The undercover agent who infiltrated al-Qaeda and foiled an “underwear bomb” plot was a British man of Middle Eastern origin, US reports say.

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green. Man-made islands ; indoor ski slopes ; temporary ice hotels . We thought we had seen it all in Dubai, and then the Middle Eastern city went and outdid itself with the Water Discus Hotel , a hotel that will feature a series of sci-fi styled discs, one of which will be located 21 stories underwater

Investors from Chinese, America and Middle East are the latest reported to be interested in a bid to build a new reactor on Anglesey.

Instead of relying on publishers and retailers, more and more authors are going it alone in the Middle East and publishing their work themselves, online.

Simon Sebag-Montefiore, historian and author of Monsters: History’s Most Evil Men and Women, and Jane Kinninmont, senior research fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Programme, discuss how the wives of autocratic leaders managed to change the course of history in the past.

While RIM’s current fortunes are making plenty of execs nervously tug at their ties, there’s still plenty of people cheerfully tapping away on BlackBerry keyboards — especially in the Middle East. It makes at least some sense, then, to launch a big ole’ flagship shop in Dubai. Teaming up with local carrier Axiom Telecom, the handset manufacturer is in the final negotiation stages for a 1,500 square-foot store.

There is almost universal scepticism in the press in the Middle East as well as further afield about the fragile UN-Arab League-brokered ceasefire in Syria.

The Archbishop of Canterbury will call for peace in the Middle East and warn against “downgrading” religious education in secondary schools in his final Easter sermon.

While Stateside folks have been enjoying the thicker, but longer lasting RAZR Maxx for a few months now, those from across the pond have been missing out. Good news is you won’t have to wait it out on the sidelines much longer, as Motorola’s announced the extra juice-packing Maxx is set to make its Euro and Middle Eastern debut come next month. However, Moto wasn’t clear about how much you’ll have to shell out to grasp onto this Droid, or which specific countries it’ll make the trip toward

Middle Eastern and Turkish media express a variety of views on the outcome of the weekend meeting of countries backing political change in Syria, with some hailing it as a success and others expressing disappointment.