In The News

Veil Ban: Why Syria Joins Europe in Barring the Niqab

Kristen Chick July 27, 2010
Banning styles or behavior can backfire with teens and young adults, particularly when the young are confident about holding the higher moral ground. In an effort to preserve its secular culture, Syria is banning university students and teachers from wearing the niqab, or full-face veil. Syria is home to many religious sects, and officials view secular policies as the best approach for protecting...

Hollywood on the Danube

Dan Bilefsky July 19, 2010
Setting is an essential tool for movies to work their magic – and economic hard times require directors to innovate, finding inexpensive locales to stand in for high-cost cities already overrun with tourists. Besides having its own long tradition in producing filmmakers, Budapest offers low-cost, non-union crews and European allure, reports Dan Bilefsky for the New York Times. So the city, with...

Egyptian Group Wants to Censor Arabic Classic

Amro Hassan , Jeffrey Fleishman July 14, 2010
The collection of folktales known in English as “The Arabian Nights” are a classic work of globalization. For centuries, starting with the 9th, multiple storytellers traveled, spinning and elaborating the tales with themes and settings spanning ancient Mesopotamia, India, medieval Persia and Egypt. Arabic translators preserved the tales into book format, which later influenced modern writers of...

Population Explosion Scrutinized

Steve Connor July 14, 2010
Researchers increasingly link population with global problems like climate change and declining resources as basic as fresh water, and the UK national academy of science will launch a study on what others regard as an overused term and needless concern. Fertility rates in most nations are falling, but the planet’s population is estimated to grow from 6.8 billion to more than 9 billion by 2050 –...

What Big Eyes You Have, Dear, But Are Those Contacts Risky?

Catherine Saint Louis July 7, 2010
With the help of popular comics in Japan and a global star like Lady Gaga, a fashion for giant eyes has sped around the globe – catching some eye doctors and health regulators off guard. In the US, teens forgo prescriptions and go online to purchase contact lenses, imported from Asia, that extend beyond the human iris. The lenses have become standard for Japanese, Korean and Singapore women who...

Why Are 53 Countries Rooting for Ghana?

Dayo Olopade July 1, 2010
With one team remaining from Africa in this year’s World Cup, the Ghanians garner widespread support across the continent. While boundaries and internal conflict might make this unity inexplicable, some describe Ghana’s success as another side to the tired, old story of dysfunction in Africa. Furthermore, the “One Africa” narrative has proven extremely lucrative, with respect to promotions by...

Our Vuvuzelas, Ourselves

Anne Applebaum June 30, 2010
Crowd noise is nothing new at soccer matches. And the same goes for the long trumpet-like plastic instrument South African soccer fans call “vuvuzela.” Yet the horn’s indiscriminate – indeed, overwhelming – use at World Cup matches sparked controversy: Even as some Germans want to ban the “mood killer” and French TV viewers can digitally filter out the “stadium tinnitus,” Chinese distributors...