Bestajman

The Kenyan government is currently in discussions about building a new port with Chinese funding that is expected to be the busiest in east Africa. The port on Kenya's northern coastline will provide a vital trade route for much of east and central Africa. But it is also going to be built near Lamu - one of the region's most beautiful and relatively unspoiled environments. BBC News - Kenyan town awaits port with trepidation

Nayla Al Khaja is breaking new ground in the United Arab Emirates. She's the first female film producer in the kingdom. And she's taking on regulators, censors -- and public opinion -- with her ground-breaking films delving into sensitive subjects like pedophilia and secret teen dating in the Muslim world. Lately, Khaja, 31, has also been busy trying to become UAE's own Oprah, developing a proposal for a talk show tackling sensitive, Oprah-like subjects for Dubai One, the kingdom's main English-language television channel. Khaja is founder of Dubai-based D-Seven Motion Pictures, previously known as Dessart Productions, producing commercial material, independent documentaries and films. The company was founded in 2002. Besides her television work, Khaja is currently working on a short film about a young Emirati couple on honeymoon and a documentary on Dubai's ruling family. Emirates' first female film producer tackles pedophilia - CNN.com

Nayla Al Khaja is breaking new ground in the United Arab Emirates. She's the first female film producer in the kingdom. And she's taking on regulators, censors -- and public opinion -- with her ground-breaking films delving into sensitive subjects like pedophilia and secret teen dating in the Muslim world. Lately, Khaja, 31, has also been busy trying to become UAE's own Oprah, developing a proposal for a talk show tackling sensitive, Oprah-like subjects for Dubai One, the kingdom's main English-language television channel. Khaja is founder of Dubai-based D-Seven Motion Pictures, previously known as Dessart Productions, producing commercial material, independent documentaries and films. The company was founded in 2002. Besides her television work, Khaja is currently working on a short film about a young Emirati couple on honeymoon and a documentary on Dubai's ruling family. Emirates' first female film producer tackles pedophilia - CNN.com

Here is a film made by the BBC in 1975 about Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. At that point he was the ruler's son, but he would become the man who helped create modern Dubai. It is a glimpse of Dubai just before it started to become the strange fantasy world it is today. It has a great creepy British under-secretary for foreign affairs, plus very good tartan fashions. It is also wonderfully shot. The cameraman was Erik Durschmied. He shot many BBC factual films in the 60s and 70s. I think he films in an incredibly modern way. His camera does exactly what you would do if you were in the room - gazing and flitting between details - yet it manages to always remain beautifully composed. BBC - Adam Curtis Blog: Dubai 1975

British woman 'arrested in Dubai after being raped' - Telegraph The woman, a Muslim of Pakistani descent, was celebrating her engagement to her 44-year-old boyfriend, and was allegedly attacked when she passed out in a hotel lavatory. Despite approaching police about the attack, she was arrested after admitting to "illegal drinking" outside licensed premises as well as having sexual intercourse outside marriage. Her fiancé was also charged with the same offences.

'Secret wife' of Dubai sheikh seeks UK asylum - Telegraph

LAMU, Kenya — The evening call to prayer here is like a summons, for everyone on the island. As the sun dives toward the ocean, the Muslim residents stream into the mosques, little boys wearing impossibly bright white skullcaps, their mothers in diaphanous, black head-to-toe gowns. The last of the bikini-clad tourists pick themselves up from the beach, dust off the powdery sand and head back to the hotel for a drink. Lamu is one of the last outposts of pure Swahili culture. Lamu has been like this for decades, a historic seafaring place where modernity has been gracefully folded into traditional culture without completely spoiling it. The snaky alleyways of the island’s old town (which the United Nations recognizes as a World Heritage site), the omnipresent smells of donkey dung and sweetly rotting fruit and the crescent-sailed dhows plying the sea make the island feel like a glass museum case — one with a living culture inside. But all that may be about to change. To the dismay of man