Muffling Morocco

Why is Gulf News being so alarmingly coy?

Dubai: A UAE-based relative of Madeleine McCann is trying to raise awareness in the Arab world of the young girl's disappearance.

Oil industry worker John Sweeney, an Abu Dhabi resident who is related to Madeleine's grandmother Eileen, said he is keen for Arabic speakers to learn about the plight of the four-year-old.

There are suspicions that Madeleine, who disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in Portugal on May 3, has been taken to an Arab country (Gulf News has withheld the name of the nation).

If they mean Morocco, then that reported sighting has been all over the internet and newspapers for weeks.

What next for 7DAYS?

Like all the best Emirates Today exclusives, we're slightly slow off the mark on this one. Unlike Emirates Today, it was because we were checking our facts (and because our 7DAYS moles have gone undercover).

Editor extraordinaire Neil Sawyer is indeed out, as is his predecessor and (apparently) the MD too. Could this spell the end for Dubai's spunkiest paper? Or will Associated Newspapers step in and save the day?

We're just trying to locate a 7DAYS employee from beneath the bottom of a pint glass to confirm details, so if anyone can fill in the gaps, please go ahead.

"Time to say goodbye"

Yep - hankies out for media and PR bunnies alike - for hackspruikermedialegendextraordinaire Greg kHunt is leaving us forever.

The time has come to change this column a little. After talking with my editor and the powers that be at 7DAYS, they have agreed that it should take a more international slant. The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, we can always do with a little ‘freshening up’ of a weekly column so that we don't keep revisiting the same topics and secondly, my family and I are leaving Dubai.

Full tears of joyjerking story here.

Perhaps you'd all like to reminisce your fave memories from 18 years of media excellence?

Burrell stung in Dubai

And who might this be posing as a "business backer" in Dubai?





The usual fake sheikh or someone a bit closer to home?

Forum Bore 'em

This came from an anonymous submission:

"Poor Abdullatif Al Sayegh went down like a lead balloon at the Innovation Forum a couple of days ago. The moderator, BBC's Nima Abu Wardeh, interrupted him twice while he rambled on endlessly about Arab Media Group. After sharply ordering him to stay on topic, she then ordered him back to his seat.

"But it didn't stop there for Dubai's media chief. The first question from the audience was aimed at Al Sayegh, with the delegate asking why his presentation was not relevant to innovation or the business forum. Al Sayegh started blustering about how many ideas AMG has. Nima interrupted him twice to demand he provide an actual example of what these ideas actually were. He cited Shoof TV.

"The whole excruciating performance made David Brent look like Bill Clinton."

And Ham begat Shem begat blah blah

Pity the scribe that has to type up this stuff, probably getting beheaded for every typo:

Abu Dhabi/Riyadh: President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has sent a cable of condolence to King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia on the demise of Prince Abdul Majeed Bin Abdul Aziz.

His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, sent a similar cable to King Abdullah.

Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Presidential Affairs, and Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister, yesterday conveyed condolences from Shaikh Khalifa to King Abdullah on the demise of the Emir of Makkah Province.

No chance of just writing:

The UAE government has sent condolences to Saudi Arabia for the death of the ruler of Mecca.