BANGKOK, June 11: Thailand’s king formally endorsed former army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha as an elected prime minister on Tuesday, five years after he seized power in a military coup, though the makeup of his coalition government’s cabinet is unclear.

BEIRUT, Nov 22: For the first few weeks of her job recycling garbage, Haela Kalawi often went home crying.It wasn't just the grungy setting — a dimly lit, airless basement where the 31-year-old refugee with a cherubic face slips on plastic gloves and digs into trash-filled containers. It was that as a traditional housewife in Syria, Kalawi grew up believing it was shameful for women to work outside the house. In those days, she wasn't even allowed to shop for her own clothes or choose what to watch on TV.