Scottsdale Community College will offer language courses in Arabic for the first time this fall, despite low enrollment numbers at the start of the semester.

A Scottsdale company that lets timid complainers send anonymous messages to the targets of their gripes has gone global.

LONDON - The BBC World Service said Tuesday it would launch an Arabic TV and information service, and end radio services in 10 other languages to help pay for the venture.

The Bush administration has been visibly frustrated at the inability of the United States to get its message through to the Arab world in a positive light. One manifestation of this is the occasionally expressed belief that everything would be all right if the Arab cable news channel, al-Jazeera, could be bought, bullied or browbeaten into seeing things our way.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A man claiming to be Saddam Hussein said in a tape aired on the Arab television station Al-Jazeera on Friday that he is in Iraq directing attacks on American forces and he urged Iraqis to help the resistance against the U.S.-led occupation.

As the only English-speaking busboy at a Mesa-area restaurant, a teenage Sterling Jensen never imagined his love for language would help him perform the duties of an Arabic interpreter in the Iraq war.

April 25, 2005

Americans tend pridefully to think their nation the superior of its neighbor to the south, and in areas such as international power projection and economic clout the United States does indeed far outstrip Mexico.

Learning a new language as complex as Japanese, American Sign Language, or even Pirate can be as easy as connecting to the Internet, thanks to the Phoenix Public Library.

K. David Harrison is a linguist at Swarthmore College who documents languages. The Economist Online recently (Nov. 23) highlighted his work on 7,000 languages, half of which are disappearing "hotspots."

It’s almost 8 p.m. on a Thursday, but Steve Barber’s classroom at Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale isn’t empty. A woman dressed in a pink embroidered pantsuit stands in front of a dozen students, drawing Chinese characters on the board, and students such as Stephenie Evanuska, 17, take a stab at pronouncing each word.

It’s almost 8 p.m. on a Thursday, but Steve Barber’s classroom at Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale isn’t empty. A woman dressed in a pink embroidered pantsuit stands in front of a dozen students, drawing Chinese characters on the board, and students such as Stephenie Evanuska, 17, take a stab at pronouncing each word.

June 21, 2004

During coverage of the massive dust storms that have recently hit the Valley, you might have picked up on a new word -- haboob.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi negotiators reached a breakthrough deal on the constitution Tuesday and at least one Sunni Arab party said it would now urge its followers to approve the charter in this weekend's referendum.

The number of students who cannot speak English in the Mesa Unified School District is growing, so the district wants to step up services to their moms and dads.

The number of students who cannot speak English in the Mesa Unified School District is growing, so the district wants to step up services to their moms and dads.

KIRKUK, Iraq - Minutes after a suicide bomber killed 25 people, hundreds of angry Kurds stormed the headquarters of an ethnic Turkish group in this northern Iraqi city and torched the building and nearby parked cars.

BRICK to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., for uttering this gem during a Democratic Party fundraiser in San Francisco last week: "Many of you are well enough off that . . . the tax cuts may have helped you . . . We’re saying that for America to get back on track, we’re probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Westerners were getting too racy on the beaches of this Persian Gulf tourist haven, and a police crackdown on topless sunbathing, nudity and other indecent behavior has resulted in 79 arrests in recent days.