I love Rojo. It is much cooler than Bloglines, and much better than Kinja. Now, if they just could show the number of unread posts the way Bloglines do. It would be perfect. BTW, I read somewhere that Gawker is planning to relaunch Kinja later this year. More competition means better products. Let’s wait and see. UPDATE: Rojo does show the number of unread feeds. Good.

CSM: “In a strong message to Saudis seeking democratic reforms in the kingdom, authorities Sunday issued sentences of up to nine years for two academics and a poet who were calling for increased political participation.” This is surprising because I saw Osama Nakshabandi on Al-Jazeera saying the three activists would be sent free soon. I guess he was laying.

The New York Times announced that it would offer a new subscription-based service on its Web site, charging users an annual fee to read its Op-Ed and news columnists. “Let’s hope this doesn’t affect their policy re the links in their RSS feeds.”

BBC: “The Kuwaiti parliament has voted to give women full political rights.”

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I have said that some people are not going to like Jamal Khashggi’s nomination of Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Sistani for King Faisal Prize for serving Islam, and I was right. Yousef Makki writes one of the most gibberish columns I read lately. Please, if you can read Arabic, don’t waste your time reading such non-sense. In his column, Mr. Makki implies that Arabs do not care about Nobel Prize because it was given to some of Israeli’s prime ministers. Is it true? No. I think this man is exercising wishful thinking. He thinks that he can think for all Arabs. Thank you, but we have our own brains, and we can use them very well. Better than you do, apparently. He says that King Faisal Prize should not be given to someone who cooperated with the invaders (he uses much worse expression, but I don’t dare to use his language with such a respectful personality like Aytollah Sistani).

Correct me if I was wrong, but as far as I can recall, Sistani never met any American, or did he? I cannot assume the writer is blind and deaf, but to neglect Sistani’s role to prevent civil war, and his insistence on holding elections, is inexcusable to me.

The terrorists targeted Shiites many, many times. They have attacked Shiite holy places, and killed some prominent Shiite figures, such as Sayed Mohammed Baqer Al-Hakeem. Imagine what could have happened if Shiites were to payback to every terrorist attack. However, Sistani has always called Shiites to calm down, and advised them to show their resistance through living and rebuilding instead of killing and destroying. Ironically, Mr. Makki nominates Sheikh Hareth Al-Dhari for the Prize. With all due respect for you and Sheikh Al-Dhari, I have one question to ask: Are you serious?

The British ambassador to Saudi Arabia likes to be called Abu Henry, the Saudi way! Also, he is a good Arzah dancer, he likes sitting in tents and he likes the Saudi local meals and believes such meals are very healthy! Dir Sir, Whatever you like to do is fine with me, but I’m sorry to tell you that what you said about our local meals is not correct. Our local meals are not healthy at all.