Word: matted
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...grew up in a “barefoot” house: At the front door, a shoe rack accompanied the welcome mat where family and guests alike kicked off footwear before entering. Even inside, we rarely wore house slippers; socks wore donned only out of necessity, perhaps in winter when the cold marble of the foyer was especially chilling. To wear shoes in the house was a breach of etiquette, for it crudely dragged in the dirt of the outside world. Nowhere was this more emphasized than in our prayer room: “Cleanliness is next to Godliness...
...Hizballah fighter, dressed in camouflage trousers, boots and a cream-colored sweater, puts down his AK-47 rifle and stands before his small prayer mat, his head bowed for the early evening ritual. Behind him is a simple one-man hut next to a swing gate. It is the entrance to a sealed-off hillside base, one of many that have sprung up over the last year in the rugged mountains and stony valleys around Rihan, a southern Lebanese village. The entrance to another no-go zone, along a rutted dirt track, is advertised by a sign that reads: WARNING...
...best way to protect civilians from terrorist attacks is to prevent them from being planned. One goal is not separate from the other. But governments still tend to focus much of their time and money on our last lines of defense--explosives sniffers at airports and haz-mat suits for firefighters. That's the equivalent of building a really deep castle moat and waiting for the invaders to arrive. "Unless you can arrest [terrorists] before they get to execution stage, your chances of averting bloodshed and death come down to luck," says a French former counterterrorism official...
...soldiers, bureaucrats and Cabinet Ministers - they have not been paid since January. Civil servants received only three months' pay last year. The country also has no prison. In the squalid lockup in the judicial police compound, 66-year-old Aboubakar Seidi stumbles to his feet from a grimy sponge mat, and tells me he has spent five months there with no trial or lawyer's visit. He's suspected of knowing who killed a military commander last January, but he insists: "I know nothing...
...Thirty years ago, perhaps, but today Shinobu is anything but ordinary. The proper Japanese meal, prepared by the mother and eaten on the tatami mat by the entire family, is increasingly rare, thanks to long hours at work and at school, and social changes that have resulted in more women working out of the home and delaying marriage. With limited time and inclination for balanced home cooking, many people simply grab prepackaged meals at ubiquitous convenience stores, or down fattening fast food. That has nutritionists and public officials fearing that knowledge of traditional Japanese cooking - and eating -is being lost...