Book Review: A descent into an abyss of darkness, dreams and forgotten pasts

Author:  Wed, 2018-08-01 02:18 Ahmed Bouanani’s complex but provocative novel The Hospital does not serve the living but the dead. When not being treated, patients wander the halls, interact, and attempt to navigate the expanse of the hospital while Bouanani’s nameless narrator writes down all he sees. Eventually, the line between their realities and nightmares fade, and the hospital gate disappears, making it a prison they...

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Former French first lady enthralls at Beirut’s Beiteddine festival

Author:  Wed, 2018-08-01 01:19 JEDDAH: Singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the former French first lady, wowed the Beiteddine Art Festival near Beirut, Lebanon, in a concert on Monday. Carla performed songs from her fifth album, “French Touch,” to a crowd including  Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, former Lebanese president Michel Suleiman and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is her husband. On Tuesday, the singer-songwriter...

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What We Are Reading Today: Sophocles: A Study of His Theater in Its Political and Social Context

Author:  Tue, 2018-07-31 23:06 Here, for the first time in English, is celebrated French classicist Jacques Jouanna’s magisterial account of the life and work of Sophocles. Exhaustive and authoritative, this acclaimed book, translated to English by Steven Rendall, combines biography and detailed studies of Sophocles’ plays, all set in the rich context of classical Greek tragedy and the political, social, religious, and cultural...

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Bruni enthralls at Lebanon’s Beiteddine festival

Author:  Arab News ID:  1533047802167269700 Tue, 2018-07-31 17:36 JEDDAH: Singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the former French First Lady, wowed the Beiteddine Art Festival near Beirut, Lebanon, in a concert on Monday. Carla performed songs from her fifth album, “French Touch,” to a crowd including Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, former Lebanese president Michel Suleiman and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is her...

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Australian hotelier Meriton fined $2.2 million for manipulating TripAdvisor ratings

Author:  Reuters ID:  1533007813595086400 Tue, 2018-07-31 03:06 SYDNEY: The Australian hotel operator owned by billionaire Harry Triguboff was fined A$3 million ($2.2 million) on Tuesday for misleading customers, after it withheld unhappy guests’ details from travel site TripAdvisor to avoid bad reviews. Between November 2014 and October 2015, Meriton Serviced Apartments falsified or held back the contact details of customers...

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Chile’s rock art llamas divulge secrets of ancient desert culture

Author:  AFP ID:  1533007744635084500 Tue, 2018-07-31 03:25 ATACAMA, Chile: Open air rock paintings in the world’s driest desert pay testament to the importance of the llama to millennia-old cultures that traversed the inhospitable terrain. Conservationists working in Chile’s Atacama Desert want UNESCO to recognize the Taira Valley drawings as a heritage site so they can develop sustainable tourism in the region. Taira is...

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Indonesia’s Smart Hajj app makes pilgrimage easier

Author:  Mon, 2018-07-30 22:40 JAKARTA: Tech-conscious Indonesian pilgrims this year can count on their smartphones to make the pilgrimage easier by using the updated Smart Hajj application launched by the Ministry of Religious Affairs.  Available only to Android smartphone users since 2016, the app is available on Google Play Store and has been updated from its earlier version with more features on its menu. “We have added...

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What We Are Doing Today: Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves by Kirk Savage

Mon, 2018-07-30 21:30 Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves explores how the history of slavery and its violent end was told in public spaces — specifically in the sculptural monuments that came to dominate streets, parks, and town squares in 19th-century America.  Looking at monuments built and unbuilt, author Kirk Savage shows how the greatest era of monument building in American history took place amid struggles over race, gender, and...

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Hairdressing school gives Syrian refugees in Lebanon dream of independence

Author:  Reuters ID:  1532956660230569000 Mon, 2018-07-30 12:30 BAR ELIAS: As a Syrian refugee in Lebanon, Nour knows life can be tough. So the 15-year-old leapt at the chance to train as a hairdresser with L’Oreal, hoping one day to open her own salon in whichever country she ends up. “Sometimes life can knock you down, so you need to be able to stand on your own feet,” she said, keeping water out of the eyes of a training...

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Skyscraper sucks Dwayne Johnson into a see-saw battle

Author:  Mon, 2018-07-30 09:49 CHENNAI: Most disaster films seem alike, with amazing action and thrilling turnabouts, but a few have a soul and a spirit, such as "Titanic," whose images of tragic love and longing woven into class conflict remain with us for ever. Rawson Marshall Thurber’s "Skyscraper" may not be quite as memorable, but it has a spirited story to tell us. Actor Dwayne Johnson, a retired professional wrestler seen...

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What We Are Reading Today: Genetics in the Madhouse

Author:  Mon, 2018-07-30 03:14 In this compelling book, Genetics in the Madhouse, author Theodore Porter draws on untapped archival evidence from across Europe and North America to bring to light the hidden history behind modern genetics. “Porter’s masterful book casts the fresh light of sanity over a previously uncharted sea of data on madness,” Stephen M. Stigler, author of The Seven Pillars of Statistical Wisdom, said in remarks...

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Tom Cruise’s broken ankle was no setback to the making of this ‘Mission: Impossible’

Author:  Mon, 2018-07-30 02:48 In previous “Mission: Impossible” movies, action often came first, and story second. It’s almost ironic then that when writer-director Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise decided to focus on character for the sixth movie, “Fallout,” they’d end up with the most exciting “Mission” ever — wall-to-wall with stunning set pieces in helicopters, trucks, motorcycles. Even a three-man fight in a public restroom...

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Huda Beauty set to launch its first-ever fragrance

Author:  Mon, 2018-07-30 02:12 DUBAI: She is one of the most famous beauty influencers in the world, has a successful brand and just nabbed the 37th spot on Forbes’ list of America’s richest self-made women and now Huda Kattan — along with her sister and business partner Mona — have announced plans to launch their first-ever perfume. Co-founder of Huda Beauty, the Instagram star’s cosmetic brand that is sold across the world, Mona...

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A yoga journey from illness to happiness

Author:  Sun, 2018-07-29 21:03 “Yoga is just a well-being system that has a traditional background. The values of the yoga tradition are not different from our culture’s values,” said the first Saudi certified yoga instructor, Nouf Marwaai. Marwaai, who enhanced awareness of yoga in the Kingdom, was awarded the Padma Shri award, India’s fourth highest civilian award, by President Ram Nath Kovind in March this year. She was given...

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‘The Warning:’ Grisly murders and a mathematical puzzle

Author:  Sun, 2018-07-29 02:29 CHENNAI, India: “The Warning” has been released on Netflix just after the streaming giant’s announcement that it will establish its first European hub in Madrid. This will serve as the home for Spanish-language original film and television content. “The Warning,” made in Spanish by Daniel Calparsoro, is Hollywoodish in feel and texture.  Paced at an incredible speed, and hopping about in time,...

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Gigi Hadid stars in Pirelli’s 2019 calendar

Author:  Sun, 2018-07-29 02:01 DUBAI: For the 2018 edition of Pirelli’s world-famous calendar, lauded Scottish photographer Albert Watson snapped a cohort of international models, including US-Palestinian star Gigi Hadid. In the photographs, the models — four female protagonists and three male leads — pose as film characters who are “on the road to achieving or have achieved their goals in life,” according to the company’s website....

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What We Are Reading Today: Broken Lives, by Konrad H. Jarausch

Author:  Sat, 2018-07-28 20:57 Broken Lives is a gripping account of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of ordinary Germans who came of age under Hitler and whose lives were scarred and sometimes destroyed by what they saw and did.  Author Konrad H. Jarausch “illuminates the possibilities of history and consciousness through the testimony of dozens of Germans who struggled to make sense of their lives and the times they...

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Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas spark engagement rumors

Fri, 2018-07-27 12:45 After a whirlwind romance of only two months, Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra and American singer Nick Jonas have reportedly gotten engaged. The couple got engaged a week ago on the actress’ 36th birthday while the two were in London, a source told US celebrity magazine People. Jonas reportedly closed down a Tiffany store in New York City to buy the engagement ring. Adding fuel to the rumours, film director Ali...

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What We Are Reading Today: Human Spatial Navigation

Author:  Thu, 2018-07-26 21:57 Humans possess a range of navigation and orientation abilities, from the ordinary to the extraordinary. All of us must move from one location to the next, following habitual routes and avoiding getting lost. While there is more to learn about how the brain underlies our ability to navigate, neuroscience and psychology have begun to converge on some important answers. In Human Spatial Navigation, four...

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MAC becomes latest company to break ties with Kuwaiti blogger Sondos Al-Qattan

Author:  daniel fountain ID:  1532614841402106100 Thu, 2018-07-26 17:25 DUBAI: The fall-out over comments made by Kuwaiti beauty blogger Sondos Al-Qattan continues after another firm fired her over controversial comments made about Filipino domestic workers. MAC Cosmetics, one of the world’s largest make-up brands said in a statement on Wednesday that it “did not support” Al-Qattan’s beliefs, and would be “ending its relationship”...

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Tom Cruise lifts Mission: Impossible — Fallout to a new series best

Author:  William Mullally ID:  1532603573391011200 Thu, 2018-07-26 14:10 Through 22 years and six entries, there is no question as to what the driving force of the Mission: Impossible film franchise is—it’s Tom Cruise. With the series, Cruise was, as its producer, very consciously launching his own action franchise, and each entry since has been guided first and foremost by what stunt he wanted to perform next. Writers on...

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New-look abaya that blends faith, fashion — and function

Wed, 2018-07-25 21:13 JEDDAH: Wearing an abaya — the loose-fitting, full-length robes that symbolize a woman’s religious faith — is part of  Saudi Arabian culture.  But in a rapidly changing Kingdom, the traditional style of abaya is giving way to new experiments that meet both the garment’s religious purpose and the demands of 21st-century life. Now Saudi branding stylist Zahar Al-Sayed and her artist fiance Ahmed Angawi have launched...

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