It’s that hotly anticipated time of year when Hollywood’s royalty grace the red carpet of the 87th Oscars. All eyes will be glued to the screen to see not only who goes home with an statuette, but more importantly, who wore what. They will be all glitzed up in avant-garde gowns and truly trendy tuxes, and we’ll be comparing their looks the whole time. Our Arab A-listers don’t have quite the cachet of the Academy Awards, but Lebanon did bring us a similar star-studded affair in the form of the ...

Reporters Without Borders this month came out with its 2014 Press Freedom Index, and no surprise — last year was the worst for reporters. The past three years have been the deadliest. The Reporters Without Borders country rankings are based on a point system, with 180 being the worst score and one being the best. The more armed conflicts there are, the more journalists have been targeted and killed . The deadliest region? The Middle East. Here are the worst perpetrators.

Listen up, dear readers, to a modern fairy tale - a 21st Century riff on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Except we’ve made a few changes. Our story takes place in Lebanon, where once upon a time there lived three little kittens: Nadine, Farah & Alice Abdel Aziz . (In case you’re wondering, you’re cast in the Goldilocks spot. You get to determine if Lebanon’s latest celebs are “just right.”) The girls were terribly fond of three other sisters - the Kardashians - who lived in a plastic land far ...

Mosques have functioned as holy houses and centralized places for Muslims to gather and pray since the birth of Islam. From Masjid al-Nawabi (also known as the Prophet Mohammed's Mosque in Medina), to Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem , to Istanbul's Blue Mosque, an iconic architectural style based on functionality and religious symbolism has developed over centuries and across cultures. The minaret, the typically tall spire that rises above the building, is the most famed feature of a mosque. The form allowed the crier ( muezzin ) to call the ...

Ah, coffee. About a third of our species consumes the stuff, sipping 1,400 million cups daily. This caffeine-laden beverage is a liquid chameleon; it can calm or invigorate, be served up hot or cold, taste straight-up bitter or as sweet and filling as dessert. But buyer, beware! The price of your grande latte will likely skyrocket this year after a record drought in Brazil, which produces almost a third of the world's coffee beans. Last week, the Brazilian ministry of agriculture reported that 2014's total yield was down 7.7% from ...