Selecting a potential father for your children, it turns out, is not unlike shopping online. “A lot of our clients typically want their donor to be at least 180cm [5ft 11in] tall and have blue eyes,” says Peter Bower, director of Nordic Cryobank, who is showing me his database of sperm donors. […]
ROME (AP) — Police said Thursday that they rescued about 500 migrants from Libya after a small fire broke out on their boat miles (kilometers) off the Italian coast. Police patrol boats spotted the boat and were escorting it toward the small island of Lampedusa when the fire began, Maj. […]
As a Muslim-American, I watched with great interest Thursday morning as President Obama spoke to the world about the state of the Middle East. With that region engulfed in so much turmoil, this provides America a crucial opportunity to take a stand. I was looking for a glimpse into how […]
The Holy Quran says about the Judgment Day, “Men ask thee concerning the Hour. Say, “The knowledge of it is with Allah alone.’ And what would make thee know that the hour may be nigh?” (Al Quran 33:64) But Mr. Fitzpatrick predicts the doomsday, not in 1000 years, or in 30 […]
‘Pakistan Times’ Wire Service MARDAN: One person died and four others injured when a suicide bomber blew up explosives strapped on his body at a worship place of Ahmedis here at Muslimabad Canal, Geo News reported Friday. The injured were immediately rushed to District Headquarter Hospital where doctors described their […]
Despite their deepening political divide, the United States and Saudi Arabia are quietly expanding defense ties on a vast scale, led by a little-known project to develop an elite force to protect the kingdom’s oil riches and future nuclear sites. The U.S. also is in discussions with Saudi Arabia to […]
The capacity for compassion and forgiveness can reach almost unbelievable proportions. The post-9/11 shooting spree by Mark Stroman was a predatory act of ghastly viciousness. To a Dallas County jury, the two lives that Stroman took demanded a sentence of death by injection. But to a shooting victim who survived […]
The National Education Ministry’s plan to reconstruct the curriculum of religious education for students calls for the attention of all stakeholders, particularly because religious education has played and always plays an important role in the creation of an Indonesian identity. As we live in a diverse country, students should learn […]
Terrorism is attracting an increasing number of creative and intellectual university graduates who differ from its stereotypical adherents of Islamic boarding school (pesantren) students and preachers. For the last several years, college graduates from middle class families have played a prominent role in plotting terror attacks. The recent distribution of […]
The expected UN vote on a Palestinian state in September leaves me, in contradiction to the unofficial rules governing columnists, without a decisive opinion on the matter. On the one hand, despite the doomsday scenarios we’ve been hearing in recent weeks, I’m having trouble getting frightened by what we can […]
Israel remains in the 17th place among the world’s 59 leading economies in terms of competitiveness, according to the 2011 World Competitiveness Yearbook of the International Institute Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. The annual report ranks countries according to difference economic parameters and is based on data collected from different […]
(CNN) — Next time Grandma asks why you’re going to the mall on Sunday morning instead of church, tell her you’re going to Apple Chapel. For Apple fans, the brand triggers a reaction in the brain that’s not unlike that of religious devotees, according to a BBC documentary series that […]
Washington (CNN) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday firmly rejected President Barack Obama’s call for an approximate return to the borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war, telling the U.S. leader that such a move is impossible in light of current security concerns and demographic realities. […]
by Jamal Abdul Khaliq Muhammad Al-Ghamdi says that he was happily married to his first wife, who bore him three sons. When household duties became too much for her, she asked Muhammad to hire a maid. The maid was a pretty Indonesian Muslim who was well treated by the wife […]
A Gallup poll released Friday showed that 53 percent of Americans believe that same-sex marriage should be recognized by law with the same rights as traditional marriages. The results were based on Gallup’s three-day Values and Beliefs poll in May, which it has tracked every year since 2004 (the first […]
by Peter Stone. George W. Bush said after bin Laden’s killing that he wanted to stay out of the public eye. But Peter H. Stone of the Center for Public Integrity’s iWatch News says 43’s becoming a high-profile figure on the buck-raking circuit. When George W. Bush declined President Obama’s […]
I have come about to write this article after much thought and prayer and not without spiritual and psychological anguish, even at this very instant that I write. Over the last few months leading to the referendum, as an official minister of the Catholic Church I have been involuntarily made […]
I am going to vote yes and I am entirely comfortable with my choice because we are not voting on whether the Catholic Church’s take on divorce is correct or not or on whether divorce is a morally acceptable choice or not but simply about whether civil society should have […]
The emergence of secularism is often attributed to the Age of Enlightenment when, in the 18th century, major advances in philosophy, intellect, science and culture led to major changes in one’s reasoning. This resulted in a gradual consistent separation between state rule and Church teachings. I still remember in my […]
Patients in Switzerland are among the most satisfied with hospital care, according to an international study. The survey compared 15 countries, 11 within Europe and four outside, and found that hospital staff were also generally happy with their working conditions. read more