Reading this week

I'll start with a nostalgic look back, to the April tulip explosion in Istanbul, here pictured by Gulf news. A theme this week is art and culture, I guess, even if other more political issues will be shown too.

Svenska Dagbladet has some travel tips on Lithuania. I think you have seen photos here on this blog from several of the places...

The Guardian celebrates film festivals, touching also on Cairo.

LA Times reports on Dubai Creek Art Fair.

BBC also reports on the new Acropolis museum in Greece.

In Sweden the debate on runestone protection is heating up.

Dagens Nyheter reports on crosscultural understanding in retail and grocery shopping.

Arab web awards have been granted, also reported by Gulf news.

Gulf news also writes on political difficulties in Bahrain.

In Iran, women's activist and Palme award winne Parvin Ardalan is still in dire straits.

Dagens Nyheter reports on a large infrastructure project on the arabian peninsula, a bridge from Yemen to Djibouti, financed by the Bin Ladin group?

In Sweden, resending asylum seekers to home countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan is hotly debated. Here Svenska Dagbladet writes on christians from Iraq.

If you subscribe to the Middle East Journal, you can read this article on Iraqi ethno-sectarianism. Third World Quarterly is available the same way (and I recommend these even if I don't fully appreciate sharing links not available to all) and writes on Iraqi nationalism here.

Svenska Dagbladet also lists reasons behind the ongoing global crisis.

Swedish radio reports on the Turkish EU process and the difficulties ahead. Centre for European Reform writes on the constitutional crisis here.

An Expressen columnist writes on Swedish elite soldiers on foreign missions reportedly buy sex, and the political consequences of this.

The crisis in Lebanon unfolds. Dagens Nyheter reports here. BBC explains here.

Emirati National writes on the country's commitment to peacekeeping.