Poor families in Afghanistan are resorting to selling young children—sons as servants and daughters as wives—to pay off debts or settle tribal feuds.
In Afghanistan, particularly in poor rural communities, child slavery and debt bondage practices are growing, but are often disguised as marriage, labour or family affairs not requiring state intervention.
Extreme poverty, lack of awareness [...]

Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 20 in D minor, K. 466, is one of the most stirring and dramatic pieces he ever composed. Not surprisingly, it was one of Beethoven’s favourites.
Here the first (Allegro) movement is performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Pierre Boulez. The pianist is the renowned Maria Joao Pires.

According to Dynastree, mine is the 52,240th most common surname in Canada. When I entered my last name in the surname search box, this map was displayed.
No one with my last name shows up in Nova Scotia or, indeed, anywhere east of Ontario. I have given the authorities the slip.

Earlier this week, a Toronto judge ordered a Muslim woman to remove her niqab (face veil) before she testified in a sex assault case, despite the woman’s claim that she wore it because Islam requires it.
[T]he witness stood on her Muslim “honour,” arguing that as a general rule she should not have to show her [...]

Following complaints from city residents, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Ankara, Turkey, last month launched an investigation into the campaign for a public apology for the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians. The complainants alleged that the campaign violated Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which outlaws “insulting the Turkish nation”.
After reviewing [...]

Multiple absurdities appear in this report from Voice of the Copts, Egypt.
Egyptian State Security Investigations officers arrested two Christians at the Cairo International Book Fair. Mina Adel Shawky and Essam Kadis Nassif were charged with proselytising.
The book fair was full of exhibits with Islamic literature and the Quran, some of which were handed out for [...]