Pope Francis is blowing through the Holy Land on a whirlwind whistlestop tour as he visits Jordan, Israel, and Palestine from May 24-26, offering many of us a first-hand view of the man who became leader to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics in March 2013. His visit comes near the the 50th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s visit to the Middle East. On Saturday, his Holiness flew in on a chartered Alitalia flight into Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport - (no fancy-pants private jet for him!). Following a royal arrival ...

She may have moved away from Beirut during the civil war but Amal Alamuddin still has a strong sense of Lebanese identity. When news broke that the London-based human rights lawyer had said “yes!” to a proposal of marriage from Hollywood’s most famous bachelor George Clooney, the Levant lost it. With tweets offering Clooney the role of president pouring in and proud Lebanese saying the engagement asserted their country’s excellence, it was clear that this match would be one made in heaven - no, we’re not talking about George and ...

A picture’s worth a thousand words - we all know that - and when the picture is a map, it can serve as a powerful tool for making complex concepts easily comprehensible. And what concept is more complicated than the Middle East? Modern maps become dynamic when you mix in digital technology. Click to see timelapsed border changes ; or watch ethnic groups migrate across continents. Put down that dusty encyclopedia and step away from Google Earth - these amazing maps can switch on instant understanding of socio-political subtext, in ...

Last year’s Academy Award-winning film 12 Years a Slave powerfully depicts the horrors of human bondage, but we don’t need to dial back 100 years to unveil the sights and sounds of forced servitude - just turn on the news (or better yet, look around the neighborhood)! Weeks after 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped in Nigeria , the militant Islamist group Boko Haram claimed responsibility in a video in which leader Abubakar Shekau announced his plan to sell them. Yes, sell them! Making the girls the latest inductees to the modern-day ...