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(Continued from page 23)
Decrying Western influence: Kuwaiti conservatives object to mixed-company smoking at cafes
• KUWAIT CITY (AP) -- One of the traditional pleasures of the Middle East -- leisurely puffing on a water pipe filled with aromatic tobacco -- has become ensnared in another of the region's customs: that of Islamic conservatives decrying what they see as liberal Western decadence.
• Hard-liners are denouncing some shisha cafes as a "moral menace" because they allow young men and women to mix freely.
• The pastime of smoking shisha -- also known as nargile, hubbly bubbly, hookah or by other names across the Mideast -- may seem like an unlikely subject for a showdown over values. In Kuwait, however, little is off limits to the increasingly influential Islamists and their conservative allies.
• Such ideological skirmishes flare often across the region, with Turkey witnessing battles over head scarves and Saudi clerics denouncing the temptations of the Internet. But tiny, oil-rich Kuwait has emerged as a particularly noisy battleground.
• Islamists in Kuwait have stepped up their challenges to Kuwait's Western-backed ruling family in recent years, first in Parliament and now mostly from the outside after boycotting elections. They have demanded death sentences for anyone convicted of insulting Islam, opposed women's participation in sports and forced art galleries to cancel shows of artworks depicting hypocrisies such as Arab men enjoying a scotch.
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Phone-hacking trial of Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson set to open in London
• LONDON (AP) -- They were once two of the most powerful people in the British media, senior executives for media mogul Rupert Murdoch and associates of Prime Minister David Cameron.
• Former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson are due to go on trial Monday, along with several others, on charges of hacking phones and bribing officials while at the now-shuttered Murdoch tabloid.
• The trial unfolding in a plain, starkly lit room at London's Central Criminal Court should provide high drama for media watchers -- and an unwelcome reminder for Murdoch and Cameron of the two-year-old scandal that continues to tarnish Britain's media, politicians and police.
(Continued on page 25)
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