Mideast death overshadows election coverage
By CNN's Sameh Abdallah in Dubai
DUBAI, UAE (CNN) -- Arabic newspapers gave special coverage to the American elections on Wednesday, but the story ranked second behind the death of Sheikh Zayed, the UAE president.
The only exceptions were daily papers published in the UAE, like Al-Ittihad and AL Khaleej, that did not mention anything about the elections at all, or any other story. In these papers, Zayed's death occupied every single page.
However, London-based Al-Hayat ranked the story second, after Zayed's death.
In Cairo, the daily Al-Ahram dedicated four full internal pages to the elections. That, again was the second story on the front page with a five column story.
Al-Ahram described the "election battle" as the "toughest," mentioning that the turn out was enormous.
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, a Saudi-owned paper based in London, gave three internal pages to the election.
The main remark made by Al-Sharq Al-Awsat was that "the young voters" had participated "intensively."
One of the few Arabic electronic sites that did not pay much attention to the American elections was the Qatari "Al-Raya." The newspaper ranked the story third, in the international section.
The headline chosen by Al-Raya was: "The American election starts ... Iraq and bin Laden will minimize the republican votes."
The same treatment was given by the Lebanese Al-Mostkbal, which devoted little space and a headline reading: "America Voted, and the world waits for the president."
Al-Ayam, the Yemeni newspaper, was the only paper that had the election story before Zayed's on the front page.
Thanks to the special lay out that has four different headlines at the top. Zayed's was the fourth after the elections and other domestic issues.
The title was: "Kennedy assures Kerry would win, and Bush initially leads."
