Global Voices Online

As though the Middle East needs more violence; a video game where the player controls a suicide bomber in a crowded street has gone on display in Israel. Among the other games was a Syrian-made game showing Palestinian gunmen shooting at IDF soldiers, and plotting to kidnap Bush. Some of these games are created by major gaming companies, and others by individual designers. “Who exactly is teaching whom what?” Dr. Marlyn Tadros wonders!

Recent Links also in Middle East & North Africa

Adil Najam discusses about a recently released list of 8000 persons including the president of Pakistan and 34 Pakistani politicians who have benefited from the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), promulgated by former president Pervez Musharraf on Oct 5, 2007. This ordinance “grants amnesty to all those against whom politically-motivated cases were registered between Jan 1, 1986, and Oct 12, 1999.”

Maghreb Blog reports that the sentence of Chakib Khayari, a human rights activist and whistleblower, has been upheld in a Casablanca court. Khayari is set to serve three years in prison for accusing high-level civil servants of aiding in drug trafficking.

Moroccan resident Ibn Ibn Battuta shares a list of nonfiction and travel books that keep him busy on the road in Morocco.