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MIDDLE EAST CLIPS (4#) -

# LISTENING TO THE TALIBRUM: Specially equipped and trained RAF-travelling multi-linguists who are eavesdropping on Taliban conversations from 40,000 ft aloft were surprised to hear some of them speaking in Brummie accents peculiar to parts of England recently.

# AT THE CAIRO BOOK FAIR: The Guardian's Maya Jaggi reports: "Dar El Shorouk... has just signed up three young Egyptian bloggers - all women - for debut novels."

# HANIYEH and other Hamas
honchos reported to have gone into hiding.

# GULF BLOGOSPHERE: Blogger is complaining that Middle Easterners are the only ones who seem to get disruptions in their Internet services. We get disruptions here in the USA, too - but you guys just don't hear about our disruptions.

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