Why limit your wartime Web newspaper-grazing to the prejudices of ethnocentric Western reporters when there is a whole world of prejudices from ethnocentric Pakistani, Yemeni, and Egyptian reporters to consume? Here follows a selective guide to the online English-language press of the Arab and Middle Eastern world. Many of these papers are published for foreign workers or for overseas consumption—a sort of PR project designed to sell the official version of domestic events to foreign audiences—but you can learn a lot even from pallid publications.

Bahrain
If the Gulf Daily Newsis "the voice of Bahrain," the country has laryngitis. The paper limits itself to innocuous news stories and business boosterism. Still, the Web site doesn't completely shun controversial topics: The Nov. 11 issue gave the official version of the prosecution of Bahraini journalist Hafiz Al Shaikh for undermining national unity after he criticized Bahrain-U.S. relations in Lebanon's Daily Star.

Egypt
Al-Ahram Weeklyis the English-language arm of the Arab world's oldest newspaper, Al-Ahram(a French version, Al-Ahram Hebdo, is also available). Published every Saturday, Al-Ahram Weekly has a strong opinion section but, like the rest of the Egyptian press, it is tightly controlled by the ministry of information. The Web site of another Egyptian weekly, Cairo's Middle East Times, links to stories that were censored from its print version. The most frequent targets for censorship are stories that "report on human rights abuses, criticize the president or his family; criticize the military; point out the ill-treatment of Egyptians in 'friendly' Arab countries, especially in Saudi Arabia; discuss modern, unorthodox interpretations of Islam; or report on discrimination against Coptic Christians."

Iran
The Tehran Timestoes the official line and avoids controversy (don't go looking for information about the ongoing trial of liberal dissidents, for example), but it's a good barometer of changing attitudes in Iran.

Israel
One of the most common complaints in the "International Papers" Fray thread is a lack of balance between Israeli papers and Palestinian sources. As the Guardian's Derek Brown observed in January 2001, "Israel's overwhelming advantage in firepower is matched by its enormous superiority in wordpower." While English speakers can get a sense of Israeli opinion from the liberal Ha'aretz, the hawkish Jerusalem Post, or even financial paper Globes—all updated with impressive frequency—there are no English-language Palestinian dailies, and other Palestinian sources read more like propaganda than journalism (see, for example, the news section of the monthly Palestine Timesor the summaries provided by the Palestine News Agency). The Jerusalem Times, an independent Palestinian weekly, reads like a neighborhood newsletter compared with journalistic powerhouses like Ha'aretz or the Jerusalem Post.

Jordan
The Jordan Timespublishes a lively mixture of light filler ("Queen urges Arab women to be proactive, innovative") and serious news ("Gov't urges US to reconsider classifying Hamas, Hizbollah as terrorist organizations"), along with a decent opinion section, six days a week.

Lebanon
The Daily Staris a scrappy daily with an impassioned opinion section and an occasional press review feature, which provides English translations from Arabic newspapers throughout the Middle East. Despite its hard-to-read blocks of text, the weekly Monday Morningis also worth a spot in a Middle East-watcher's bookmarks; this week's issue features an interview with Yasser Arafat.

Oman
Like many English-language Gulf papers, the Times of Omanexcels only in its coverage of India, Pakistan, and the Philippines, the homelands of much of the sultanate's workforce.

Pakistan

As in neighboring India, the legacy of Pakistan's colonial past includes some fine English-language newspapers. Dawn, whose Web site is updated frequently to reflect breaking stories, offers reliable news, temperate editorials, and an op-ed page that reveals the attitudes of moderate Pakistani thinkers. (The paper also recently published a controversial   interview with Osama Bin Laden.) The more Islamist Nationalso features strong editorial and opinion pages. The News International, the English-language sister publication of Jang, Pakistan's largest-circulation Urdu paper, has a great Web site, though the anti-India rhetoric in the op-ed section can be harsh. The Frontier Postis based in Peshawar in Pakistan's North West Frontier province, a location that allows it to provide good coverage of events in Afghanistan. Earlier this year, the Frontier Post was closed down for three months after it printed a letter some readers felt to be sacrilegious (the editors claim the letter was planted); since the brouhaha was resolved, the paper has been keen to proclaim its Islamic credentials.

United Arab Emirates

The UAE offers some of the liveliest English-language papers in the Gulf region. Gulf Newsand the Khaleej Timesboth date back to 1978, when the increasing numbers of immigrant workers (currently as many as 76 percent of UAE residents are foreigners) made the market viable. Reflecting their reader demographics, both papers give extensive coverage to the Indian subcontinent. The Gulf News is particularly strong on practical aspects of expatriate life (click here for its take on the UAE's liquor laws), while the Khaleej Times offers superior editorials.