Day: October 28, 2012

The man who reinvented banks

Source: Herald Scotland By Steven Vass Professor Muhammad Yunus paces into the room with the quiet dignity befitting his status. This is the father of micro-finance, the founder of the Grameen Bank, which lends money to severely poor people to start businesses. Originated in his native Bangladesh in the 1970s, it […]

The Mystery of Macedonia’s Islamic Manuscripts

October 28, 2012 Balkanalysis.com Editor’s note: while an October exhibition of Macedonian medieval manuscripts in Brussels incited protests from the government in Sofia over historical issues, there is another collection of texts in the country about which relatively little is known- that is, Macedonia’s Islamic manuscript collection, a legacy from […]

Eid ul Adha – The Festival of Sacrifice

By Zahir Muhammad Mannan Convey to mankind; ‘Surely myself (Muhammad) and my guidance and my Lord take me to the true path of perfect enlightenment and ultimate protection from any weakness. This is the ultimate and everlasting religion which was treaded before by Abraham, the one who ever inclined towards goodness and was upright. […]

Barack Obama for Re-election – NYTimes editorial

Barack Obama for Re-Election Published: October 27, 2012 273 Comments http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/opinion/sunday/barack-obama-for-president.html?hpw The economy is slowly recovering from the 2008 meltdown, and the country could suffer another recession if the wrong policies take hold. The United States is embroiled in unstable regions that could easily explode into full-blown disaster. An ideological […]

Toronto: millions of birds die each year in the financial district

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/world/americas/casualties-of-torontos-urban-skies.html?hp&_r=0 TORONTO — In the shadow of the massive black towers of a bank’s downtown headquarters here was an almost indistinguishable puff of dark gray fluff on the sidewalk. Ian Willms for The New York Times A rescuer collects an injured white-breasted nuthatch. More Photos » It was the body […]

A golden handshake – or an error that could cost Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu power?

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s big political gamble to join forces with ultra-nationalists before early elections in January threatened to backfire today as signs emerged that the new alignment could alienate moderate voters. In a surprise announcement late on Thursday, the hawkish premier sketched out the details of a […]