Egyptian blogger Whisper of Madness explains an absence from blogging, and reflects on the Middle East blogosphere: ‘Believe me, the faults and flaws of the Middle East are staunchly reflected in our blogging community, often times by the same people who speak out against them. The politics, the backstabbing, gossiping, bigotry, jealousy, extremism, cynicism, and even the tribal mentality are all well represented.'

A leading Egyptian businessman has been arrested in relation to the murder of a Lebanese singer in Dubai, UAE, writes Zeinobia, from Egypt.

Despite the Saudi Arabia's decision to ban Saudi women from taking part in the Olympics this year, Blogger Dilshad D. Ali writes about the emergence of hijab (veil) at the Beijing Olympics. Blogger Jana, also lists the 12 veiled Muslim athletes who competed this year in Beijing.

“Why was I born into this life in the first place? I didn't choose that. I didn't and don't think i would have chosen to live such a life full of confusion. Is God there or is he not? Should i be Muslim or Christian or Jewish or Baha'i or what?” writes The Egypt Guy.

One Jerusalem reflects on the Arab-Israeli peace process 30 years after the historic visit of Egyptian President Anwar Al Sadat to Israel.

Yamli Search is very intriguing new search engine that transliterates Arabic written in the Latin alphabet into Arabic proper, and then runs that query through Google, says The Arabist.

Egypt-based The Arabist links to a story which accuses police officers of ordering the rape of two teenagers. “Does it ever stop? The number of cases of torture and worse in Egyptian police stations that have come to light in recent months is staggering,” notes the post.

Jailed Egyptian blogger Kareem Sulaiman is being allegedly abused in prison, according to a statement issued by the The Arabic Network for Human Rights information and Hisham Mubarak Centre for Law, reports freekareem.org.