Veil Opening: New Rights, and Challenges, for Saudi Women

Like those of its competitors in New York or London, the sleek glass and steel offices of media company Rotana are filled with preening attitude and fashion-conscious staffers: assistants teeter in shoes that might have absorbed much of their monthly paycheck; executives parade the halls in power suits and pencil skirts. But Rotana isn’t in New York or London; it’s in Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia, a country in which women normally adhere to a strict dress code in public — a black cloak called an abaya, a headscarf and a veil, the niqab, which covers everything but their eyes.

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Free-spirited Drew Barrymore champions women

Drew Barrymore keeps evolving — from star to producer, and now director. The 34-year-old actress earned critic’s attention with her uncanny portrayal of “Little Edie” Beale in HBO’s “Grey Gardens,” and her directorial debut, “Whip It,” has been hailed as a success well before it rolls into theaters October 2

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Chavez interested in nuclear help from Russia

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday said he was interested in working with Russia to develop a civilian nuclear power program. His statement at a televised political rally in Caracas, Venezuela, followed a trip to Russia, where he met with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev

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Chris Brown sentenced for Rihanna assault

Pop singer Chris Brown was sentenced Tuesday to serve five years probation and more than 1,400 hours in "labor-oriented service" for assaulting his pop star girlfriend, Rihanna. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg said in the sentencing she wants to see Brown conduct “actual physical labor, as opposed to some type of community service.” The sentencing was delayed earlier this month because documents detailing Brown’s proposed community service plan in Virginia, where he maintains a legal residence and wants to serve his sentence, had not arrived in time for Schnegg to review them. Brown’s probation will be overseen by the state of California, the judge said

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Five great travel booking sites

The following five sites have proven the most consistently useful for the editors of Budget Travel, who do thousands of searches a year. Dohop.com Strictly for booking plane trips entirely outside of the U.S., such as a flight between Paris and Rome. The site runs simultaneous searches of multiple airports serving the same city — five airports in London, for instance — and it retrieves fares from no-frills independent carriers like EasyJet and Ryanair, which many better-known travel sites overlook.

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