A member of the Federal National Council, the UAE’s advisory parliament, has suggested that everyone in the public sector should get another 10 days off, per year — the final 10 days of Ramadan, the fasting month. When that story was mentioned at the news meeting at The National, everyone who has ever been responsible […]

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I remember when Redlands East Valley High School opened, in the fall of 1997. My son was part of the first freshman class. REV was the second high school in the Redlands Unified School District, and opened about a century later than the first — Redlands High School. In most areas of endeavor, it didn’t […]

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Al Jazira is an Abu Dhabi club that has been pretty good for most of a decade but hasn’t been particularly good at sealing deals at the end of the UAE soccer season. In 40 years, the club has one league title (2011), two President Cup championships (2011, 2012) and one Arabian Gulf Cup (2010). […]

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The long-rumored Dodgers trade with the San Diego Padres went through today. To the Padres: Matt Kemp, catcher Tim Federowicz and $32 million. To the Dodgers: Catcher Yasmani Grandal, pitchers Joe Wieland and Zach Eflin. To the fans: The sinking feeling that the erratic but talented Kemp will come back to haunt them while playing […]

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A Taliban attack in Pakistan yesterday left 132 schoolchildren dead. It was the worst terror attack in Pakistan’s history. Today, Pakistan’s national cricket team played New Zealand in a one-day international in Abu Dhabi. Some wondered at the propriety of it. Among them was The National’s correspondent Osman Samiuddin, probably the planet’s leading authority on […]

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As we have noted here in years past, Christmas is surprisingly popular in this part of the Arabian Peninsula. Of course, it is not a religious holiday but, then, it isn’t a very religious holiday in the West, either. And this week, a massive, artificial, 42-foot Christmas tree has gone up in the enormous lobby […]

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One of our British colleagues walked into the sports department of The National today and said: “Johnny Football is a joke!” Referring to the Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel, Heisman Trophy winner, first-round draf pick — and a badly beaten man in his first NFL start, a 30-0 victory by the Cincinnati Bengals. He had […]

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A reporter for The National had a look at the food for sale in the cafeterias at three of the biggest government hospitals in Abu Dhabi … And few, if any, healthy choices were available. Eating at the hospital was enough to make people sick. The story started with the findings of our reporter: Prominent […]

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I drove a go-kart once. When I was 10. On the usually empty road that ran in front of my cousins’ house in farm country near Hanford. I remember two things: How close I was to the ground and how fun it was to drive a real motor vehicle, and not just some putt-putt machine […]

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Tennis fans in Asia have been hearing a lot about a bold, innovative, breakthrough approach to presenting tennis. Which has been done before. Nothing new under the sun, indeed. But not if you listen to the people around the International Premier Tennis League. In fact, it is nothing more than a revival (and tweak) of […]

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