Photo Essays

For one month a year, the daily routines of Muslims are determined not only by prayer rituals, but also by sunrise and sunset. During the hours of daylight, the faithful are required to desist from eating and drinking and instead exercise self-discipline and abstinence. But for many Muslims, Ramadan brings with it a whole host of other challenges.

Ramadan is a holy month for the world's Muslims. It is a month of peace and the time in which the Koran was first sent down from heaven to the Prophet Mohammed. The fasting takes place from sunrise to sunset and means abstinence from eating, drinking and sex. It is a form of worship. Those who fast should gain a better appreciation of the predicament of the poor and the destitute. Ramadan is also a month devoted to intensive prayer and social welfare. Our slide show presents impressions of Ramadan from the varied Islamic cultures all across Asia.

The Arab Spring has many faces: Anger, hope, exhaustion and outright fear have marked the lives of thousands of people between Libya and Syria in recent months. While there is already widespread concern at the prospect of counter-revolutions and frustration at the political stagnation following the ousting of the old guard in some nations, in others people still fear for their survival

The history of the Jews in Iraq has been documented since the Babylonian captivity, which began c. 586 C.E. During this period, Jews who had settled in and around Babylon were quickly assimilated into Babylonian society. Iraqi Jews not only flourished at this time, they also represented the oldest and most significant religious-historic Jewish community in the world. The Talmud dates from this period. In the 20th century, many Jews left the country as a result of persecution and pogroms following the Arab-Israeli war (1948).

Syria is suffering the effects of the civil war. Forty percent of the nation's infrastructure has been destroyed. Four million people have been bombed out of their homes. Everyday life is becoming increasingly difficult in the worst-hit regions. Impressions from Andreas Stahl

It's been a year since Moammar Gadhafi's death - how are Libyans going about their lives and what remains of his legacy? A photo essay by Gaia Anderson

Libya celebrates its first national Liberation Day, a year after the country deposed of Moammar Gadhafi's rule. By Gaia Anderson

While Muslims in Western Europe still represent a very recent phenomenon, Muslims have been settling in Eastern Europe for several centuries – in Belarus, Poland, and Lithuania, for example. Here, they are an integral part of the population. At the beginning of the 14th century a group of Tatars settled on territory encompassing the former Arch Duchy of Lithuania who were, in a name derived from the old Crimean Tatar word "Lipka" for Lithuania, called "Lipka Tatars". Today, several thousand descendants of this people live in the region. Photos: Ahmed Krausen, texts: Annett Hellwig

The innumerable symbols and slogans in graffiti, banners and leaflets that served the Arab demonstrators as a means for political protest against their autocratic rulers were at times rich in metaphor, laconic and ironic, and at other times more direct and accusatory.

Afghan soccer fans celebrate the country's first premier league football final. By Waslat Hasrat-Nazimi