Those three countries have followed different trajectories since the start of the Arab Spring in 2011, but what they have in common now is instability that is not likely to be overcome in the short term.

Why Saudis are ardent social media fans by S.B. | BEIRUT ON MARCH 18th, at an Arab media get-together, Twitter announced that it will open an office in Dubai. Not before time. Smartphone growth has rocketed in the Gulf-by most counts the region has the highest penetration.

He is the architect and very public face behind Saudi Arabia's boldest military campaign in nearly 100 years. But Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country's young, newly-minted defense minister, remains a virtually unknown figure at home and abroad.

In an opinion piece for Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, translated in English by the Saudi Gazette, columnist Ruqaya Al-Huwairni wrote: "I cannot describe how embarrassed and annoyed I was after listening to a fatwa issued by a local mosque imam." Al-Huwairni added: "To be frank, I do not know why women are looked down upon more than men.

When a retired 51-year-old military man disclosed in a U.S. security clearance application that he had a 20-year affair with his former college roommate's wife, it was supposed to remain a secret between him and the government.

Charting five years since the onset of the Arab spring.The Arab revolutions produced few leaders, few credible programmes for action, and few ideas.

"THE amounts of oil are incredible, and I have to rub my eyes frequently and say like the farmer: 'There ain't no such beast.'" So wrote an American oilman in the Persian Gulf a few years after the discovery in 1938 of a gusher of oil from Saudi Arabia's Well Number Seven, 4,727 feet (1,440 metres) below the desert floor.

For half a century, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been the linchpin of Mideast policy. A guaranteed supply of oil has bought a guaranteed supply of security. Ignoring autocratic practices and the export of Wahhabi extremism, Washington stubbornly dubs its ally "moderate." So tight is the trust that U.S.