After hundreds of years of reducing our physical activity with the help of machines, we now find we need to move to remain healthy. A friendly city is one that forces you to walk more.
Category: Society
Germany’s prestigious technical universities have become a magnet for Chinese students. But not all adjust well, while German’s intelligence agency suspect some are spies.
Already more than 7,000 beds, Zhengzhou’s ‘Super Hospital’ now has plans to expand to serve 10,000. Is this the best approach to health care in a booming China?
It’s a rare but hardly new question: what should airline staff do when a passenger dies mid-flight? Legend has it that British Airways used to use the ‘vodka tonic’ approach.
To appease conservatives, Egypt’s government is again targeting the LGBT community, arbitrarily arresting them, conducting anal examinations and jailing them for “debauchery.”
It happened in Buenos Aires, and though the Coca-Cola Company denies axing the trees, it has agreed to plant dozens of new ones.
What’s been catching our eyes, and the world goes by…
LUBHU — How do you celebrate your birthday? By throwing a party and cutting a cake? In Nepal some people plant a tree instead. Making tea at home in her village 11 kilometers outside Kathmandu, Sunita Poudel says, “Forests are everything for us. We are dependent on wood and grass. Some of my neighbors cook with small sticks from the forest — they are very poor and can’t afford gas stoves. I have some cows and goats, so I also need grass from the forest every day.” But due to mismanagement, the forest around the village of Lubhu is in […]
A case in Munich of an outrageously callous landlady prompts the police officer who followed the rape investigation to intervene. But the real estate agent insists the owner is within her rights.
Five Germans, from the former East Germany, who were born on or near reunification 25 years ago, talk about how the past is bound to shape the future.
A new survey asking Russians how they think people abroad view them and their country is overly optimistic, revealing a “warped” sense of reality.
Calais, France along the English Channel has served as a hub for UK-bound illegal migrants for more than a decade. Now Egyptian, Kurdish and Albanese traffickers are fighting for control.
BUENOS AIRES — A bit bored by that class on basic accounting? How about a course instead on money laundering? Or maybe one on how to stop transnational mafia groups? Some Argentine students will soon have access to just that kind of course material because certain universities, concerned about the expansion of organized crime in […]
A New Delhi cab company is only for females, a response to India’s ongoing problems with violence toward women. The benefits are enjoyed by both drivers and passengers.
Bidding farewell to those who died this past month…
But just try brushing your teeth with bamboo.
BEIJING — After a development period of more than 10 years, and with final approval from the China Food and Drug Administration, Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Co. has just launched a generic erectile dysfunction drug based on Viagra, to be sold at half the price. At the press conference for the launch of “Jinge” (literally meaning […]
REGENSBURG — A day in the life of Sister Lydia: 4:45 a.m.: get up. 5:40 a.m.: prayer, 30 minutes. 6:15 a.m.: Divine Office, 30 minutes. 7 a.m.: Holy Mass. 7:45 a.m.: breakfast. 8 to 11 a.m.: work. 11 a.m.: Divine Office, 30 minutes. 11:30 a.m.: Lunch followed by kitchen work and rest. In the afternoon: […]
LEIMBACH — At first glance, nothing distinguishes this apartment building on the outskirts of Zurich from those around it. Located on the upper reaches of a peaceful neighborhood in Leimbach, Switzerland, its sandy-colored walls are surrounded by a wild and vast garden. The tall trees of the Entlisberg Forest, perched on the nearby mountain, cast […]
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A “Green” Car Race In Buenos Aires
BUENOS AIRES — The Argentine capital is scheduled to host its third Eco Challenge car race this Sunday, with 82 “curious” cars demonstrating to the world that environmentally friendly rides aren’t necessarily boring. The cars are designed and built by students of technical colleges from across the country, and many may become prototypes of future […]
An Italian art historian has pieced together a little-known element in the Renaissance master’s portraits and sculptures that he believes may explain Michelangelo’s deepest beliefs.
The idea of today’s neuroscientists and radical secularists that human beings are nothing more than cell matter is not only arrogant, it is a theory that is self-defeating to the core.
Contrary to the West, where obesity rates are higher in poorer, less well-educated areas, China’s overweight youth are from wealthy families. It has been dubbed a “disease of affluence.”
JAIPUR — Having a full-bodied moustache has long been a symbol of masculinity for Indian men and once was also an indicator of caste status. So-called untouchables, excluded from India’s caste system altogether, were not allowed to have a moustache at all, while lower castes had to grow theirs with the ends drooped down. Even now in modern India, there are annual competitions to judge who sports the best facial hair. For the last hour, 61-year-old Ram Singh Chauhan has been massaging his moustache, which is how he spends at least two hours each day. “I use mustard oil, coconut […]
BUENOS AIRES — A Buenos Aires public registry gave new identity papers this week to 10-year-old Mauro, the first Argentine youth born a girl to change his official gender identity to male under a landmark “Gender Identity Law.” Last year, Lulu, a 6-year-old girl, had her sex change made official pursuant to the new 2012 […]
In the hills south of Rome, another kind of “liberation community” is preparing for a very different future.
Known as one of the worst cultures in the world for women, India is nevertheless undergoing a sexual revolution in its increasingly wealthy modern cities.
The words that made news around the world.
It’s been 20 years since the U.S. had troops in the Philippines. With new plans in the works for a Filippino-U.S. base-sharing, much has changed – both locally and geopolitically.
Radical Islamists zero in on young people in the West who are lonely and disaffected by modern life.
DALLAS — Greg Lucas wasn’t feeling at the top of his game. He’d gained weight, and the machines at the gym filled him with apprehension. “Sex wasn’t tops, but that wasn’t the problem,” he says. “I felt tired. I was dragging myself around.” Lucas was then 25 years old. He decided to go and see […]
-OpEd- CAIRO — The record of police violations is extensive, ranging from murder to extortion and illegal bribes. While some claim these are individual incidents and that the situation should not be generalized, tedious accounts of numerous violations reveal the dysfunctional role of police in daily Egyptian life. Within the old structures of authority under […]
Mario Vargas Llosa sits down with Clarin in the Nobel laureate’s home to explore why the hopes at Communism’s fall have been replaced by deep religious hatred and a secular cynicism.
Categories
Why World Hunger Won’t Go Away
Two new books and a docudrama ask hard questions about how so many can still go hungry in a world of technological advancement and economic growth.
A Turkish immigrant playwright in Germany explores the meaning and theater of a religious rite that divides modern society.
LIMA — When Dolores Guzman was contacted by investigators, it became clear to her that all of her efforts over the past 30 years to overcome the deaths of her family and fellow townspeople had been futile. She agreed to leave the Lima street stand where she sells hard-boiled eggs and return to Paccha — […]
Some 70% of prisoners in India’s jails are still awaiting trials, or verdicts of trials long passed. In some cases the wait goes on for decades. For around 100,000 prisoners, the wait may end.
In the late 1990s, a group of Russian physicists settled on the Greek island of Gavdos. With the idea that they can program themselves not to die, they believe themselves immortal.
German wildlife authorities worry about the rapid spread of contagious diseases along the North Sea, especially since seals lie so close to one another when they rest on sand banks.
BEIJING — According to Beijing Youth Daily, soap made from breast milk is one of China’s latest fads. Just type in “breast milk soap” on Taobao, China’s biggest e-commerce site, and 88 pages of breast milk-related products are in display. Apart from those selling soaps made with the breast milk of new mothers — at […]