The teaser trailer for “Spectre,” the next installment in the James Bond series, picks up right where the last film left off. The trailer opens with the famed 007, played for the fourth time by Daniel Craig, learning some “personal effects” recovered from his ruined family estate and childhood home of Skyfall contain a dark secret of his. The trailer features some familiar faces – like Naomie Harris, who played […]
he ancient city of Mohenjo Daro was one of the world’s earliest major urban settlements – but as Razia Iqbal found on a recent visit to Pakistan, its remains are in danger of crumbling away. As a lover of language, I am convinced that certain combinations of letters have in them some innate magic – like Kubla Khan, or Xanadu, or Nineveh. So allow the words Mohenjo Daro to […]
An award known as “the Nobel Prize for water” has been given to an Indian campaigner who has brought water to 1,000 villages. The judges of the Stockholm Water Prize say his methods have also prevented floods, restored soil and rivers, and brought back wildlife. The prize-winner, Rajendra Singh, is dubbed “the Water Man of India”. The judges say his technique is cheap, simple, and that his ideas should […]
YANGON, Myanmar — A bar manager from New Zealand and two Burmese men were sentenced to two years in prison in Myanmar on Tuesday for posting an image online of the Buddha wearing headphones, an effort to promote an event. The court in Yangon said the image denigrated Buddhism and was a violation of Myanmar’s religion act, which prohibits insulting, damaging or destroying religion. “It is clear the act […]
If you think you are tech savvy all because you know what “LOL” means, let me test your coolness. Any idea what “IWSN” stands for in Internet slang? It’s a declarative statement: I want sex now. If it makes you feel any better, I had no clue, and neither did a number of women I asked about it. Acronyms are widely popular across the Internet, especially on social media […]
Washington: If you like numbers, you will love March 14, 2015. When written as a date, it reads as 3/14/15 and corresponds to the first five digits of pi (3.1415) – a once-in-a-century coincidence! Make sure to note when the date and time spell out the first 10 digits of pi: 3.141592653. On 3/14/15 at 9.26.53 a.m., it was literally the most perfect “pi” time of the century. Pi […]
Within hours of safely arriving in New Delhi as a couple, Manouj and Kavita were at a court performing the rites for their marriage. The court was about to close, so it was a hasty affair. They managed to snap a total of 19 photos on Manouj’s cellphone. It’s as close to a wedding album as they will get. But the alternative was far worse. What they left behind […]
An advertisement for a house in Indonesia has gone viral online after the woman selling it offered to throw in an unusual extra feature for free – her hand in marriage. The internet ad reads for the most part like a regular house listing, saying that the single-storey property has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a parking space and a fish pond. But it also proposes to buyers a “rare offer” […]
“Future work is needed to identify remaining pockets of natural grassland and develop systems for local communities to conserve and benefit from them,” he added. Myanmar’s quasi-civilian government replaced decades of brutal military rule in 2011. It has since embarked on a series of political reforms and shown itself to be far more open to foreign businesses and academic researchers than the country’s generals were. Myanmar has more species of […]
There’s opulence, there’s crazy opulence and then there’s the birthday party of Zimbabwe President, Robert Mugabe. He’s the world’s oldest leader, who has been ruling Zimbabwe since its independence from Britain in 1980. The president ushered in his 91st birthday at an exclusive golf course and spa in Victoria Falls by releasing 91 balloons into the sky, hosting 20,000 guests and spending a whopping million dollars – and that’s […]
