ISRAEL: The Gaza effect on sports, diplomacy

This week, Turkish sports fans and angered citizens took their fury over Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip to the basketball court.

Thousands protested in Ankara, the capital, outside an arena where visiting the Israeli basketball team, Bnei Hasharon, was warming up to play Turk Telekom.

Indoors, the mood was red-hot with crowds chanting slogans against Israel and supporting Hamas.

Although police were present, things didn't cool down, and when fans threatened to charge the court, the Israeli team retreated and took cover in the locker rooms for three hours before being safely extricated.

LEBANON: A marathon for many causes

For once, the slogans were not political. Tens of thousands of Lebanese rallied in the streets of Beirut on Sunday, this time to rally support for social causes, promote their companies and schools or simply enjoy a sunny weekend day with friends and families.

They gathered to run in Beirut’s yearly marathon. In any other country, such a race would merely be seen as a fun sports event. But in Lebanon, where the masses take to the streets mostly to commemorate a political leader’s assassination or to support a militant group, it was refreshing to see people from all sectarian groups stand side by side in a non-politically tainted occasion.

Mirroring the relatively stable situation in the country, the marathon put the spotlight this year on a  health issue rather than security and politics. The slogan: “With strength we run against cancer."

SAUDI ARABIA: Let's take the morality police bowling

When the men from the Committee to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice arrived unexpectedly at a shopping mall in Jeddah, the trendy Saudi youth in their Western-style attire were seized with fear. 

The religious force is notorious for beating up and arresting men and women in Saudi Arabia for what they perceive as immoral behaviors as well as Western ways of behaving or dressing up.

But this time, the bearded men of the religious police had totally different intentions. They just wanted to engage in a game of bowling with a group of youth at the mall in the Saudi coastal city, the local daily Al-Watan reported on Tuesday.   

The newspaper said that high-ranking officials from this police force, who turned out to be talented bowlers, won the game against the young group of bowlers. They all engaged in a friendly conversation, Al-Watan added.

This unusual event raised questions in the kingdom about whether the morality police widely viewed as austere and brutal are trying to spruce up their public image by engaging with young people.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Dubai continues shopping spree

While a credit crunch has begun to strangle commerce in the rest of the world, the cash-rich elite of the Persian Gulf seem not to have lost their appetite for high profile deal-making.

We published an extensive report earlier this week about how Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth funds continue flexing their economic muscles by grabbing up chunks in companies, grabbing properties and taking over sports teams even as the rest of the world's financial titans have been reduced to pint-sized weaklings by a crisis in the real estate, capital and lending markets.

Today comes word that Zabeel Investments of Dubai is pushing to purchase England's struggling Charlton soccer club.

According to news reports, the Dubai investment firm has already made a cash offer, which the team's current owners are considering.

IRAQ: A Brazilian boost for Iraqi soccer fans

The stale-smelling room where U.S. and Iraqi officials hold most press conferences is not normally stuffed with giddy reporters, but the ones who gathered there Wednesday to hear that Brazilian Jorvan Vieira was coming back to coach Iraq's national soccer team made no attempt to hide their excitement.

Iraq is mad for soccer, especially in light of the country's unexpected victory in July 2007 at the Asian Cup under Vieira's guidance. In the midst of some of their country's most violent days, and as Iraq's political leaders showed no signs of working through the sectarian distrust crippling the country, the ethnically and religiously mixed team beat Saudi Arabia, 1-0, to claim the cup.

Tens of thousands of fans poured into the streets of Baghdad in celebrations that lasted well after dark -- a novelty in the violent capital. 

Vieira became a hero to Iraqis, but he stepped down after the event. Two subsequent coaches, a Norwegian and an Iraqi, failed to lead the team to success in World Cup qualifying matches. The Iraqi, Adnan Hamad, stepped down in June after a loss to Qatar ended Iraq's hopes of making the World Cup finals in 2010. It would have been the country's first time playing in the World Cup since 1986.

ISRAEL: Duck! It's hunting season

Who would have known it, but hunting season opened in Israel this week.

Many species of animals are protected by law in Israel, which passed a rather detailed wildlife-protection law as a 7-year-old state in 1955. As reality changes, so does the list, which today protects deer, hares, partridges and the country's largest rodent: the hystrix, a crested porcupine. The last two joined the fortunate list only recently.

Some traditions die hard. The porcupines' meat is believed by some Arabs and Druze to have healing properties, and the animals remain in high demand; one will fetch as much as $165. They continue to be hunted illegally, mostly in northern Israel, where conservationists fear the once-common prickly residents may disappear altogether.

A small victory was noted last year when legislation doubled the fine for illegal hunting to the equivalent of $38,000.

IRAQ: No Phelps but plenty of swimmers in Sadr City

Michael Phelps may be a star in much of the world, with 8 gold medals from the Beijing Olympics hanging around his neck, but he's got a long ways to go before the swimmers of Baghdad's Sadr City district get familiar with his name.

"The Chinese guy!" one youngster said as he waited with scores of other boys and young men to plunge into the turquoise water of a public pool that opened amid much fanfare Saturday. "Iraqis are into soccer," one man said, explaining the crowd's unfamiliarity with the world's most famous swimmer.

Swimming pools aren't a luxury most Iraqis can enjoy, especially those living in poor and working-class districts like Sadr City, which until three months ago was a no-go area for just about anyone except U.S. and Iraqi military forces and the Shiite militiamen battling them for turf. Things have been quiet since May.

EGYPT: One Olympic medal, an angry president

You will not hear the chimes of Olympic medals in Egypt’s trophy cases.

The country won only one in the Beijing Games. That embarrassment has riled President Hosni Mubarak, who has ordered an investigation into why his athletes fared so poorly.

The state press agency has reported that Mubarak has ordered a fact-finding committee to find out “who is responsible for the Egyptian mission’s bad performance and calling them into account.”

Yikes. Someone’s in trouble. But it most likely won't be Mounir Thabet, the head of the country's Olympic Committee and the president's brother-in-law. It also won't be Hesham Mesbah, the only one of Egypt’s 177 Olympic athletes to win a medal –- a bronze in judo.

Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: President Hosni Mubarak Credit: AFP

IRAQ: Far from Beijing, he runs to forget

While runners in Beijing compete for medals, fame and fortune, Mahmoud Kamil Ahmed runs to forget. The Iraqi distance runner, who has represented his country in international competition, lost 27 members of his family a year ago when Sunni Muslim insurgents loyal to Al Qaeda in Iraq attacked their homestead north of Baghdad.

Ahmed was not home at the time. He was in Cairo training for future competitions. But his mother, father and two brothers were among the dead. It took Ahmed several days to learn what really had happened. Up until July 27, 2007, he had spoken to his relatives nearly every day in phone calls from Cairo. But on July 27, nobody answered the phone when he called.

"My village was controlled by Qaeda gunmen. My worry began to increase when I was trying to reach others in the village whom I know, but I couldn't get them," Ahmed said.

He returned to Iraqi on July 30, 2007, and kept trying to call home from Baghdad, about 60 miles away, to no avail. Finally, he reached a brother-in-law who does not live in the village. "He said, 'Everything is all right, don't worry, but don't come home,' " Ahmed recalls.

But his voice was sad, and Ahmed knew something was wrong. He called someone else he knew. "When I asked him what was going on, he surprised me. 'Ohhhhh, don't you know? Gunmen killed all your family,' " he said.

"I was not digesting what I was hearing. Was it a dream or reality?" Ahmed said. He called his brother-in-law again and demanded the truth. This time he got another story: that two uncles were dead and the rest of the family had survived and gone into hiding.

Eventually, Ahmed reached someone else who told him the truth.

Read more about Ahmed's story here.

--Raheem Salman and Tina Susman

Photo: Iraqi distance runner Mahmoud Kamil Ahmed shows photographs of his slain family. Credit: Saad Khalaf / Los Angeles Times

IRAQ: Soccer fans' victory ride

It was just one in a string of qualifying matches for soccer's World Cup.

But when Iraq beat China 2-1, cars clogged the streets and celebratory gunfire rang out Saturday.

Even Iraqi army and police officers let rip with assault rifles.

— Saad Khalaf in Baghdad

Photo: Soccer fans. Credit: Saad Khalaf / Los Angeles Times