What a surprise to find a lady of such a demure stature with a powerhouse voice – an opera singer with a voice par excellence. She entertained me with a practice session of her scales and let me tell you, neither a jackhammer nor a revving motorbike can pierce your ears like she can. The lady I speak of, is ...

REPORTED BY KALAHAN DENG The US Department of Justice has defended President Donald Trump’s travel ban and urged an appeals court to reinstate it in the interests of national security. A 15-page brief argued it was a “lawful exercise of the president’s authority” and not a ban on Muslims. The executive order temporarily banned entry from all refugees and visitors ...

REPORTED BY KALAHAN DENG Humans spend less time monkeying around as they get older, and according to a study published Thursday, so do monkeys. As anyone who has ever hung out with a grandparent, observed a retiring parent, or grown old themselves may know, many people get pickier with age. Some go to the same restaurants on the same days ...

REPORTED BY KALAHAN DENG Primates are unquestionably clever: Monkeys can learn how to use money, and chimpanzees have a knack for game theory. But no one has ever taught a nonhuman primate to say “hello.” Scientists have long been intrigued by the failure of primates to talk like us. Understanding the reasons may offer clues to how our own ancestors ...

A civil war with a touch of humour and romance By Zeina Issa   Beirut Adrenaline opened this last Thursday, 28th of July at The Belvoir St Theatre. Originally written in French by playwrights Hala Ghosn and Jalie Barcilon, it is now showing for the first time in English, after it had received rave reviews in both France and Lebanon. Directed ...

EDITED BY KALAHAN DENG Activist Maria-Teresa “Tess” Asplund, 42, stood alone in confronting several hundred neo-Nazi marchers in Sweden, her fist firmly raised in protest. Asplund’s defiant act only lasted for a couple of seconds — just enough for Swedish photographer David Lagerlöf to capture the image. But Lagerlöf’s photo, which he posted to Twitter, has rocketed around the Internet ...

Shane Watson will captain Australia in the third Twenty20 international against India at the SCG on Sunday. Watson will take on the Twenty20 captaincy in the wake of Aaron Finch’s hamstring injury, which he picked up during Australia’s 27-run loss to India at the MCG on Friday. “It is an honour to be asked to lead the side on Sunday, ...

The prime minister is understood to be seriously considering plans to welcome 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children to the UK within the next few weeks. It comes as the development secretary Justine Greening confirmed the government is looking at what more it can do to help children “across the coming days and weeks”. David Cameron is thought to be looking at ...

Palestinian protesters flocked to Downtown Beirut Friday to reaffirm their staunch rejection of what they consider a decision by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency to “gradually abandon” them.

  by/ Dr. Theodore Karasik   The opening of the New Suez Canal represents a real achievement for Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. The 193-kilometer long waterway took only one year to refurbish and is the biggest expansion of the original Suez Canal that first opened in 1869. It is important to note that the second canal, which is actually a new ...