Protests are reported in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and other cities, with fresh reports of gunfire in the protest hub of Deraa.

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Protests spread in Syrian cities

The BBC’s Damian Grammaticas describes the situation on the outskirts of Sendai, one of the cities that was closest to the epicentre of the earthquake.

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VIDEO: ‘They’re looking for bodies’

Tens of thousands of demonstrators in Cairo and other cities celebrate the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak after weeks of protests.

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Egypt rejoices as Mubarak departs

Hosni Mubarak steps down as president of Egypt, after weeks of protests by anti-government demonstrators in Cairo and other cities.

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VIDEO: How Egypt’s historic day unfolded

Hosni Mubarak has stepped down as president of Egypt, after weeks of protests by anti-government demonstrators in Cairo and other cities.

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VIDEO: ‘Pharaoh has let his people go’

Hosni Mubarak has stepped down as president of Egypt, after weeks of protest by anti-government demonstrators in Cairo and other cities.

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VIDEO: ‘The power of the people worked’

The US calls on Egypt’s government to immediately lift emergency laws, after a day of renewed protests in Cairo and other cities.

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US urges faster change in Egypt

Fresh rioting breaks out in the Algerian capital and several other cities, after days of unrest over food price increases and unemployment.

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Fresh rioting in Algerian capital

Anti-terror police are searching homes in four cities as officers question 12 men arrested over fears of an attack.

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Anti-terror police search homes

The UK’s Iraq inquiry panel visits the cities of Baghdad and Basra as part of its fact-finding mission.

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Chilcot inquiry in visits to Iraq

While other cities begin to show faint signs of recovery, the recession in Vegas is staying in Vegas. And there seems to be no end in sight to Las Vegas’s bad trip through its worst economic downturn since casinos first began sprouting in the desert in…

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Recession Still Crippling Vegas

Five shows reinventing puppetry at Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center From Jason Segel’s to the Internet sensation-turned-IFC show Food Party , puppetry endures as a medium that brings the absurd and fantastical to life. To celebrate the ancient art form, the Twin Cities’ Walker Art Center kickd off the performing arts season with five distinct shows under the banner Adventures in New Puppetry . ” Dark Matters ” is a puppetry/dance hybrid fable by the Canadian dancer and choreographer Crystal Pite and her company, Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM . After the show, the company will lead a dance improvisation workshop . The Twin Cities-based Open Eye Figure Theater will co-present Toy Theater After Dark , a modern take on old-world toy puppetry. A collaboration between the avant-garde Slovene theater troupe Betontanc and Latvian object theater masters, Umka.lv , ” Show Your Face! ” is the dark story of an empty snowsuit brought to life by seven actors and live musicians. Woyzeck on the Highveld is a mixed-media adaptation of Georg Buchner’s play. Director William Kentridge collaborated with the Handspring Puppet Company for this synthesis of animated film, puppets and actors. The Devil and Mister Punch is a work-in-progress from the irreverent British theater company, Improbable . To find tickets and specific show dates visit the Walker Calendar .

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Adventures in New Puppetry

A primer on the pioneering lifestyle store that introduced good design to the people Before Crate & Barrel and Design Within Reach, there was Design Research, the retail concept widely credited with reinventing furniture shopping by pioneering a lifestyle approach that changed the look of bedrooms and stores from coast to coast. The brainchild of architect Ben Thompson, he founded a new way of decorating and living when he opened his first Design Research store in 1953 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a story chronicled in the new book ” Design Research: The Store That Brought Modern Living to American Homes .” Through photos, press clippings and other ephemera, the Pentagram-designed primer outlines his philosophy and the impact of breaking away from mass-produced furniture sold through dominant mega-department stores. His widow Jane Thompson, founder of I.D. magazine, architect and urban planner, weighs in too, documenting how her husband not only introduced “lifestyle” under one retail shopping roof, but popularized the idea that good design should be accessible to everyone in postwar America. Design Research became an influential modernist mini-chain that mixed design objects from Charles and Ray Eames, Alvar Aalto, Arne Jacobsen with French rustic pottery, no-name Bolivian sweaters and $1 Mexican drinking glasses. For fashion in the late 50s, just when women sought equality in society, Design Research became the first representative for Marimekko’s loose, colorful and graphic shifts. Fashion had gone from tight waists, pointy bosoms and round hips to the tent-like chemise. American women embraced the untraditional, “high casual” style that gave them permission to move freely in comfort. For Ben, modernism didn’t mean minimalism, oversimplification or monochrome. He believed that people should be encouraged to imagine for themselves what their homes could be inside. All they needed was a forum of the best available national and international goods to pick from. He built a retail store that was a department store without the departments, hence creating “lifestyle.” Design Research went on to have stores in New York and San Francisco, among other cities, through the late ’60s, inspiring budding retailer entrepreneurs like Gordon Segal, co-founder of Crate & Barrel, and Rob Forbes, founder of Design Within Reach. Segal was directly influenced by DR in 1965 when he realized a store’s environment, visual display and music were integral to how it made a customer feel. As a teenager in 1968, Forbes fell under the spell of modern design, when he saw a friend’s home outfitted with DR goods. Pick up “Design Research” directly from the publisher, Chronicle Books or get it from Amazon .

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Design Research

Large-format photography of contemporary Americana in Alec Soth’s retrospective Likening his process to “web surfing in the real world,” photographer Alec Soth spent the past 15 years traversing the U.S. with an 8×10 field camera, quietly composing narratives of subjects he finds on his travels. While projects have taken the Twin Cities native down the Mississippi, to Bogota and back across the vast Midwest, Soth’s career retrospective ” From Here To There: Alec Soth’s America ” falls closer to home at Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center. The photographer’s vision of the U.S. is a lonely portrait of the American road. Using a free-associative method, Soth links the runaways and vagabonds he often depicts by allowing one person’s story to lead to the next, in a style similar to Robert Frank and William Eggleston. Stylistically, Soth’s use of the large-format camera captures exquisite details, documenting each of his subjects down to tattoos and paint-splattered clothes. The cumbersome camera takes time to set up, but arguably its this time he spends with each person that makes for the disarming intimacy of each image. While the feeling of displacement runs throughout the survey of his work, it’s clear he has given each of his subjects a home among each other. “From Here To There: Alec Soth’s America” includes new works as well as previous projects and is up through through 16 January 2011. Also on Cool Hunting: Fashion Magazine by Alec Soth

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From Here To There: Alec Soth’s America

Minnesota’s family-friendly outdoor venue offers large-scale installations, art festivals and residency programs Open year round, Minnesota’s Franconia Sculpture Farm features a perpetually rotating cast of contemporary works from emerging American artists. The 20-acre wide outdoor park also offers an artist in residency program, where both interns or more established artists can utilize the space to create installations and sculptures. Construction on new projects takes place every year between April and November, and visitors are encouraged to probe and converse with the working artists. During the summer the park also hosts the 3-D Music Festival, inviting musicians to perform family-friendly shows and increasing the community’s exposure to different forms of art. Empowerment through exposure to the arts is one of the founding traditions of the park, and is kept alive today through programs for children and at-risk teens. Franconia has collaborated with the Minneapolis programs Kulture Klub and Projects Offstreets in the past, as well as Native American organizations such as Ain Dah Yung and Dream of Wild Health in order to promote teenage participation in the arts. Just 45 minutes northeast of the Twin Cities, the Franconia Sculpture Park is a must-see for art lovers, children and travelers alike. Some of their more popular events (such as the Kids Make Sculpture workshops or the Hot Metal Pour) recommend reservations, but the park is open to the public and always free of charge. photos by Josh Rubin

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Franconia Sculpture Farm