A feet-up mini manifesto deploring the modern (and very public) obsession with the sport of running. I’ll walk, thank you…
Categories
Runners Of The World, Get Lost!
Category: Society
-Analysis- PARIS — The Nov. 13 attacks that saw jihadists slaughter at least 129 people in Paris raise two crucial questions: Who ordered these attacks? And who carried them out? The answer to the first is ISIS, the so-called Islamic State that spreads terror, slaughters Muslims and non-Muslims, destroys treasured monuments inherited from centuries and […]
The power of “Big Tobacco” in a state-run industry in China is surprisingly similar to the hold that U.S. cigarette makers long enjoyed. Indeed, Chinese anti-smoking advocates are decades behind Western counterparts.
Most of the many thousands of sex workers in Thailand walk the streets looking for clients. But one group of women wanted a safe home base, so they opened a bar where they can entertain clients.
SÃO PAULO — She has an automatic SUV; he has a normal five-speed sedan. She drives to make a bit of money on the side; he does it for a living, 12 hours a day. She’s an Uber driver; he’s an old-fashioned cabbie. As such, they stand on opposite sides of what has been a […]
CAIRO — A third of Cairo’s residents walk, cycle or use carts as their primary means of transportation, while in Egypt’s provincial cities, such as Shibin al-Kom in Monufiya, more than half the population is motor-free. The state, however, insists on fighting users of non-mechanized vehicles, especially donkey carts. Most governors have tried to ban […]
The increasing “unreliability” of voters in a digital age are consistently knocking polling experts off their mark.
TOKYO — At September’s annual RunGirl Night, one 35-year-old exercise enthusiast prepared for the evening group run by applying lipstick, foundation and eye shadow. “I would feel extremely self-conscious if I was around so many other people without makeup on,” she said. “After crossing the finish line, I want to look good in group photos, […]
Like cases reported in India, Afghanistan and some Middle Eastern countries, gender-based violence that leads to mutilation and disfiguration is also a brutal reality in Brazil.
Average age: 65. The one immigrant family in town had a baby girl, the first birth in a decade — and they’re already making plans to leave.
Thousands of Chinese are moving to Laos to benefit from an expatriation bonus. But their mass use of pesticides on banana plantations has created a serious health issue, and displacement of locals has fomented anti-Chinese sentiment.
Categories
Congolese Women, Freedom Through Literacy
BRAZZAVILLE — It was only when she realized she’d handed her husband a letter written by his mistress that Alphonsine decided to act. Facing such heartbreak and humiliation, this 54-year-old housewife and mother of seven, decided to join a basic literacy class in the Congolese capital of Brazzaville. Like Alphonsine, many illiterate women have started […]
The good news, according to this German study? Actual psychopaths rarely make it to the top …
Alternate-side parking, illogical signage, unspoken rules, clueless New Jersey visitors. Everything in New York has its own rules and language. Even parking your car.
Bathroom breaks and oxygen tanks mix with kilos of cocaine and money laundering: The “papy connection” trial of aging ex-cons unfolded in a Marseille courtroom.
The pontiff’s visit to Tuscany brings him to the historic textile town of Prato, where Chinese workers have flocked to toil in what are often very inhuman circumstances. These are the faithful Francis wishes to see.
Orthorexia is to eating right what anorexia is to eating less. It’s the condition of imposing such stringent control over one’s diet, insisting on eating only healthy or organic food, and it is becoming a health concern in developed nation
A century from now, the global population will finally begin to decline. But before that, the world must deal with the waste created by an exploding overpopulation: How do we hold on until then?
Because of overscreening and the diagnosis of contrived or harmless ills, the so-called nocebo effect is wreaking havoc on otherwise healthy people.
Muslim guests at celebrations will no longer have to stand around with a Coke in their hands. For Munich’s Four Seasons Hotel, a local company has produced the first-ever non-alcoholic sparkling wine made in accordance with Islamic law.
In our dreams, it’s a world of joyful sharing. In reality, Internet commenters often offer little more than cheap shots and manipulation. Researcher Joseph Reagle explores the history and degeneration of online invective.
Among the puzzles researchers hope to solve is whether Tutankhamun’s tomb has hidden openings to the burial site of Queen Nefertiti, whose remains have never been found.
Climate change, pollution, terrorism. Teenagers are increasingly scared of what’s ahead, and why wouldn’t they be? While a certain amount of fear is normal, psychologists advise teens to get help when anxiety takes over.
Though homophobia is not itself a mental illness, a new study finds that people who are prejudiced against gays and lesbians often do have mental disorders. But it’s unclear what we’re supposed to do with this insight.
ALEPPO — Like many boys his age, Muhammad loves to draw. Already known for his artistic talents in his hometown of Aleppo, the largest and probably hardest-hit city in Syria, the 14-year-old boy now has something to show the world. When the armed conflict intensified in Aleppo in 2012, Muhammad, then a sixth-grader, was forced to quit school. After the Syrian government began to bomb his neighborhood in the city’s Salah al-Din district, Muhammad and his family moved into the cramped student dorms of Aleppo University. Seven months later they were able to return home, but unfortunately for children like […]
BOGOTÁ — In a kind of eerie, Darwinian evolution, abandoned pets in parts of Colombia have become feral beasts and predators that are proving more fearsome than wild animals. Once again, wildlife is proving defenseless in the face of yet another man-made threat, produced in this case by former owners of an unwanted dog or […]
When the landfill servicing Beirut closed, so did the garbage collection. Now the suburbs have been left quite literally holding the bag, and government solutions aren’t coming.
In Brazil, law enforcement officers boast on social network sites about committing violence against suspects, and show off the results for all to see.
Patients versus doctors, electors versus parties and disappointed refugee aid response. The Internet may actually widen the gap between citizens and modern democratic institutions.
PYONGYANG — In the Beijing airport, as I was preparing to fly to North Korea, you could practically smell the communism. Traders were checking large, beat-up bags of household items. A family was buying a large appliance in the duty-free shop. The North Koreans were easily identifiable: They were required to wear buttons with portraits […]
Ten years after the 2005 French riots, the anxious image of the country’s banlieues has changed. The fear is no longer about hooded youths armed with Molotov cocktails, but instead the suspected radical Islamist.
BEIJING — Throughout the world, people eat in one of three ways: with a knife and fork, with chopsticks, or with their hands. Though the knife-and-fork folk seem to be the most powerful and widespread group, those who use chopsticks most clearly reflects human wisdom when they eat. Nobody is sure when chopsticks were invented, […]
NEW DELHI — Five months ago, Devanish Meena, a young Indian man from New Delhi, eloped with his longtime girlfriend. Now he is a widower. Adding to Devanish’s anquish is his belief that the young bride, Pratibha Gujar, was murdered — by her own family. In India, approximtely 1,000 young people are murdered each year in name of saving a family’s honor. The “honor killings,” as they’re known, are often committed when a forced or arranged marriage is rejected. Pratibha’s death seems to fit the profile. The young woman’s relationship with Devanish was very much opposed by her family. And […]
SENDAI — Alcoholism and related problems are becoming serious in the three Tohoku prefectures severely affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011. The deaths of loved ones or the stress of a prolonged life as evacuees have led to increased alcohol consumption, and some are newly diagnosed as alcoholics even 4 1/2 […]
Gustavo Petro, the former Marxist guerrilla who became Bogotá’s mayor for the poor, has left the Colombian capital a wreck. But he’s on the way in favor of a newly elected leader voters hope will put the city back on track.
A new study finds that fathers who take more than two months of parental leave for the birth of a child see a sharp decrease in promotion opportunities and are often asked to go part-time, a scenario all too familiar to women.
Aspiring writers who don’t have an inside track welcome the online publisher’s latest advances, such as awarding independent authors, but defenders of traditional publishing say it’s all a scam to destroy the publishing system and
Representatives and victims in the Congo are pushing back on ancient traditions that render women without rights after the deaths of their husbands, even prohibiting them from eating or drinking when they want.
Categories
Why Boredom Is Good For Your Kids
MUNICH — To be a parent is to be a victim. That’s at least the message some parents convey. Yes, of course children are wonderful and sweet and all that jazz. But let’s be honest, aren’t some of the things children say just annoying? “I don’t liiike it.” “I don’t waaant to.” “Are we theeere […]
TEL AVIV— The recent wave of violence and Mahmoud Abbas’ threats to dismantle the Palestinian Authority could represent not just a security emergency for Israel, but also an economic nightmare. More than 1,000 factories in the West Bank rely solely on the manpower of Palestinian workers. And they’re just a small part of the financial […]