August 2008 Archives
The New York Times has an upbeat travel article on Asilah.
The New York Times reports:
ALGIERS, Aug 19 (Reuters) - A bomb attack east of Algiers on Tuesday killed 43 people and wounded 38, the Algerian interior ministry said, in one of the bloodiest incidents in years in the OPEC member state.
A nice photo montage of my Moroccan "home town" of Outat El Haj. While the high school, the river Moulouya, and some of the streets are familiar, it looks as though there has been some significant new construction, including apparently a new mosque.
The Washington Post reports the death of celebrated Palestinian poet and cultural icon Mahmoud Darwish, many of whose poems were also set to music, following heart surgery in Texas.
President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of national mourning to honor the 67-year-old writer who, a close friend said, never came round from a major operation two days earlier."The passing of our great poet, Mahmoud Darwish, the lover of Palestine, the pioneer of the modern Palestinian cultural project, and the brilliant national leader, will leave a great gap in our political, cultural and national lives," Abbas said.
"Words cannot describe the depth of sadness in our hearts," he added. "Mahmoud, may God help us for your loss."
