British Arab Lawyers’ Association

Shi’ites in Egypt and Iraq are planning to take Saudi clerics to an international court for incitement to violence against the Shi’ite minority.

The Al Al-Beit institution in Cairo and Baghdad are joining efforts to press charges against 22 Saudi clerics, accusing them of issuing fatwas, religious decrees, that label the Shi’ites as infidels and incite to violence against them.

The withdrawal of a senior intelligence adviser after an online campaign to prevent him from taking office has ignited a debate over whether powerful pro-Israel lobbying interests are exercising outsize influence over who serves in the Obama administration.

Facebook, the world’s most successful social networking site, has officially launched in Arabic, tapping into a potentially huge market in the Middle East and beyond, the company has announced.

Facebook, based in Palo Alto, California, already has large numbers of users in the Arab world: in Egypt, where the site has 900,000 users, it has become a highly effective tool for political mobilisation, with mass demonstrations against the goverment organised through forums. The ability to use it in Arabic is likely to make it even more popular.

The Middle East has become a hot spot for Western law firms over the past few years, and in recognition of this The Lawyer is hosting its inaugural Business Development in the Middle East Conference in April this year.

Lawyers in the Middle East had better believe it - they are involved in a full-on fight for work, and Dubai is hosting the main event.

After round one in 2008, when hundreds of lawyers set up shop in the region, it is ­seconds out, round two, and a scrap for work in a saturated market.

Last week The Lawyer broke the news of the first legal job cuts in the Middle East. Seven Trowers & Hamlins employees lost their jobs in Dubai, Muscat and Riyadh, six of them associates and most from project finance.

Trowers is one of a host of firms, among them Allen & Overy, Denton Wilde Sapte and Pinsent Masons, that have used their Middle East networks to cushion against the downturn in more mature markets. Others bulked up with local lawyers. Any significant dip in Dubai would be expected to have major implications for those expanded teams.