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Bukhara and Tashkent: Opposing universes in Uzbekistan

Héctor Llanos Martínez — Sun, 24 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

One nation and two contrasting cities whose differences tell the story of Uzbekistan’s DNA. This is what’s entailed by visiting Bukhara and Tashkent, from the golden age of the Mongol and Persian empires to the days of the Soviet regime.

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Nigeria denies Trump’s allegations of attacks on Christians: Violence affects all faiths

José Naranjo — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 15:09:37 GMT

Nigeria has faced two decades of escalating violence perpetrated by armed groups — whether terrorists or criminal gangs — resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and more than 3.5 million people displaced from their homes. Between May 2023 and May 2025 alone, over 10,000 people were killed, according to Amnesty International. Victims have included both Christians and Muslims, the Nigerian government says. This violence takes many forms, ranging from radical Islamism in the northeast to conflicts between herders and farmers in the central region, as well as so-called “bandits,” as they are known in Nigeria, who specialize in kidnapping, extortion, and murder.

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Only diplomacy will stop the atomic bomb: Reflections following the war against Iran

Shlomo Ben Ami — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 03:30:00 GMT

What did save Iran after 12 days of Israeli total control of its airspace, which facilitated an extraordinary onslaught on Iran’s Islamic Republic that hit its nuclear programme, destroyed many of its symbols of government, and decapitated its military hierarchy? Suppose you ask Fayyaz Zahed, an Iranian reformist political analyst. In that case, he answers that “it was not the regime’s delusional ideology, but Iran’s ancient history, and the experience of surviving invasions by Alexander the Great, the Mongols, and the Arabs.”

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Sodom and Gomorrah were not destroyed by the impact of an extraterrestrial object

Manuel Ansede — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 14:41:01 GMT

The story made headlines around the world. “A massive meteor may have destroyed the biblical city of Sodom,” was the headline in Forbes magazine. A team of U.S. scientists had just presented evidence suggesting that “a cosmic airburst” obliterated Tall el-Hammam, a town located in the Jordan River Valley, in present-day Jordan, around 3,600 years ago.

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Condemned to continue fleeing in Gaza: ‘Israel wants us to run until we have no will left, so that we’ll give up and leave’

Mohamed Solaimane — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 12:13:43 GMT

The tractor pulling the trailer carrying Abu Mohammed Salout’s family and their belongings stops. It has run out of fuel. They were trying to flee Khan Younis, a town in southern Gaza, after the Israeli army demanded the evacuation of residents on Tuesday, designating the area as a “dangerous combat zone.” Desperate, Salout, a 62-year-old mechanic, calls fuel sellers on the black market, hoping to get at least three liters of diesel, enough to reach the western part of the city with his children, grandchildren, and their few remaining belongings. But fuel is nowhere to be found. Until recently, the Bani Suhaila roundabout, where the tractor stopped, was packed with fuel sellers. Now, traders are stockpiling supplies, hoping prices will skyrocket as the war intensifies.

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A battlefield called the clitoris: A trip to the country threatening to decriminalize female genital mutilation

Silvia Blanco Valero — Sat, 13 Jul 2024 04:05:00 GMT

Nine years ago, Serreh lost her mother and inherited a mission. It was the same mission her grandmother had, and it was what she became known for in her small Gambian village, surrounded by mango and cashew trees. Families from her village and beyond came to her home with a specific request. A day was agreed upon and she prepared what was necessary: a concoction that has a “calming” effect for a few minutes, the red clothes that she wore for the occasion and single-use blades. One for each girl, she says. “Many” passed through her hands in the two years she practiced. Most of the girls were under seven years old, sometimes they were babies still being breastfed, and everything happened very quickly, says Serreh, 36. While other women held the girls’ hands and legs, she cut off their clitoris or part of it.

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The abaya triggers a new battle for secularism in France

Marc Bassets — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 15:28:17 GMT

Noise in the political sphere, calm in the classroom. The ban on the abaya, the traditional tunic in some Muslim countries, considered an indication of religious or cultural identity, has come into force this week in French schools amid an intense debate on secularism and its application in the education system. The Council of State must decide by September 7 whether the measure is legal and respects fundamental freedoms.

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Sweden raises its terror threat level to high for fear of attacks following recent Quran burnings

AP Associated Press — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 22:23:58 GMT

Sweden raised its terror alert to the second-highest level on Thursday after a string of public desecrations of the Quran sparked angry demonstrations across Muslim countries and threats from militant groups.

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What is hidden under the ground in Toledo, Spain?

Vicente Olaya — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 16:50:41 GMT

The political, cultural and urban planning battle that has been waged for years in Toledo’s Vega Baja—over a hundred hectares of undeveloped land at the foot of the hill of the walled imperial city—is far from over. Many Spanish and international organizations, academies and universities believe that Spain’s Vega Baja was the site of the Visigoth Urbs Regia, the area where the kingdom’s main buildings, from the royal palace to the coronation basilicas, were concentrated. The possible destruction of the ruins that do not fall under the protection of the area as a Site of Cultural Interest—there are plans to build thousands of houses on them—would be a scandal of monumental proportions. Icomos, an organization that advises UNESCO, describes the area as a “unique” place that can’t be duplicated, while the Academy of San Fernando speaks bluntly of its “plunder.” But there are reasonable doubts about what exactly is in the subsoil.

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‘Powder keg’ for 9/11: 1993 trade center bombing remembered

AP Associated Press — Sun, 26 Feb 2023 11:02:03 GMT

Lolita Jackson was at her 72nd-floor desk in the World Trade Center, feeling like she worked at the top of the world. Then came the boom, and smoke started curling in from an elevator shaft. Unsure what was happening, she joined thousands of other office workers on a harrowing trek down dark, smoky stairs, emerging into the scene of a terror attack.

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Death penalty phase of trial looms for NYC bike path killer

AP Associated Press — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 21:54:56 GMT

A jury on Monday will begin considering whether an Islamic extremist who killed eight people on a New York City bike path should get a death sentence, an extraordinarily rare penalty in a state that hasn’t had an execution in 60 years.

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Pakistan blocks Wikipedia, says it hurts Muslim sentiments

AP Associated Press — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 10:58:41 GMT

Pakistan’s media regulator said Monday it blocked Wikipedia services in the country for hurting Muslim sentiment by not removing purportedly blasphemous content from the site. Critics denounced Islamabad’s action, saying it was a blow to digital rights.

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Roommates of Spanish church assailant: ‘He said he saw the devil’

Jesús Antonio Cañas — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 09:50:15 GMT

The dilapidated backyard of number 10, Ruiz Tagle street, in the southern Spanish city of Algeciras, is a mess. The chaotic scene is partly due to the police search that recently took place here, and partly because its occupant had been destroying everything in sight for weeks.

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NYC bike path killer convicted, could face the death penalty

AP Associated Press — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 22:53:52 GMT

An Islamic extremist who killed eight people with a speeding truck in a 2017 rampage on a popular New York City bike path was convicted Thursday of federal crimes and could face the death penalty. Sayfullo Saipov bowed his head as he heard the verdict in a Manhattan courtroom just a few blocks from where the attack ended. Prosecutors said the Halloween rampage was inspired by his reverence for the Islamic State militant group.

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One dead, several injured in machete attack against churches in southern Spain

Jesús Antonio Cañas,Patricia Ortega Dolz,Óscar López-Fonseca — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 10:10:56 GMT

Spanish police have arrested a machete-wielding man who walked into two Catholic churches in the southern city of Algeciras on Wednesday evening, killing one person and injuring at least four more. The suspect is a 25-year-old Moroccan national identified as Yasine Kanjaa by sources familiar with the investigation. Spain’s high court, the Audiencia Nacional, is investigating the matter as a possible act of Islamic terrorism, although the Interior Ministry has not yet classified the attack as jihadist.

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How are women treated in Qatar?

Natalia Junquera Añón — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 03:52:20 GMT

“Why does the West pressure us with LGBT flags and bracelets? And how is it possible that they allow people to change their sex? We cannot understand it,” says E.A.M, a 43-year-old Qatari, in an elegant Doha cafe.

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Palestinian Sharia judge issues Zara boycott fatwa over event supporting far-right politician

Antonio Pita — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 12:25:22 GMT

The clothing brand Zara has become the target of a Palestinian boycott campaign that has been gathering pace over the past 72 hours, to the point of generating a religious edict from the supreme judge of the Islamic courts of the Palestinian Authority against the purchase of its products, a formal complaint from the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy to the company’s headquarters in Spain, and a series of videos posted on social media in which the brand’s clothing is burned as a sign of protest.

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As ‘burkini’ debate rages in France, should Spain regulate their use?

Alfonso L. Congostrina,Ana Teruel,El País — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 08:37:55 GMT

The recent prohibition of the use of the so-called “burkini” on the beaches of Cannes and Sisco (Corsica) in France has reopened the debate in Europe on the use of the veil in public spaces. The wearing of the long-sleeved bathing suit, which covers the wearer up from head to ankle but leaves the face visible, has even reached the courts in countries such as Germany and Italy. In Spain, however, where the swimwear item has been seen on some beaches, there are no regulations currently in place regarding its use.

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