ibn Mas’ud

The most reliable method to determine the direction of the Qibla is by looking at the Sun. Every year, because of the revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the inclination of the axis of rotation to the Ecliptic, the Sun is directly ABOVE THE KABAH only two times.

1. May 28 at 9:18 am (GMT) [12:18 pm local Makkah time], and
2. Jul 15 at 9:27 am (GMT) [12:27 pm local Makkah time].

Similarly, the Sun is BELOW THE KABAH (in Makkah) only two times.

1. Jan 13 at 9:29 pm (GMT) [00:29 am local Makkah time], and
2. Nov 28 at 9:09 pm (GMT) [00:09 am local Makkah time].

The direction toward the Kabah can be easily determined by finding the direction towards (or away from) the Sun at the instants when the Sun is ABOVE (or BELOW) the KABAH.

The Qibla direction would be TOWARDS THE SUN, at the instant WHEN THE SUN IS ABOVE THE KABAH. The Qibla direction would be AWAY FROM THE SUN, (in the direction of the SHADOW of a vertical rod) at the instant WHEN THE SUN IS BELOW THE KABAH.

The only obvious requirement is that the Sun should be visible at that instant. Nearly half of the world would be able to see the Sun at these times. The other countries would not be able to see the Sun, because the Sun would be below their local horizon, at those times.
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Narrated Abu Huraira:

The Prophet said, “Allah will give shade, to seven, on the Day when there will be no shade but His. (These seven persons are)

1. a just ruler,
2. a youth who has been brought up in the worship of Allah (i.e. worships Allah sincerely from childhood),
3. a man whose heart is attached to the mosques (i.e. to pray the compulsory prayers in the mosque in congregation),
4. two persons who love each other only for Allah’s sake and they meet and part in Allah’s cause only,
5. a man who refuses the call of a charming woman of noble birth for illicit intercourse with her and says: I am afraid of Allah,
6. a man who gives charitable gifts so secretly that his left hand does not know what his right hand has given (i.e. nobody knows how much he has given in charity),
7. and a person who remembers Allah in seclusion and his eyes are then flooded with tears.”

Sahih Bukhari Volume 1, Book 11, Number 629

Google has quietly added support for two new languages, Arabic and Hebrew, a couple of days ago. They really seem poised to take over the web based email service catering to 40 different languages. They have specifically been targeting the arabic speaking world first adding arabic to english and english to arabic translation services and now arabic in gmail.