“It’s not every day we get to paint a roof in Midtown,” said Special Projects Manager for the New York City Service Wendy Dessy to a group of volunteers assembled in the basement of the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center. As she distributed buckets filled with paintbrushes and gloves, an audible hum of [...]

“If I die, post these to my Facebook,” Moustafa Salah, age 22, said half-jokingly as I photographed him in a fifth-story apartment one block from Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. He and four friends prepared for their return to the battle being waged below between Egypt’s Central Security Forces (CSF) and unarmed protesters, which has [...]

Many are calling it the unfinished revolution. They would not be entirely wrong. In any case, the defiant spirit of Tahrir, now legendary throughout the world, has returned. This Sunday, tens of thousands of supporters returned to the birthplace of the revolution, Tahrir Square to demand that the transitional Supreme Council of the Armed Forces [...]

Photo of smog over Cairo, by Strum58 at en.wikipedia. By Conal Darcy Cairo’s “black cloud,” an annual toxic haze of smoke, fog, and air pollution which hangs above the city and its surrounding governates for up to two months, will return this fall, according to environmental scientists. Opinions are split, however, on whether the seasonal [...]

Cartoon by Carlos Latuff On the evening of Sunday October 9th, clashes between protestors and the Egyptian army left at least 36 dead and over 300 injured, according to Egypt’s health ministry. Earlier Sunday, approximately 200 marched from Shuobra, a large neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, toward downtown Cairo. Although there are variant [...]

According to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation, almost 80% of Americans currently live in a municipality that bans smoking in the workplace, local bars, restaurants, and other public and private spaces. The smoking ban campaign aims to address health concerns associated with cigarettes by achieving cleaner indoor air. Some cities, like Belmont, California, have even [...]

For the first time in modern history, women will have the right to vote in Saudi Arabia. This development was announced in a speech on state television yesterday by Saudi ruler, King Abdullah. Women will also be permitted to run for office in municipal elections, King Abdullah said. “We refuse to marginalize the role of [...]

In April 2010 Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the New START nuclear arms control treaty. The treaty, ratified and entered into force this past February, reduced both countries’ levels of deployed nuclear weapons to numbers not seen since the 1950s. However, American support for the treaty was not universal – despite endorsements [...]

Many in Indian Country are painfully aware of the circus performance that is this summer’s Principal Chief election for the largest federally recognized tribe in the U.S., the Cherokee Nation. This election season; however, has brought to the surface a plethora of social and economic issues from same-sex marriage, health care, citizenship of the descendants [...]

by Adam Pourahmadi WASHINGTON – Qatar’s independent foreign policy is proving to be a formidable response to the changing geopolitical dynamics of the Arab Spring’s Middle East. A new cadre of diplomatic cables released by the whistle-blowing site Wikileaks reveals the shrewd policies of Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. The ability of this small [...]