPeople at risk of suffering severe consequences from swine flu should postpone going to the hajj in 2009, according to a study released on Saturday. Some 2.5 million Muslims from more than 160 countries converge annually on the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina in western Saudihttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/14/91221.htmlAl ArabiyaFri, 13 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTIn a clinic in the beleaguered Gaza Strip, Ratib Samur makes his way from one patient to the next armed with little more than a small box filled with enraged bees. He uses the bees to sting those who have come to him for help -- and amid the territory's deepening isolation,http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/14/91209.htmlAl ArabiyaFri, 13 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTA U.S.-born Jewish settler was indicted on murder and other charges in a Jerusalem court on Thursday for allegedly killing two Palestinians and carrying out a string of bomb attacks. Jack Teitel, a 37-year-old immigrant from the United States, was arrested in October on suspicion of murderinghttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/12/91024.htmlAl ArabiyaWed, 11 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTAn Israeli judge has decided not to convict an Arab youth accused of hurling rocks at a police car, claiming the state discriminates against teenage Arab transgressors, media reported on Thursday. "Israel operates on two fundamentally different levels of enforcement for ideological offenseshttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/12/91045.htmlAl ArabiyaWed, 11 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTWafa Sarhan was devastated to think her two sons would never hear her voice again after an Israeli strike on Gaza left them deaf. Then Dr. Hajeri showed up in the impoverished enclave. Bahaa and Qusei Sarhan, today six and five, lost their hearing in June 2004 when an Israeli drone firedhttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/12/91023.htmlAl ArabiyaWed, 11 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTIran has recorded at least 3,409 deaths from AIDS, while another 2,097 people have been diagnosed as having the disease, according to health ministry figures reported by the ILNA news agency on Thursday. The news agency said a total of 20,130 people had tested positive for HIV. It did nothttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/12/91021.htmlAl ArabiyaWed, 11 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTBritain's Oxford University on Wednesday defended a decision to set up a scholarship in honor of a young Iranian woman shot dead during the recent election protests, which has enraged Tehran. Iran told the university that dedicating a scholarship to Neda Agha-Soltan was a "politicallyhttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/11/90996.htmlAl ArabiyaTue, 10 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTSaudi judiciary officials have announced that female lawyers would soon be allowed to represent their clients in the courtroom, reported the Saudi Arabic daily al-Madina. The Ministry of Justice said that women will be issued a restrictive form of license which will give them access to certainhttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/11/90907.htmlAl ArabiyaTue, 10 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTAn Arab member of the Israeli parliament called for a ban on a book written by a rabbi who sanctions the killing of non-Jewish children if they pose a threat to security, according to press reports Tuesday. The 320-page book called "The Torah of the King" is a collection of religioushttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/10/90860.htmlAl ArabiyaMon, 09 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTBabylon, Sinbad, the Garden of Eden -- war-scarred Iraq touted its attractions for tourists Tuesday, as it sent a delegation to a major industry fair for the first time in decade. Iraqi tourism officials said "very few pockets" of the country remain dangerous, more than six years afterhttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/10/90857.htmlAl ArabiyaMon, 09 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMTAs Germany marked the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Palestinians lamented the rise of Israel's "apartheid" wall by breaching the concrete barrier on Monday near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Some 100 protestors, waving Palestinian flags, broke throughhttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/11/09/90724.htmlAl ArabiyaSun, 08 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMT