I thought we could all use a bit of "cosmic" relief at the end of a tiring week, so here goes:

41-year old Al-Bakri has been an astrologer for ten years.

Al-Bakri is the host of a call-in show on state-run Iraqiya Television called Your Fortune. In a country traumatised by decades of dictatorship and war, a surprising number of viewers ask only about their love lives.

On the set of Your Fortune (All pictures Mohammed Tawfeeq)

"Does she love me?"; "Will he marry me?"

Ah, good old human nature.

Al-Bakri says viewers also ask about their health or if it is safe for them to travel on a specific date. In a country like Iraq, let's hope he gets those predictions right.

But, Al-Bakri doesn't just make love life prophesies, he also looks into the stars to predict the future for all of humanity. He told CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq that Hillary Clinton will be the next U.S. president and that her time in office will be made very difficult by sky-rocketing oil prices.

Also, Al-Bakri whispers that several Iraqi politicians use his services as well. They don't call into the live show: The politicians, he says, call his private cellphone.

--Posted by Hala Gorani

Ahmed Al-Omran (Courtesy Saudijeans.org)

Al-Farhan was arrested last month on charges that remain unclear. But he knew that authorities were on the verge of taking him into custody: In a letter posted on his blog and written a few days before he was jailed December 10th, Al-Farhan asked that if his incarceration lasted more than three days, that the world not "forget him."

Al-Omran told my co-anchor Jim Clancy : “When you have a country where freedom of expression is very limited, the internet and blogging provides a good outlet for the young population to express themselves freely, away from the censored media.”

Check out Al-Omran's blog here.

What do you think of Fouad Al-Farhan's detention? What do you think of Al-Omran's decision to go public on CNN International?

Email us at mideast@cnn.com or add a comment below.

--Posted by Hala Gorani

(Courtesy alfarhan.org)

The Interior Ministry says Al-Farhan was arrested last month for "violating the Kingdom's laws".

Below is a letter sent by Fouad himself to his friends a few days before his arrest. It is posted on his blog in Arabic and English.

"I was told that there is an official order from a high-ranking official in the Ministry of the Interior to investigate me. They will pick me up anytime in the next 2 weeks.

The issue that cause all of this is because I wrote about the political prisoners here in Saudi Arabia and they think I’m running a online campaign promoting their issue. All what I did is wrote some pieces and put side banners and asked other bloggers to do the same. He asked me to comply with him and sign an apology. I’m not sure if I’m ready to do that. An apology for what? Apologizing because I said the government is liar when they accused those guys to be supporting terrorism?

To expect the worst which is to be jailed for 3 days till we write good feedback about you and let you go.

There may be no jail and only apologizing letter. But if it’s more than three days, it should be out. I don’t want to be forgotten in jail."

Thanks to Tracy Doueiry of CNN's Arab Affairs Desk for collecting much of the information related to this case. Check out CNN.com's story on the blogging community's reaction here.


Update: Many in the Middle East blogging community are publicly calling for the release of Fouad Al-Farhan. One in particular, 24-year-old Riyadh resident Ahmed Al-Omran, is asking readers to sign an online petition on his blog saudijeans.org. Al-Omran is scheduled to appear today on Your World Today on CNN International and CNN at Noon EST.


We will continue to monitor the story and post updates on this blog. Watch this space throughout the day.

--Posted by Hala Gorani

In a country where being open about HIV infection is virtually unheard of, Saudi Arabia's National Society for Human Rights this week asked HIV-positive Saudis who've received unfair treatment in the workplace or from the public to come forward and register their complaints.

Until recently, many Arab countries refused to acknowledge that AIDS even existed within their borders. But in June 2006, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health announced more than 10,000 HIV infection cases- almost double the number of reported infections in 2003.

Who will come forward and register? The truth is that many HIV-Positive Saudis tell us they cannot admit publicly that they are infected. Also, any legal protection for HIV patients in the country applies only to Saudi citizens. Foreigners who are found to carry the virus are typically deported.

Moreover, Human Rights Watch last October decried an NSHR "bill of rights" for AIDS/HIV-positive Saudis, saying that it "presents a veneer of protection in one phrase, before taking it away in the next. It violates rights of confidentiality and informed consent and provides for arbitrary detention. It fails to ensure the right to nondiscrimination and equal protection of the law. And ultimately, it represents a strategy against AIDS that is doomed to fail. "

What do you think of the National Society for Human Rights' initiative?

Send us an email at mideast@cnn.com or add a comment below.

Above all, I would like to thank the hundreds of readers who took the time to nominate their “Midde East Person of the Year.” We did not publish every single comment and email but the ones you will find in the original entry constitute a fair and representative selection of our readers’ submissions.

Below is a list of the five most frequent nominations. What they have in common is that they were nominated by you. Keep in mind that although this is in no way a scientific poll, it is a faithful reflection of a week-long survey based entirely on your votes.

Thanks to all and happy New Year!
Hala Gorani


1. Wael Abbas – Egyptian Blogger




Mina Zekri in Egypt said she nominated Abbas "...because of the efforts of Wael (together with other Egyptian bloggers as well), several police men were sent to jail after being proved guilty of torturing.”

A reader who did not give his name added that “Wael Abbas turned blogging into a very powerful tool to fight tirany and state torture. It is such characters that give us hope of a better future and dignity for human beings.”




2. Nadine Labaki – Lebanese Actress and Filmmaker











Taline Babikian wrote from Cyprus:
“She brings Lebanon to its former glamour by her creative inspirational movies, music clips and documentaries.”




3. Gilad Shalit/Ehud Goldwasser/Eldad Regev

(Captured Israeli Soldiers)




Mary Robertson in New Mexico wrote: “I shudder to think what suffering and torture these poor individuals are enduring and call for the Red Cross to seriously pursue their cause to visit them after over 500(!) days in captivity while the world remains silent.”

But not everyone agreed with the nominations. A reader named James sent in this comment: “I find it curiously interesting how some people know the names of the 3 Israeli soldiers held captive in Arab countries, but do not know the name of a single Lebanese or Palestinian prisoner (many of them innocent) out of the thousands held in Israel today.”






4. Michel Aoun - Lebanese Army General

5. “Ordinary People”


Many votes came in for the faceless, nameless individuals who have lived through tragedy and wars, assassinations and poverty; those who were forced out of their homes by war and those who have remained dignified in the face of despair. I have met many such people in my reporting throughout the region, and they have shown me that - ultimately - what unites humanity is much stronger than what divides it.