Persepolis 2.0

Intersections International. Join international fashion icon and social entrepreneur BiBi Russell for a presentation and discussion on Doing Good in Style. Featured in Asiaweek as one of the 20 people to watch in the millennium, Bibi Russell will share her journey from global super-model to a world leader in the fashion industry, and creating the concept of “Fashion for Development.”

Aleppo, Syria, Preserves the Past by Enhancing the Present – NYTimes.com. But this quiet plaza is the centerpiece of one of the most far-thinking preservation projects in the Middle East, one that places as much importance on people as it does on the buildings they live in. The project encompasses the rebuilding of crumbling streets and the upgrading of city services, the restoration of hundreds of houses in the historic Old City, plans for a 42-acre park in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods and the near-decade-long restoration of the Citadel itself, whose massive walls dominate the skyline of Aleppo,…

New Muslim comic book superhero on the way. Comic book fans will soon be getting their first glimpse at an unlikely new superhero – a Muslim boy in a wheelchair with superpowers.  The new superhero is the brainchild of a group of disabled young Americans and Syrians who were brought together last month in Damascus by the Open Hands Intiative, a non-profit organization founded by U.S. philanthropist and businessman Jay T. Snyder.