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By Leila Sheikh A kanga is regular piece of cloth, which has a border running around all the four sides and has a central motif often depicting a flower. What distinguish kanga from other African print cloth are the proverbs that are printed on the lower part of the cloth and which are always boxed. Kanga as a form of clothing gained ascendancy on the East African coast in the late 19 th century.  Prior to that women on the East African coast wore kaniki (an indigo cloth) or marekani (calico) which were both tied as a wrapper under the armpits.  Most drawings showing women on the coast around this time used only the one piece of cloth which they tied around their bodies and gathered in one pleat over the left breast.  With the advent of Kanga, women started using two pieces of cloth, one for wrapping around the body and one for covering the head or as a shawl. By 1900, women on the East African Coast had started wearing kanga in the way it is worn now and it had bec

By  Olivier Baube View  Rome (AFP) - Pope Francis raised eyebrows in Italy on Tuesday by slapping down the left-leaning mayor of Rome as someone who "pretends to be Catholic". The unforgiving assessment of Ignazio Marino -- a man the Italian media love to hate -- further heightened tensions between the pope and the mayor in the run-up to the start of the Holy Year of Mercy in December, with the Vatican fearful the Italian capital is ill-prepared for the millions of extra pilgrims. "He pretends to be Catholic, it came on him all of a sudden. It doesn't happen like that," Francis said. The pope's cutting comments on the politician -- who observers say rubbed the pontiff up the wrong way with his vocal support of gay marriage and euthanasia -- came as Francis returned from a barnstorming visit to the United States and Cuba. Asked on the flight home if the pope had invited Marino, Francis said, "I didn't invite the

Perri O. Blumberg Source: iStock A new study published in the journal Obesity, which can be  found via WebMD , found that preloading water   before  meals helps you lose  weight . The study looked at 84 obese adults and had 41 members of the group drink around 16 ounces of water before meals, while the other 43 adults were asked simply to imagine being full before digging into their food. (And yes, we’re talking pure, natural water here — no pre-packaged fizzy waters or store-bought bottles of flavored water that can sometimes also contain sugar or chemicals.) Interestingly, those who had the 16 ounces of H2O before meals lost an average of 2.87 pounds more than those who just pictured themselves full. In fact, over the course of the 12 weeks, those who filled up on water prior to eating the three main meals a day lost an average of 9.48 pounds, whereas doing it just once a day or not at all resulted in an average loss of 1.76 pounds. So beyond potential weight l

Pope Francis had harsh words for global leaders on Friday. Headshot of Daniel Marans Daniel Marans Reporter, The Huffington Post Posted: 09/25/2015 01:52 PM EDT Pope Francis’ speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday may have addressed similar themes as his address to Congress on Thursday, but the tone could not have been more different, with the pontiff issuing a scathing indictment of the U.N.’s failure to fulfill its mission. The speech was also notable for the pope’s curious omission of the global refugee crisis. The pope took the U.N. to task for failing to prevent the wars raging across the world and protect minority groups from persecution. He singled out the persecution of Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East and Africa as a source of shame for the global body. “These realities should serve as a grave summons to an examination of conscience on the part of those charged with the conduct of international affai

Francis issues law allowing for fast-track decisions and for appeals to be judged by local churches rather than the Vatican 0:00 / 1:10 Marriage annulment change allows church to show ‘understanding’ - link to video Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Vatican City Tuesday 8 September 2015 12.18 BST Last modified on Wednesday 9 September 2015 01.05 BST Comments 342  Save for later The Vatican is making it much easier for Catholics to annul their marriages following a push by Pope Francis for reformation of a process long criticised for being complicated, costly and out of reach for many. Rules unveiled on Tuesday speed up the annulment process, with a fast-track procedure now available, and allow for appeals to be judged by a local church official rather than the Vatican in what represents a significant decentralisation of power away from Rome. The pope said the changes would not encourage or “favour” the nullifying of marriage, but instead alter the time it took to complete the p