More than three years since the Jan. 25 revolution, and with much having returned to the past, signs are everywhere of a shell-shocked nation. Analysis of an Egyptian psychiatrist.
Category: Society
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Is Bigger Beautiful? The Rise Of XXL Art
Wider, higher, heavier: A taste for oversized art is spreading around the world, among artists, collectors and the public (at large).
Twelve years after the deadly Bali terror bombing, whose suspects were executed, Indonesia struggles with the implications and efficacity of capital punishment.
-OpEd- BEIJING — There has been a recent spate of Chinese celebrities, including Jaycee Chan, son of the Hong Kong martial arts film star Jackie Chan, detained on drug charges. Others in the entertainment business have been accused or frequenting prostitutes. Last week, China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) issued a formal […]
A full 25 years after the fall of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, the brutal commandant of a labor camp for political prisoners is finally being tried for alleged atrocities.
TEL AVIV — An Israeli company says it has developed an easy and accurate new method for detecting breast cancer. The technique, developed by the company Eventus Diagnostics, involves a simple blood test measuring how the body’s immune system reacts to the presence of a cancer tumor. Eventus Diagnostics, located near Jerusalem in Moshav Ora […]
Leftist movements in the Arab World are divided and marginalized, even after leading the region’s democracy uprisings. In Tunis, Arab leftists got together to try to reverse course.
VENICE — The delicate balance between preserving the beauty of a place and allowing a fruitful tourist business is particularly tricky when it comes to the question of cruise ships in Venice. The Italian government has announced that beginning in 2015, large cruise ships (those weighing more than 96,000 tons) will be banned from St. […]
PARIS — With all due respect to the Cassandras of national decline and lovers of French bashing — the cherished pastime of denigrating all things French at every turn — Patrick Modiano’s Nobel Prize for Literature win is excellent news. Lovers of French literature will be the first to rejoice, but the prize is also […]
German officials confirm that contraband cigarettes laced with Strontium 90, which is used in nuclear weapons, were intercepted at a Warsaw airport in June. Was it a personal attack?
One of Spain’s richest women is up against banks insisting she pay back her debts. How did the heiress to the Koplowitz construction dynasty come to this?
It shares many of its objectives with the al Qaeda global terror network, but ISIS understands the value of going viral in a whole new way.
New research in Germany shows that something triggers after decades of adulthood controls. And no, it’s not retirement or grandparenthood that explains the changes.
CESAR — Without saying a word, which none would have understood anyway, Guneymaku Chaparro, an Arhuaca Mamo or spiritual leader, and Tenzin Priyadarshi, a monk and disciple of the Dalai Lama, took each other’s hands and lightly put their heads together to say good-bye. It was the end of a meeting that the northern Colombia […]
Last month’s optimistic reports of declining poverty rates in Colombia are a world away from reality.
Since the Egyptian government cut fuel subsidies earlier this year, the cost of fuel has hit working Egyptians where it hurts. Carpooling and even bus-pooling are gaining steam.
They want to expel “non-European” immigrants and expound ugly racial theories. A reporter sits in at the controversial international gathering even the Hungarian government tried to ban.
Plans for a new, 80,000-seat stadium to host to 2020 Tokyo Games has been met with fierce criticism from prominent Japanese architects – on both aesthetic and ecological grounds.
Latin Americans who find the gym tedious are discovering that their own homegrown dances are a way to stay fit with a smile on your face.
After monks went on a hunger strike to push for a citywide ban on animal slaughter, the local government declared Palitana a meat-free zone. But the city’s Muslims are not happy.
At 1,000 rooms and a $350 million pricetag, the vast new palace the Turkish president has had built for himself is both illegal and a bold expression of his own power and that of the “new Turkey.”
MECCA – Muslims from around the world are heading towards this Saudi Arabian city for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, the fifth pillar of Islam, which began this week. The five-day journey is the opportunity of a lifetime for many, and a most sacred moment of faith. Our digitally connected world also means it’s a moment […]
At Munich’s Oktoberfest, an hour-by-hour account of the emergencies, medical and otherwise, when all the beer-drinking and dirndl-chasing go too far. (Note: Watch out for the Aussies.)
The best-selling Argentine therapist pens a new book meant to help modern generations find a simpler path and, along the way, harmony and happiness. Self-help with a Latin twist.
Bidding farewell this past month to several men and women who left their marks around the world…
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What Brazil Owes Its Indigenous Aikewara
A Brazilian Justice Ministry committee has officially apologized and offered reparations to the Aikewara, decimated in the early 1970s by army soldiers. But one more step is still needed.
Omar Abdel Maqsoud and his brothers were arrested for no apparent reason five months ago. Though a court ordered their release, they’ve simply vanished. Their case is hardly unique.
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Video Piracy In Russia, An Endless Saga
MOSCOW — At the beginning of the 1990s, no one was talking about fighting copyright piracy. It was a wild time, and the government in Moscow had more urgent things to think about as the Soviet Union was unraveling. Back then, amateur thieves didn’t think twice about slipping into an apartment — or even a […]
SEOUL – Alongside the highway that runs from Seoul to the barbed wire fences of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) there is an all but forgotten cemetery. For one South Korean Buddhist monk, this is a truly sacred site. Muk-gai chants — this is meant to ease the suffering of the spirits that inhabit this graveyard. With his shaved head and grey tunic, he taps on a small drum as he walks past the headstones that dot this hillside. These graves belong to 769 North Korean soldiers. The 58-year-old monk says he doesn’t consider them as enemies. “It isn’t about sympathy […]
In Colombia, a recent case of censorship – since reversed – shines a light on the role of art in a society that has all the signs of freedom. And yet….
Spring, also known as the season of love, has arrived in South America. Experts point to “slow sex” and natural toys to help heat things up in the bedroom.
SURAT — It’s no longer a question of time. The city of Surat, on the western coast of India, will soon face flooding that could trigger outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever, and rising temperatures that could force companies to relocate their factories. Its 4.5 million residents are already preparing for the disasters triggered by […]
With its racist ideology and its customs from another era, the KKK is still poisoning the minds of children and wreaking havoc. The movement aspires to create a “new white America.”
MYITKYINA — For the first time in 40 years, ethnic languages are going to be taught in schools in Burma, also known as Myanmar. Starting next June, students from different ethnic communities will be able learn their mother tongue not only at home, but also in the classroom. When the military junta led by General Ne Win came to power in 1962, Burmese became the official national language, and teaching ethnic languages in schools was banned under the “national language policy.” In the outskirts of Myitkyina, in the northern state of Kachin, there is a summer school where children are […]
With the arrest of former Polish Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, the Pope is showing that he will crack down on child sex abuse in his Church by ending any protection of criminals.
In Peru, for example, keep your eye on the *Chopers.
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Mini Architecture, A Gigantic Challenge
Making the most of the conditions and restrictions of size, shape and place is the essence of the architectural pursuit.
SAO PAULO – Nearly 3,000 years after King Solomon built the first Holy Temple in Jerusalem, Bishop Edir Macedo has inaugurated his own replica in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Drawing on Biblical depictions of the temple and archaeological findings, an extraordinarily elaborate shrine has come to life. It’s $300 million, a 74,000-square-meter building on 40 plots […]
The Irish War of Independence, prohibition and World War II nearly wiped out the Irish whiskey industry, but now the brew is making a formidable comeback on the shamrock island.