NDTV: Mansour al-Amer swipes a card to reveal a narrow sleep pod, reminiscent of Japan’s famed capsule hotels. But this pod is in Saudi Arabia, where the Muslim hajj pilgrimage begins Sunday. The kingdom has plans to introduce capsule rooms in the western city of Mina in the coming days, as an estimated two million…
New Straits Times: Mexican authorities said Friday they found 122 sea turtles dead on a beach in the southern state of Chiapas, mostly from an endangered species. The cause of death was not immediately clear, though around 10 percent of the turtles had wounds to the head or shell and showed signs of injuries from…
CNN: Images of a whale hunt in the Faroe Islands 200 miles north of Scotland have sparked renewed anger from conservationists and animal activists. The pictures show dozens of whales being herded into a bay where they are killed, the sea turning red with their blood. The hunt took place in the bay of Sandavágur…
The Japan Times: Visitors were flocking to the Huntington Library in Southern California on Friday to get a whiff of a so-called corpse flower, known for the rotten stench it releases when it blooms. The flower, nicknamed “Stink,” began blooming unexpectedly on Thursday night, Huntington spokeswoman Lisa Blackburn said. “We thought we had a few…
Tech Explorist: Scientists at the University of Hong Kong and Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan and Northwestern University in the U.S. come in collaboration and establish a new hypothesis where they explained how some stellar-mass black holes can grow bigger than others. Since the underlying discovery of gravitational waves three years…
Arab News: The leader of the Taliban says there will be no peace in Afghanistan as long as the foreign “occupation” continues, reiterating the group’s position that the 17-year war can only be brought to an end through direct talks with the United States. In a message released Saturday in honor of the Eid Al-Adha…
Jonathan Freedland, Guardian columnist/The Guardian, UK More than 18 months into his presidency, Donald Trump’s modus operandi – and the danger it represents – is clear. His working method is that of the mafia boss and gangland chieftain, daily wielding his power to settle scores, teach lessons and crush dissent. Anyone who’s seen The Sopranos…
Nicholas Farrell, Journalist, columnist and specialist on Italy/Gulf News Italians will see it as a metaphor for the rottenness at the heart of the Italian state and of the Italian establishment. For behind the tragedy of the collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa this week is a terrible truth. Hundreds, if not thousands of…
M Humayun Kabir: For-eign Minister AH Mahmood Ali attended the funeral of former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee yesterday. Vajpayee’s funeral was held at 4pm with state honors in New Delhi, BJP leaders told media in New Delhi, reports UNB. The Foreign Ministry said the government of Bangladesh is deeply shocked at the sudden…
Reuters: Riyazul Islam says he had to produce family documents going back to 1951 to prove he was an Indian and not an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant. But a draft list of citizens released in July excluded him and his mother, among a total of about 4 million people left off. A wiry 33-year-old living in…