MUST-READS

• Syria
  Academics and Archaeologists Fight to Save Syria’s Artifacts

  Scholars can do little to stop the fighting and looting, but they have created blogs, websites, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts to monitor the destruction and raise awareness about it. By sharing excavation records, scholars outside the Middle East have helped their counterparts in the Arab world to compile online lists of missing or stolen objects.

• Art
  Saudi artist relates the human impact of Mecca’s redevelopment

  Ahmed Mater, one of Saudi Arabia’s leading artists, showed an audience at Sotheby’s London last night, Tuesday 12 August, the rampant development in Mecca that has transformed Islam’s holiest site into a luxury destination. Even the official logo of the municipality features a bulldozer alongside Islamic iconography.

• Military
  US State Department Approves New Hellfire Sale to Iraq

  The US State Department has approved two new lots of weapon sales to Iraq at a time when that government is desperately trying to fight off the encroachment of the militant Sunni Islamic State. The larger agreement would procure 5,000 AGM-114K/N/R Hellfire missiles for the Iraqi military for $700 million. Lockheed Martin is the principal contractor on the agreement.

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