:
Sun Oct 8 -

MIDDLE EAST BRIEFS -

"Nobody slept in Diwaniya last night."

Heavy fighting in this mainly Shiite city, south of Baghdad, reported by Jim Muir for BBC WS on 9:15z news broadcast. This article time-stamped even later at 13:40z. *The fighting erupted as troops went in to arrest a militant responsible for earlier killings, they said.* Also, unrest in Kirkuk up north. Curfews have been established in both cities.

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Two journalists, identified as Karen Fischer, 30, and Christian Struwe, 38, working as freelancers for Deutsche Welle were murdered in Afghanistan.
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Yo: what's hot; what's not; and
whazzup in the magic kingdom...

Roger Hardy drops in to ksa for Ramadan; in Riyadh he chats with Ahmed from the saudijeans blog and in Jeddah catches up with the buzz about The Girls of Rihadh. *The author, a young Saudi woman called Rajaa al-Sanei, is currently in the United States.*

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