Exotic ices flow across Pluto’s surface, and its reddish color appears to come from a thin haze, the latest report from the New Horizons spacecraft reveals. The new finds have set scientists scrambling to construct the story of how Pluto’s climate and weather work. A stunning image of the dwarf planet in silhouette, released July 24, reveals a layer of ...

Vic Alhadeff The Weekend Australian   25 July 2015 There’s a phenomenon afoot called casual racism. Seemingly less malevolent than intentional racism, it’s a careless and often subliminal form of abuse whose danger lies in the fact it normalises prejudice, perpetuates stereotypes and gives licence to bigotry. It is evident in offhand remarks, social media and pointed jokes, invariably on the ...

As promised, a Syrian rebel militia leader fired a wave of rockets and mortar bombs at DamascusSunday. By the late afternoon, Zahran Alloush, the head of the Islam Army, announced that he was suspending until further notice his attempt to impose a daytime “curfew” on Damascus residents. In the end, seven people in the capital were killed in the barrage, ...

“I think that human beings lock birds in cages because they themselves are incapable of flying” – Unknown Mirella Salame is a young Lebanese artist whom I met last Sunday at MACAM, Modern and Contemporary Art Museum. She is a participant in the Age of Wood sculpting competition. Her performative installation is titled freedom and freedom. “The title revolves around ...

Natalie O’Brien A letter written by a Lakemba sheikh stating that Sydney mother Mahassen Issa was still married under religious law was the catalyst for her being charged with adultery and bigamy while holidaying in Lebanon with her new partner. The letter from the Islamic Centre’s Dawah and Fatwah office in Wangee Road, dated June 30, 2014, and signed  by Sheikh ...

By Naomi Tsvirko Bombs in Gaza, a civilian plane goes down in what Russia and Ukraine deem a warzone and in Mosul, Iraq, Christians are experiencing the wrath of Islamic extremism. Welcome to the world you live in. While the western media continues to fight for the secular ‘free world,’ Middle Eastern media outlets place religion at the forefront of ...

Natalie O’Brien A former British justice minister has warned countries such as Australia and Britain not to be too heavy-handed with young people wanting to go and fight in Syria because they risked radicalising them. Shahid Malik, who was also the home office minister with responsibilities for preventing extremism in Britain in the wake of the 2007 London bombings, said ...

By: Natalie O’Brien She still lives with daily death threats even after surviving a car bomb attack which blew off her left leg and her left arm. The outspoken Lebanese journalist and political commentator May Chidiac has refused to let the assassination attempt and subsequent dangers stop her telling her country’s story to the world. But Dr Chidiac, who is ...