As China faces a glut of graduates with fewer employment opportunites, its education ministry is pushing student entrepreneurship, even if it means dropping out.
Category: Society
Driven by economic necessity or pushed into prostitution after traumatic abuse, sex workers in Egypt lay bare grim realities in a conservative country with little empathy for their plight.
A heartwrenching court case in France poses thorny questions as the very meaning of family evolves more quickly than the legal system, or even the experts, can keep up with.
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The Year In Numbers, 2014
Looking back on 2014, month by month, summing up the news — by the numbers. JANUARY According to a study published in the journal Science, at least 20% of the Neanderthal genome can be found in modern-day Europeans and Asians. Between 1% and 3% percent of human DNA comes from Neanderthals. “Individually, we are a […]
Poles in the United States, Brazil and Britain recount how they’ve tried to adapt to the season in their new homelands. It can be bittersweet, as Polish traditions for them still hold sway.
A charmless pariah city for 20 years, the Serbian capital is finally reclaiming its standing and artistry. Belgrade’s residents are torn between pride in their city and dreams of leaving it.
Though some top executives have learned the art of apologizing, others compound their company’s PR problems by failing to take responsibility. Welcome to the “aquarium!”
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Yes, Mermaiding Is A Thing
Splashed ever more across popular culture, mermaids are now something very real for enchanted girls and women who can don tails and dive in. Some are better at it than others.
A recent study shows overwhelming agreement that it’s unnecessary to offer pre-school children digital training. And nearly all parents agree on strict limits to screen time as kids get older.
Nicknamed the “atheists’ cafe,” police say there was evidence of devil worship at the shop. Twitter users are now mocking Cairo authorities, asking when the war on vampires begins.
GUANGZHOU — It has been three days since Zheng Yuling gave birth. Her breasts are as hard as stone and she is in great pain. She wishes she could breastfeed her baby. But the child is no longer there. And her husband, Chen Dafu, was arrested the day before for the crime of abandoning the […]
Aware of the profound effect Christmas has on people, researchers have studied our reactions to everything from supermarket music to gender-specific gifts and delayed gratification.
The French may never abandon the notion of mealtime as sacred, but it seems they love their crumpets and chips. France is now the second-largest importer for British food products.
In Russia’s capital, environmental protection is victim of manufacturers who don’t want to reform and a government that won’t challenge them. The result is there for all to see…and smell.
RIO DE JANEIRO — The sign outside this modest hair salon in the Rio das Pedras favela, or shantytown, of Rio de Janeiro reads “Belos Fios” (“beautiful hair”). Inside, customers can find Matrix hair color products stacked behind the salon’s two only chairs. This is just one of some 30 small salons, most of them […]
Though the country’s major scouting associations say the practice of “Pflocken,” in which children are tied down, isn’t acceptable, the timeworn practice continues.
Gender, virility, violence and fear: warmaking has long been thought to have a very specific and masculine identity. But a French researcher has shown that it’s not so simple.
SARAQEB — Zaytoun and Zaytouna relies on games, stories and illustrations to make life in Syria’s war zone a bit more bearable for kids. Launched in July 2013, the four-page magazine started as a modest project with a team of three people using a small printer and circulating it to a limited number of children. Today, says magazine director Sumar Kanjo, the team includes over 10 writers and 10 illustrators, and Zaytoun and Zaytouna has become a cultural pillar in Saraqeb and other areas under opposition control. In addition to the paper edition, the magazine is launching a website and […]
Four decades after abortion became legal in France, too often women face moral judgment and physical pain, not to mention unsympathetic health care professionals.
SLUPSK — One of the first things journalists wanted to know after the recent mayoral election in Slupsk, a small city in northern Poland, is what the winner planned to do with the Pope John Paul II portrait hanging in his mayor’s office. Will he remove it? Does he plan to rid the office of religious symbols? Obviously irritated, Mayor-Elect Robert Bierdron fired back with some queries of his own. “What are you even asking me about?” Bierdron responded. “Why don’t you ask me about my plans for Slupsk?” Already known throughout the country as the first openly gay member […]
Despite strong opposition, Egypt has just approved the contruction of coal-fired energy plants that are still years away from operation. Meanwhile, it’s nowhere on harnassing wind and solar energy.
BEIJING — Beginning in January, China will abandon harvesting organs from executed prisoners, and organs needed for transplants will all come from donations, authorities have announced. Many Chinese don’t necessarily understand the profound meaning of this reform. Five years ago, I was personally involved in developing a report entitled, “Where Do Organs Come From?” published […]
A group of young people of all religious backgrounds are living proof of religious tolerance, as they volunteer to clean Jakarta houses of worship, whether they be Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist or Christian.
Categories
The Twisted Legend Of The Italian Lover
Where have you gone, Casanova? A new book surveys the dark side to the myth of the Italian male’s seductive gifts, from ribald ancient Rome to Berlusconi’s bunga bunga. But don’t give up on him yet.
GOMA — Teachers raping their students is tragically all too common in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But in the eastern region of South Kivu, it is a reality that is now finally being confronted, with the establishment of local committees in which parents, education officials and students report and track sexual assaults in […]
One in three people around the world is overweight, and the ratio is growing. “Globesity” investors see that airlines, hospitals, car companies and others must adapt to meet the expanding needs.
-OpEd- BUENOS AIRES — We live in a society in which our pursuit of exponential economic growth is doing systematic and irreversible harm to the environment, challenging territories and threatening the very cycle of life. Increasing social awareness of such risks explains why debates and decisions today that used to be limited to the technical, […]
In a country estimated to spend billions on faith healers and fortune tellers, many Russians opt for alternative medicine over certified doctors.
A farmer from northwest China makes a living scouring the Yellow River to recover dead bodies, most of whom were poor migrants, often women and children. A modern Chinese tragedy.
Colombians seem to worship all things Anglo-American, “Miami-style” most of all. It’s a sign of our own socio-cultural shame and some appalling choices made by past governments.
China has proposed making revisions to the country’s policy of punishing couples who have more than one child. But instead, such population controls should be abolished entirely.
Use of this incredibly addictive drug is growing in Germany, especially among Millennials who say it makes them feel invincible.
MUNICH — Peter Laubach used a tattoo needle for the first time when he was 11 years old. A friend asked him for a sailboat tattoo, offering him four Bavarian meat loaf sandwiches as payment. He earned his friend’s appreciation and a sharp paternal slap for his efforts. Now 60 years old, Laubach is a […]
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My Son Has Committed Unspeakable Crimes
What is it like to be the parent of a “monster?” After their teenaged son confessed to rape and murder in southern France, the parents of Matthieu Moulinas decide to tell their story.
Second only to India in terms of scale, the Philippines’ customer service outsourcing industry in is growing, offering well-educated English speakers willing to work the night shift.
LONDON — In London’s posh Mayfair district on Grafton Street, just around the corner from where international art dealers and high-end jewelry brands are clustered, the adage about not being fooled by appearances rings truer than ever. Here there is a branch store of the contemporary jewelry brand launched by the mining consortium Gemfields. The […]
A heated national debate in Germany over raising the retirement age is posing the wrong questions. A German writer in the U.S. sees a different solution.
The former chief of Israel’s elite intelligence unit addresses a technology conference, waxing on privacy, cyber war and a new generation used to documenting and sharing everything.
BOGOTA — Authorities in Bogota are banning road and building construction across 14 square kilometers (5.4 square miles) in the Colombian capital, in a bid to create the largest urban nature reserve in Latin America. New restrictions will turn a sector of the existing Thomas van der Hammen Reserve into a “biodiversity corridor” spanning Guaymaral, […]
They moved to Israel from Argentina, or are the descendants of those who did. Despite the insecurity and fading hopes of peace, Argentine Israelis refuse to pack their bags in despair.