‘Tiger Widows’ Shunned as Bad Luck in Rural Bangladesh
Abandoned by her sons, shunned by her neighbors and branded a witch. Mosammat Rashida’s crime? Her husband was killed by a Bengal tiger.
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culture
Online Dating Changes Lives — and the Economy
Online dating is not only transforming the way people hook up, it is changing the way single people spend their money and shaping the nature of household spending, according to one investor taking an interest in the emerging sector.
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Hatidze, the Macedonian Beekeeper Charming Hollywood
Watch out at the Oscars on Sunday for Hatidze Muratova. You can’t miss her. She will be the only Turkish-Macedonian peasant in the starry audience at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
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Leather or Latex? Delving Into Underground Paris Scene
There are those who claim that Paris has lost its edge; the taste for boundary-breaking excess that inspired bohemians and intellectuals in the 1960s and beyond.
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Venetian Islands Revamp Traditions to Counter Depopulation
The Venetian island of Burano’s charms are rooted in its fishing legacy: the colorful fishermen’s cottages, the traditional butter cookies that kept fishermen going at sea and the delicate lace hand-stitched by their women.
Read moreHarry, Meghan to Quit Royal Jobs, Give Up ‘Highness’ Titles
Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, are quitting as working royals and will no longer use the titles “royal highness” or receive public funds for their work under a deal announced Saturday by Buckingham Palace.
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Number of Suicides in Japan Hits Record Low
The number of suicides in Japan fell to a record low in 2019, the government said Friday, as the country tackles one of the world’s highest suicide rates.
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Six Tourists Arrested After Feces Found in Sacred Machu Picchu Area
Six tourists, including a French woman, have been arrested over accusations that they damaged Peru’s cultural heritage by defecating in a sacred temple at the iconic Machu Picchu sanctuary.
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Spirit World: Voodoo Makes a Comeback in Its Benin Home
In his long life, voodoo priest Kpohinto Medji has seen his religion flourish and then go into decline, banned for years by the authorities and pressured by other faiths.
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Big Fat Indian Wedding Goes on a Diet as Slowdown Bites
India’s weddings are famously lavish — lasting days and with hundreds if not thousands of guests — but this season many families are cutting costs even if it risks their social standing.
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Pentagon Rejects Trump Threat to Iranian Cultural Sites
The Pentagon on Monday distanced itself from President Donald Trump’s assertions that he would bomb Iranian cultural sites despite international prohibitions of such attacks.
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Trump Threatens Iraq With Sanctions if It Expels Troops
President Trump insists that Iranian cultural sites are fair game for the U.S. military, dismissing concerns within his own administration that doing so could constitute a war crime under international law. He also warned Iraq that he would levy punishing sanctions if it expelled U.S. troops in retaliation for the assassination, in Iraq, of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
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Nepal Elephant Festival Scrutinized for Beauty and Bruises
Hundreds cheered as the three beauty contest finalists strolled out into the middle of the grounds and raised their painted trunks to the judges — symbols of all that is admired and denounced at Nepal’s annual elephant festival.
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Rhythm and Smiles as Morocco’s Gnawa Artists Cheer UNESCO Listing
In a riot of color, acrobatics and drum beats, Morocco’s gnawa artists joyously celebrated the inclusion of their ancient art-form in UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
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World’s Oldest Artwork Found in Indonesian Cave
An Indonesian cave painting that depicts a prehistoric hunting scene could be the world’s oldest figurative artwork dating back nearly 44,000 years, a discovery that points to an advanced artistic culture, according to new research.
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Songs Found to Share Universal Patterns Across World’s Cultures
Many people claim music is a universal language. They feel it in their bodies through dance or in the emotions each song seems to tap into by allowing the person to revisit when they first heard a tune – either as children during a lullaby, during a funeral procession, after a religious experience or when they first fell in love.
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Fire Lays Waste Historic Japanese Castle
A fire broke out early Thursday and spread quickly through historic Shuri Castle on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, nearly destroying the UNESCO World Heritage site.
Read moreSpain Gets Last Word on London Sale of Botticelli Painting
A Botticelli portrait of a humanist poet that long hung in Madrid’s El Prado Museum is being offered this week for sale during London’s Frieze Masters art fair for $30 million. But a Spanish law on cultural treasures might create difficulties for a foreign buyer seeking to bring the treasure home.
Read moreLegal Fight Brewing Over Steve Bannon’s Academy in Italian Monastery
Steve Bannon plans to turn a 13th century Italian monastery outside of Rome into an “Academy for the Judeo-Christian West,” where he can mold cultural and political “gladiators” to carry out his fight against liberal elites, Islam and socialists. But Italy’s culture minister thanks that might not be such a good idea and is seeking to stop Bannon’s plans.
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Hawaii Protesters Press on to Stop Telescope, Face Arrest
Thousands of protesters joined a swelling effort Wednesday to stop construction of a telescope they have long tried to keep off a mountain considered sacred to some Native Hawaiians, blocking a road to Hawaii’s highest peak and prompting the arrest of a group of elderly demonstrators.
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