An astronomer uses stargazing to give young Afghans some much-appreciated perspective, all the while taking care not to tread on anyone’s religious sensibilities.
Category: Society
Ramadan is a sacred month of prayer and fasting from dawn to dusk observed by Muslims around the world. But the holy month, which this year runs from June 6 to July 5, comes with different rules and schedules (and soap operas) that must be integrated into busy modern lives. And yes, there’s an app […]
Tests in a region in Colombia with widespread, recurring and inherited Alzheimer’s may help researchers understand why the disease occurs and has thwarted treatments for so long.
-Essay- I am short of breath. My brow is wet with sweat, and my fingertips are tingling. I can’t seem to concentrate. I’m happy, but there’s this idea nagging inside of me that I might lose that very happiness I’m feeling. That is indeed the cause of my anxiety. It’s not the fault of the […]
Let’s be clear, the terror in the Pulse club was not an attack on Western culture in general: It was aimed explicitly at gay people. Most heterosexuals don’t have the slightest idea what this really means.
SHANGHAI — After five years of construction, Shanghai Disneyland will be inaugurated on Thursday with much fanfare. And with the arrival of China’s first park from the American entertainment conglomerate, many Chinese players in the theme park business are asking if the proverbial “wolf has really come” this time — dressed as Mickey Mouse. But […]
Among the Berber slaves of Mauritania, property of Arab masters despite their shared Muslim faith.
Other cities ban prostitution from residential areas with schools and playgrounds. Not Berlin. Here, it’s just part of the city’s “poor, but sexy” image.
For centuries, southeastern Grasse has been a flower growing hub for the fragrance industry. Though regular business from luxury titans has been a lifeline for local farmers, they’re finding it hard to survive in the globalized market.
Our linear, utilitarian view of time may be simply a construct of this modern, materialist civilization. What’s the rush? What does it mean?
Abusive husbands are now criminally liable in China, and their victims can seek restraining orders. Rights advocates applaud the new rules, but say that many women are still reluctant to speak out.
Hiroshima-born designer Issey Miyake has spent his career creating garments that challenge sizing conventions and are both practical and beautiful. A French reporter ponders his influence.
FRIBOURG — The decision came like a bolt from the blue: In July 2007, the canton of Fribourg’s local government decided to hand over the management of asylum claimants to ORS, a private company from Zurich that was active in Germany. And just like that, the Fribourg Red Cross was out, despite its years of […]
SÃO PAULO — Daniel Okamoto has bad memories of the 2014 World Cup, but not because of Brazil’s historical and humiliating 7-1 defeat to Germany. “My company went virtually bankrupt because of the World Cup,” the businessman says. The firm, Dahouse Events, won a modest bid for a 300,000-real contract ($83,000) to make costumes for […]
Married under Sharia law in their native country, underage refugees pose hard questions for Germany’s legal and child welfare systems. German courts are divided.
Some 6,000 people gathered in Bogota for artist Spencer Tunik’s latest outdoor photo shoot. The clothes-free event was a stunning splash of hope for a country torn for so long.
PARIS — Should Palmyra be rebuilt? And under what conditions? No sooner had Syrian forces and the Russian Army freed the “pearl of the desert,” a spectacular Greco-Roman city with traces of Eastern influence, from the yoke of the Islamic State (ISIS), then the debate over how to restore it to its former glory was […]
MUNICH — Traffic collisions. Heart attacks. Even terrorist attacks. Tragedies strike every day, tearing people away from their loved ones forever. But events like this have a collateral impact beyond the victim’s next of kin. They also affect the messengers, the proverbial bearers of bad news. People with certain chosen specific vocations — police officers, […]
The killing of a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo after a toddler fell in his enclosure is just the latest example of the twisted concept of the zoo industry. What lessons for your kids?
Friends are the new family! Friendships are the greatest love affairs you’ll ever know! Nonsense. Take a journey to the dark side of your so-called friends.
MOSCOW — He is described as the Russian equivalent of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. After launching VKontakte, Russia’s biggest social network, a decade ago, Pavel Durov has more recently become one of President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest, if ever discreet, opponents. Forced into exile after quarrels with the Kremlin, he is never where you’d expect him […]
PARIS — The death of Muhammed Ali is that rare global moment when the world is not only talking about the same topic, but largely saying the same thing. The 74-year-old boxing legend transcended differences without ever flinching from life’s toughest questions. He was the Greatest, and also good; a fighter hailed for his intelligence […]
Chen Man’s release from prison has historical significance, writes Liang Yingfei.
Young people have far more accidents than the elderly, yet no one is clamoring for greater restrictions to be imposed on them. Why are we singling out senior citizen drivers?
It is both a cultural phenomenon and a marketing play, but one researcher says that Muslim-inspired fashion is ultimately true to the faith.
From David Lynch to Francis Ford Coppola and Wes Anderson, filmmakers are going beyond movie sets to design hotels, bars and nightclubs.
SCOTTSDALE — In this suburb of Phoenix, Carrie Lightfoot chooses her weapon of the day from a compartment stash under her bed. She’s spoiled for choice: six semi-automatic pistols and a revolver, not to mention the AK-47s and shotguns. The scene looks like something from old westerns, but Lightfoot embodies a contemporary America, where more […]
MUNICH — For a communal housing project, there are bound to be endless discussions over commons areas before the foundation stone has even been laid. There are also financial questions such as “can I sell the apartment if I have to?” But the most pressing point is just how many people will be living more […]
Categories
Making Space For Islam In Catholic Italy
Competing Muslim groups are vying for official recognition from the Italian state — and a share of the country’s “8 per 1,000” taxpayer pie.
BUENOS AIRES — Brian Molina and Maximiliano Fernández, two of Argentina’s emerging rap stars, met in jail. Molina was 11 years old when he wrote his first song. It was May 2005, and he was living at the Borchez de Otamendi home for minors in Buenos Aires. When he performed his song for friends, teachers […]
A campaign to see Buddhism become the country’s official religion has exposed an ugly rift that could have serious consequences for the Muslim minority.
MUNICH — Rick Henderson, a 56-year-old American, took out his mobile phone to show a blurred, 10-second clip from BBC of a young woman in France who is surrounded by men, and is being groped from all sides. “They are like wolves,” said Henderson, a self-defense trainer in Germany, adding that “women should never be […]
A troubling tale of how the European Commision stalled the regulation of potentially cancer causing chemicals
Too many Muslims keep to themselves, speak poor German and pass on their problems to the next generation. They harm themselves and therefore the rest of society.
OCUMARE — It’s midday on this Thursday, and hundreds of people are squeezing inside a supermarket in Ocumare, a poor city about an hour’s drive south of Caracas. Armed police officers are allowing people in, but just a few at a time, infuriating the multitude massed outside since dawn to buy corn flour at a […]
While most Western prisons operate under strict surveillance, the Filipino penitentiary system functions through an unusual combination of prisoner self-management and gang oversight.
Kim Gee-yang is taking on the beauty industry in a country leading the world in cosmetic surgery. “When I was in LA, I was too skinny to do plus size modeling, but in Korea, I am just a fat woman, yeah,” she said.
Kazakhstan-born computer engineer Alexandra Elbakyan is now an international copyright outlaw. Her Sci-Hub website offers free access to millions of academic publications, a direct challenge to the entire publishing and academic establishment.
TURIN — Refugees have come to Italy from all across war-torn Iraq and Syria, from the monasteries of Mosul to the Assyrian villages of the Khabur valley and the Christian churches of the Nineveh plains. Among the millions now languishing in refugee camps are people from all walks of life, including government bureaucrats, university professors, […]
Latin Americans work better with people they know. This dynamic is at the heart of Brazilian samba schools that compete in annual Carnival parades, and may provide solid input for office dynamics and productivity in private companies.