In the wake of two devastating terror attacks, the fight for LGBT rights in a country that still criminalizes homosexuality has become even tougher.
Category: Society
BEIJING — How many certificates or other public documents does a Chinese citizen need through a typical lifetime? A senior official of China’s Communist party recently reckoned the answer is 103. A newborn baby changing residence needs a proof of non-criminality. A Chinese grown man who lists his mother as the emergency contact person on […]
Persistent poverty used to be quietly endured, but protests are rising against a political leadership that long ago lost the trust of the people. Still, it is a long way from Kiev.
MELBOURNE — For nearly an hour the audience sits in silence as Feryal Ali Gauhar paces the stage, delivering a solo performance that spans three continents and tells the story of various women; mothers and daughters, the wealthy elite and domestic maids. All the characters in the play are based on real-life stories and have a common theme of gender-based violence and control at the hands of men. “It’s a very immediate medium,” she later explains. “For most women in the audience it is an experience that is close to them. The debate begins really on the journey home with […]
DENGFENG — When Dominique Saatenang was a young boy back in his native village of Bafou, Cameroon, he was transfixed by Bruce Lee films. “I’ve been fascinated by martial arts since I was 10,” he explains. “My father wanted me to be a soccer player. It’s thanks to kung fu movies and thanks to Bruce […]
After being abducted as a child, Sandra Mora decided to become a police officer. She excelled at her job, but then got kicked off the force after being outed as a lesbian.
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Smoking Bans Get Tougher Around The World
As the largest consumer of tobacco in the world, China stunned everybody when it started imposing a tough smoking ban in Beijing this month. This comes as new smoking bans are being inaugurated in several other countries, particularly in Europe. Some 90 countries around the world now have anti-smoking legislation that just a few years […]
The meditation-driven movement focusing on the present is spreading around the world. In France, mindfulness must battle national tendencies toward cynicism and overthinking everything.
-Analysis- MUNICH — Slaughterhouses and farms are becoming increasingly larger in size. Tracing the origins of an animal has become next to impossible as our sources of meat are increasingly transported across Europe, and the world. This not only affects the animals but inevitably us as well. The schnitzel on your plate was once a […]
With the backing of Pope Francis, himself a lifelong fan, supporters of San Lorenzo are fighting to rebuild in the neighborhood where their original stadium once stood.
SAO PAULO — Cemeteries are rarely considered places of beauty and pleasure. The one in the Sao Paulo neighborhood of Jardim Angela was also grim for another reason, considering that in 1996 the UN ranked it the most violent urban region in the world. But now a part of this graveyard is bringing some smiles […]
We shine the spotlight this week on Iran: IRAN MINISTER: ISIS + USA Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli made an incendiary claim this week during a joint appearance with the Syrian interior minister, connecting ISIS objectives with those of the West. He said that ISIS doesn’t just discredit Islam but also poses a danger […]
The protein-rich algae spirulina is abundant and affordable in the Central African Republic, making it a nutritional alternative to help feed kids in the developing world.
Argentine architect Eduardo Lacroze’s creation turns the ubiquitous supermarket trolley into a portable, private space for people who live on the streets. But it’s not without controversy.
The new series “The Jewish Alley,” set in the early 1950s, is being shown to Egyptian audiences during the Ramadan TV season. Its creator explains why it matters now.
From abortion to euthanasia, chimps’ rights to legal marijuana, here are some bioethical controversies currently making headlines around the world: FRANCE: THE RIGHT TO DIE A video uploaded on the Internet this month has sparked a new controversy in the case of Vincent Lambert, a 38-year-old French man in a neuro-vegetative state since a 2008 […]
NEW ORLEANS — There are still gaping holes left by houses that disappeared forever. There are also the brownish lines, sad reminders of just how high the water level reached on Aug. 29, 2005. And yet 10 years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the song rising from New Orleans is not a melancholy one. […]
Behind the Chinese government’s easy shows of strength is a rising sense of insecurity within the regime.
Getting past the Israeli checkpoints into Palestine is a humiliating experience. Reflections of an Egyptian writer.
Le Temps meets up with Olga Abramenko, head of a human rights organization that Russian authorities have deemed a “foreign agent” and banished from the country.
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TURIN — From the forbidden apple to Esau’s lentils, the Bible offers a divine feast of food-related storytelling. How should Cronus, the Titan who ate his children, be classified? With the cannibals, or among those with gastroesophageal reflux disease? If you want to know how important it is to eat healthy food, consult the Bible. […]
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Egypt’s Wannabe G.I. Janes
A movement championing the right of women to enlist in the military is taking on conservative gender politics, the military status quo and religious doctrine.
We shine the spotlight this week on Italy: MAFIA IN ROME A second wave of corruption arrests has swept the Italian capital, with several local politicians charged with involvement in what has been dubbed Mafia Capitale. According to investigators, a criminal organization headed by a former fascist terrorist with links to the Naples mob collaborated […]
Some film distributors are choosing to release movies directly online without theater screenings. Because of cinema regulations, this new model is forbidden in France — for French movies — but foreign films are another matter.
A murder case in which a Chinese student poisoned and killed his roommate has brought out the worst in the Chinese public, which is practically marching with pitchforks for his execution. Attorneys, meanwhile, are urging that he be spared.
PARIS — Are you bored at work? Do you stare blankly at your screen wondering what to do with the rest of your day? No doubt, you are a victim of “boreout,” which describes persistent boredom and disengagement in your work. What causes this listlessness and how can you solve it? Frédéric Méduin, a physician […]
Medievalist, novelist, and renown public intellectual, Umberto Eco’s most recent novel Numero Zero will be published in English this November. A regular contributor to Italy’s L’Espresso magazine and La Repubblica newspaper, his new work of fiction delves into the truth and lies of the mass media. He spoke with Le Monde. LE MONDE: Do you […]
JERUSALEM — The biggest Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds published a long interview last week with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. The interview is an unusual event in the political landscape of this nationalist Palestinian newspaper that has long spent its ink attacking Israeli policies. In the interview, Barkat lays out details of construction plans for a new […]
Fashion tides are always changing, and as the weather warms, comfort is in for both ladies and gentlemen.
Cuban gays and lesbians once hid from police. But today, with help from the president’s daughter, Mariela Castro, LGBTs in Cuba are fighting for their rights.
There is so much beauty to be found in the preservation of decay.Â
La Stampa takes on big questions in Muslim world with Sunni Islam’s highest authority, who was at a conference in Italy, his first trip to Europe since taking his post in Cairo.
We shine the spotlight this week on Venezuela: PRISONER POLITICS Plenty of glowing foreign press coverage of the arrival in Caracas of former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, who came to support opposition leaders who’ve been jailed by the government of President Nicolás Maduro. But El Correo del Orinoco, a state-owned daily, wrote that the […]
It’s been two decades since the flight of many Kashmiri Hindus after an insurgency targeted them. Now even Kashmir Muslims want them to return.
Despite the devastation, growing demand among foreign couples continues to feed medical tourism in Nepal, where surrogacy agencies recruit women to carry babies for infertile couples.
In this traditionally Catholic province, government authorities are quietly removing the prelates who stayed loyal to the Vatican.
Meet Alondra Metaute, a 38-year-old woman who wants to shake up a sleepy Colombian town.
PARIS — Eternally nostalgic of its past grandeur, France is already dreaming about the prospect out loud: Platini! As an attacking midfielder, he led France to the 1984 European Championship and Italian squad Juventus to club dominance, before turning manager and overseeing the 1998 World Cup organization in France and eventually taking over as head […]