STORY HIGHLIGHTS ‘Not a martyr’ campaign is gaining traction in Lebanon They say it highlights technique of labeling people as martyrs to avoid taking action They say in Lebanon, martyr is a respected title but it’s now used to desensitize people Campaign launched after one innocent victim of a bomb was called a martyr Mohammad Chaar wasn’t looking to become a martyr — or a victim. Late last month, the […]

Baby totters up and down ledge – at one point hanging feet over 50ft drop A baby came just inches from death after being filmed crawling along the window ledge on the eight-floor of an apartment block. Shocking footage appears to show the baby tottering perilously close to the edge of the building. For some three minutes, the toddler is seen making its way uneasily across the ledge without any […]

There has been a “significant” fall in unemployment, says Nick Palmer from the Office for National Statistics The UK unemployment rate has dropped to 7.1%, close to the point at which the Bank of England has said it will consider raising interest rates. The number of people out of work fell by 167,000 to 2.32 million in the three months to November, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The […]

Motorist took unorthodox shortcut by crossing the Yellow River in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, in sub-zero temperatures All alone surrounded by ice, this off-road driver took the ultimate shortcut across a river. The mystery motorist took a somewhat risky detour in Mongolia by ignoring the nearest bridge and instead driving directly across the ice. A similar situation in Britain would see firemen rushing to the scene in seconds, but the driver […]

A tweet with this image and the words “Go home train, you’re drunk” was retweeted thousands of times A tweet containing a bizarre picture of a train being transported through the town of Barmouth in Wales has been retweeted more than 2,100 times. Chris Applegate posted the photo along with the line “Go home train, you’re drunk” at 10:36 GMT on Friday. As well as being retweeted by the likes […]

Executions were rarely carried out in India, but in the last two years, India has carried out two hangings India’s Supreme Court has commuted the sentences of 15 death row prisoners to life in jail on the grounds of delay. Those affected include three men convicted of killing former PM Rajiv Gandhi, and four associates of the notorious bandit Veerappan. Campaigners have welcomed the ruling, saying it will impose new […]

Press reports about the French president’s complicated love life highlight the difference between Anglo-Saxon and Gallic attitudes towards sex, adultery, but above all appetite, writes Adam Gopnik. Whenever a French man of state has sex with someone not his wife, people call me up and ask why he did it. When I say people do, I really mean journalists (a sub-species whose personhood is sometimes in doubt) and I suppose […]

  STORY HIGHLIGHTS Number of female recruits training to be bodyguards on the rise Female bodyguards are in demand among China’s elite Women said to blend in better than male bodyguards The training is extremely tough and some students quit Yang Donglan has had an unusual career trajectory. The 22-year-old once made a living selling cosmetics, but a year ago she switched her make-up brushes for nunchucks, undergoing a grueling […]

  STORY HIGHLIGHTS The law required women to get an ultrasound and see the image “Today’s court ruling protects the rights of women,” an ACLU spokeswoman says Supporters of the law had argued that it would promote childbirth A North Carolina law that made women who wanted an abortion get an ultrasound and then have the image described to them is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Friday. “The Supreme Court […]

A diffused, numinous quality inhabits the light over Reunion Island. The physics is not too complicated to explain. Every day, with the utmost reliability, clumps of cloud form around the peaks of the island’s central mountains, filtering the tropical sun, allowing it to shine through in broad shafts of golden light. These beams blaze at will upon Reunion’s plains of volcanic soil, its sugar cane plantations, its beaches of satin-soft […]