"The Uygurs, Muslim people of China's resource-rich far west, are becoming strangers in their own land as Han Chinese pour in.

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"Palestine Today published pictures of the general atmosphere in villages and cities in the Gaza Strip at the start of the Islamic month of fasting: Ramadan.

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No matter what you see in the movies, archaeology isn't really about finding ancient temples or golden idols. It's about the day-to-day "stuff"— the material culture—of people's lives.

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I N T R O D U C T I O N

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The Pacific archipelagos of Fiji and Tonga have for centuries been connected by trade and kinship: Tongan princes sailed westwards in outrigger canoes to seek fortune in Fiji, while Fijians provided spouses for the Tongan nobility.

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The small Chinese village of Chengziyu, in Hebei province, is not in the guidebooks nor even on most maps. Peasants who live within a kilometre of Chengziyu are vague about how to get there.

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In case you haven't noticed, we've just slipped through into the Chinese New Year.

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For hundreds of years, the Indians of Bolivia's high plains have trekked to this town in early February. They dance, drink chicha, the fermented beverage made here from rye, and then fight one another until blood stains the dirt alleyways.

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It is here, on the border of Brampton and Mississauga, that it is most striking: Canada's famed multicultural mosaic has morphed into a series of monocultural neighbourhoods.

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The culture war in Turkey against critical authors and journalists is intensifying, as murderous nationalists agitate against dissidents. Many liberals are under threat, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, who has now left the country.

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Inhabiting Hilton Head Island long before the snowbird transplants and tourists took over, the original Gullah were African slaves, shipped across the Atlantic Ocean from West Africa to work the cotton plantations of the South.

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Among the countries of South-East Asia, Malaysia has much to be proud of, from its immaculate tropical beaches and ancient rain forests to the skyscrapers of Kuala Lumpur, the capital.

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Welcome to an island where women choose who to marry, and men cannot refuse. He was 14 when the girl entered his grass-covered hut and placed a plate of steaming fish in front of him.

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Romantics in the movement to weld east Africa into some kind of union have long seen Lake Victoria as their watery bond, joining Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya in perpetual amity.

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For the 58th straight year, a mysterious visitor left birthday cognac and roses at Edgar Allan Poe's grave on Friday, and he was watched by more onlookers than ever, a faithful viewer in Baltimore said.

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Pitilessly hot summer days that seem to suck every drop of moisture from the air are nothing new to these parts. Nor is drought, which in its semi-permanent state hovers on the fringes of public consciousness.

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For thousands of years, sandstone rock engravings in what is now Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park served as "blackboards" in ancient outdoor classrooms. Children would gather around the drawings as elders instructed them in the rules of life.

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Complaints from the Chinese embassy in Moscow forced an advertising agency to scrap a chewing gum commercial playing on Russian television which featured China's national anthem as backing music.

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Humans have marked their bodies with tattoos for thousands of years. These permanent designs—sometimes plain, sometimes elaborate, always personal—have served as amulets, status symbols, declarations of love, signs of religious beliefs, adornments and even forms of punishment.

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Municipal elections in Taiwan last month indicate that the Chinese Nationalist Party - better known as the Kuomintang - has its strongest chance to return to power after the presidential elections next year.

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So we all agree that the photos of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's naked backside published in the Sun last month were out of line, right? The poor woman, after all, deserves her privacy.

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Amartya Sen discusses his new book, in which he claims that the British approach to multiculturalism has undermined individual freedom.

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An ancient treasure is buried in an underground vault. A group called the "key holders" guards its secret. The treasure trove includes the legendary Bactrian gold.

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Hundreds of San Bushmen were wrongly forced from their Kalahari desert homeland and should be allowed to return to their ancient hunting ground, a court in Botswana ruled.

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Amid tumbledown cinder-block homes, the Don Bosco community center rings with music.

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