Helen Thomas, the venerable and respected White House journalist has a vastly different perspective than many of her colleagues.

That’s because she is an Arab-American, someone who grew up in a predominantly Arab American community, and has tirelessly fought for decades in search of truth, justice and transparency in the executive branch of the United States.

Lebanese-American actor Tony Shalhoub has seen it all—from the blinding lights of Broadway, behind the scenes as a successful producer, in front of the camera as various characters, and on stage as an Emmy-award winner.

Most well-known for his portrayal of the obsessive-compulsive detective Monk on the hit TV show with the same name, Shalhoub has parlayed his ability to get underneath a character’s skin to massive success.

His Arab-American roots, however, are what set him apart from the rest of the Hollywood elite. Growing up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Shalhoub didn’t really have a real sense of his Lebanese roots.

Thousands of Lebanese demonstrators—most of them under the age of 30—marched through Beirut last week in an effort to separate religion from politics.

The push for secularism in a region mostly defined by religious identity and religious politics is seen as a mostly younger-generational idea; a campaign where groups were mobilized through social networking sites like Facebook.

Due to mounting evidence and a slew of bad publicity, Britain expelled an Israeli diplomat over the suspected use of a dozen fake British passports in the assassination of a leading Hamas official in Dubai.

The murder, which took place in a Dubai hotel in January, has been regarded as being carried out by Israeli government officials who wished to take out Mahmoud al-Mabhouth.

An embassy spokesperson refused to identify the diplomat, telling the Associated Press that they “can neither confirm nor deny” the expulsion.

Two men who have been sentenced to death for the murder of Suzanne Tamim, a Lebanese pop star, have appealed against their conviction in Egypt.

Hisham Talaat Moustafa and Muhsin Sukkari are accused of killing the 30-year-old Tamim in her apartment in Dubai in July of 2008.

Moustafa, a prominent Egyptian politician, billionaire, and friend of Hosni Mubarak’s son, hired Sukkari, an ex-policeman, to kill Tamim for $2 million after she ended her affair with Moustafa.

A Swiss businessman defied the country’s recently imposed constitutional amendment banning minarets, by building his very own minaret atop his office.

Guillame Morand opposed the ban on the new construction of minarets in the country, which is an effort to curb militant Islam. Morand, the owner of a chain of shoe stores, vehemently countered the ban by building the minaret atop the chimney above his office.