The office of Bernard Paniel on the outskirts of Paris has for years been a mandatory stop for many Muslim women nervous about getting married.
An obstetrician-gynecologist for France’s public health system, Dr. Paniel performs an operation to reattach the hymens of women who want to appear as virgins. For such patients, virginity is a prerequisite [...]
Gregory Campbell is the new minister for culture, arts and leisure
East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell has been appointed as the new minister for culture, arts and leisure.
He replaced Edwin Poots in a reshuffle of DUP ministers which followed Peter Robinson’s elevation to first minister.
One of Mr Campbell’s first decisions will be whether to award ï¿¡5m [...]
The cross-dressing potter Grayson Perry has come up with a brilliant strategy for making his work look good. It’s such an obvious wheeze, I wonder why others haven’t employed it before. Asked by the Arts Council to select a show from the huge collection of modern British art it has built up, Perry has plumped [...]
Wishful thinking and guesswork are behind the daft 2am lockout policy.
PREMIER John Brumby probably wasn’t expecting a backlash this big.
Nearly 30,000 distressed drinkers have signed just one of the many Facebook petitions opposing the 2am lockout — the Victorian Government’s new policy that will ban entry to bars, pubs and clubs in the inner city [...]
He will soon be regarded as our arch rugby enemy, but last night Crusaders coach Robbie Deans was honoured by a host of big sporting names for his huge contribution to the New Zealand game.
Deans, who has led his beloved Canterbury franchise to a record four Super rugby titles, controversially missed out on the All [...]
Indiana’s controversial photo identification rule may not have made a major dent in the state’s high turnout, but it did frustrate a small group of voters more accustomed to divine law.
About 12 elderly Roman Catholic nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place because they didn’t have state or federal identification bearing a photograph.
Sister [...]
Described as “the Zen Buddhist Will Self of the former Evil
Empire”, Victor Pelevin is a star of contemporary Russian
literature. The Sacred Book Of The Werewolf is an
extraordinarily accomplished piece of contemporary writing that
mashes up an assortment of genres: horror, humour, romance,
fantasy, satire and post-modern self-reflexivity and sampling. The
result is something that has to be classified [...]
It’s difficult, if not impossible, to imagine the political
scientist Robert Manne, so urbane and measured in mien, physically
giving anyone a one-fingered salute. However, when it comes to the
printed page, that’s another matter.
The inspiration or intention behind this collection of 20 essays
might not have been to niggle the rusted-on supporters of the
Howard Government and conservative media [...]
In Martin Amis’s Yellow Dog, maximum disgust is
reserved for Clint Smoker, a spectacularly cynical tabloid hack
whose byline gives the novel its title. Clint is a devotee of
pornography. Indeed, his house (in Foulness, no less) is a shrine
to pornography “in all its forms”. Plus, of course, there’s the
World Wide Web, his nightly forays into which are [...]
Who or what is God? Does he, she or it exist? What happens after
you die? Is there any meaning to life? What does the wisdom of the
ages teach us? And what about love? These are some of the questions
canvassed in this rambling monster of a novel, a family saga (of
sorts) spanning three generations.
All this sounds [...]
