Burqas and bikinis

Priyamvada Gopal: Time magazine's cover is the latest cynical attempt to oversimplify the reality of Afghan lives

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince poised for a multimedia return to Earth

The boy who lived on an asteroid whose tale was told in a classic French novella is being revived on TV, film and in print

The trial of Alan Shadrake for criticising the death penalty has damaged Singapore's standing

Conor Foley: Åsne Seierstad's crass violation of Afghan values makes a mockery of her claims of insight into their society

Joseph Bruchac: Modern generations are now realising that the immediacy and intimacy of live storytelling cannot be captured by technology

Response: My sources are legitimate. I've interviewed those who knew him and accessed his archive, says Stephen Games

Precious Arabic manuscripts from western Africa are under threat as Mauritania's desert libraries vanish

Guy Dammann: Our shallow obsession with gadgets disguises a conservatism where real change takes place at numbingly slow speed

Hotel immortalised in Thomas Mann novel – which quietly closed several months ago – to reopen as luxury apartment complex

The concept of identity and belonging is complex and fluid. Gary Younge joined us to discuss the subject of his new book

Antony Lerman: A decision to publish unseen Kafka papers is welcome, but not the notion that European Jewry's cultural assets belong to Israel

Sarah Churchwell: Sarah Palin may irk language scholars. But her portmanteaus put her in esteemed company

Marie Dhumières: Religious phrases are scattered liberally throughout Arabic languages. The secret to translating is not to take them literally

Alan Shadrake, 75, released on bail after book about country's death penalty led to defamation and contempt of court charges

Alan Shadrake held for alleged criminal defamation and other offences after visiting Singapore for book launch