Blog archive: All

  • 28th September 2020
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    On Saturday police in the Indian city of Mysore raided a ceremony where more than 100 people dressed in gowns and mortarboards were about to receive fake degrees. The would-be graduates had paid up to 100,000 rupees ($1,357) for doctorates from the bogus International Global Peace University...
  • 26th September 2020
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    Week ending 26 September 2020   REGIONAL OVERVIEW   More than 2.2 million Covid-19 infections have now been recorded in the Middle East and North Africa and the situation continues to worsen. The total of new cases across the region, which was averaging...
  • 19th September 2020
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    Week ending 19 September 2020   REGIONAL OVERVIEW   Covid-19 infections in the Middle East and North Africa continue to rise. The total of new cases across the region, which was averaging around 15,000 a day at the start of this month, is now around 20,...
  • 17th September 2020
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    There are a few countries in the world where the coronavirus pandemic has not followed the course that scientists expected – and the reasons are puzzling. Yemen is one example in the Middle East and there are others in Africa such as Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan and Somalia...
  • 17th September 2020
    By
    Nima Khorrami
    Guest post from Nima Khorrami:  Iran’s angry reaction to the normalisation of relations between Israel and Bahrain and the UAE was to be expected. However, its fury, especially with regard to the UAE, has less to do with the possibility of a future military strike staged from Emirati soil...
  • 16th September 2020
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    The Aalborg Academy of Science is not a university, though it pretends to be one. It is the latest in a series of privately-run institutions found to be operating in Europe without proper accreditation and issuing worthless degree certificates to people in the Middle East. Two were uncovered...
  • 12th September 2020
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    Week ending 12 September 2020   REGIONAL OVERVIEW   Covid-19 infections in the Middle East and North Africa have risen to new heights over the last few days. The total of new cases across the region has averaged almost 18,000 a day this week, according...
  • 5th September 2020
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    Week ending 5 September 2020   REGIONAL OVERVIEW   New Covid-19 infections in the Middle East and North Africa remain fairly constant according to official figures, ranging between 14,000 and 15,000 cases a day during the last three weeks. ...
  • 2nd September 2020
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    Two fake universities based in Norway have been awarding worthless doctorates and diplomas to people in the Middle East, an investigation has revealed. One of them is Bay Ridge University for Studies and Research, run from a $300-a-month rented office in Oslo. Its bogus certificates have been...
  • 29th August 2020
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    Week ending 29 August 2020   REGIONAL OVERVIEW   New Covid-19 infections in the Middle East and North Africa remain fairly constant at around 14,000 a day, according to official figures. Among the 20 countries monitored, ten recorded an...
  • 29th August 2020
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    As Covid-19 continues to spread in the Middle East, Arab governments increasingly blame the public for failing to comply with preventive measures. The roots of this problem lie in the uneasy relationship between autocratic regimes and the people they govern – a relationship that is likely to come...
  • 22nd August 2020
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    Week ending 22 August 2020   REGIONAL OVERVIEW   The Middle East and North Africa has seen an overall rise in Covid-19 infections during the past week, with an average of 14,600 new cases reported each day. This is still some way below the peak of...

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