Venice film festival off to shaky start
VENICE: The 65th Venice film festival has produced no standouts since it opened on Wednesday, with reactions to the first crop among the 21 movies vying for the Golden Lion…
A KHAWAGA'S TALE: A foreigner's guide to Ramadan
Ramadan Kareem is what foreigners need to learn to say today and during the rest of Ramadan, allowing the greeting to roll off the tongue morning, noon and night, especially…
Italy museum defies pope anger over crucified frog
ROME: An art museum in northern Italy said it will continue displaying a sculpture portraying a green frog nailed to a cross that has angered Pope Benedict XVI and local…
Ancient Quran sparks ownership row in Bangladesh
DHAKA: A 400-year-old handwritten copy of the Quran complete with gold punctuation marks is at the center of an ownership row in the southern Bangladeshi port city of Chittagong, police…
The WHO's sick manifesto for global recession
The World Health Organization claimed this week that "social injustice is killing people on a grand scale. Its major report on the "Social Determinants of Health concludes that social and…
The wolf that ate Georgia
FLORENCE: In Phaedrus's well-known fable of the wolf and the lamb, the wolf easily could have eaten the lamb without a word, but prefers to set out his "reasons. First,…
Veiled sexuality
NEW YORK: A woman swathed in black to her ankles, wearing a headscarf or a full chador, walks down a European or North American street, surrounded by other women in…
Early Ramadan shifts vacation map
CAIRO: Since water sports are not generally included on the Holy Month's roster of activities, the remaining highlights of the summer season seem to be shifting back to Cairo which…
Teachers continue protest against 'humiliating' exams
CAIRO: Teachers held a second protest Saturday calling on the Ministry of Education to scrap assessment exams which determine whether teachers receive pay increases or not.The exams were held over…
32 factory workers sacked after protesting dismissal of colleague, bad pay
CAIRO: Thirty-two factory workers have been arbitrarily dismissed from their jobs after protesting both the dismissal of a colleague and the failure of their employers to provide pay raises to…