No person is alike—we all like and dislike different things. Some people love hummus, some hate it, some love soccer, some can’t keep their eyes open longer than 10 minutes.

However, there are a few traits that most singles are looking for in a potential partner. There are just some things that nearly everybody wants and desires. Once you know what they want and how to portray this, then you will be one step ahead of the pack:

A Swiss businessman defied the country’s recently imposed constitutional amendment banning minarets, by building his very own minaret atop his office.

Guillame Morand opposed the ban on the new construction of minarets in the country, which is an effort to curb militant Islam. Morand, the owner of a chain of shoe stores, vehemently countered the ban by building the minaret atop the chimney above his office.

Being engaged is at once exciting, wonderful and completely frightening. Oftentimes, there’s this part of yourself that wants to just get the wedding over with and just start your life with this person, but there’s this other part…that, well wants to hang onto the life you’ve known and built.

It’s a stressful time and one of the most important transition periods in your life, if not THE most important. Before jumping into a marriage though, there are some topics that should be discussed. It’s much better to find out what assumptions your partner or you may have now, rather than later. Here are some good questions to ask yourselves:

You’ve got your profile all set up and ready. Picture up? Check. Bio? Check. Information on the kind of person you’re looking for? Check. The profile is done, but are you truly making the most out of it? It’s important to personalize your profile so that you can accurately reflect yourself on this one single page among the thousands upon thousands of similar ones on ArabLounge.

London. Just the name conjures up images in my head of glittering skylines, ancient-looking brownstone buildings and vast stretches of concrete coupled with snow-draped trees.
It’s a metropolitan city unlike any in the world.

The melting pot of England comes to a boil in London, where sections of the city have been carved out by different ethnicities and some neighborhoods are a mishmash of everything under the sun, where everyone lives together under the same dreary sky.

“So…what are you doing Friday night?” It’s an awkward question, one fraught with multiple meanings, eagerness and above all, fear.

Being asked out has a lot of emotions attached to it. First, there’s the flattery. It’s that ‘hey, someone likes me and is asking me out.’ There’s also the surge of happiness—that is, if it comes from someone you like back.

However, there are times when inevitably, someone you’re just not interested in for whatever reason, will ask you out. For those times when you’d rather a giant hole open up in the earth and swallow you alive, use some of the tips mentioned below to stave off a potentially terrible date. It takes class, honesty, and a whole lot of tact to turn down someone respectfully yet firmly. Here are some good ways:

A Russian-born German man was sentenced to life in prison last week for fatally stabbing a pregnant Egyptian woman in a courtroom last July.

The sentencing has been long-awaited since Alexander Wiens fatally stabbed the woman, who was a pharmacist, in the very same German courtroom where he was sentenced. Marwa al-Sherbini was described by family and friends as an upstanding citizen, and human rights activists and the Arab population worldwide decried the brutal murder of both her and her unborn child.

The scenario is always the same–your aunt eagerly tells you she has a beautiful, eligible woman who would love to meet you and who comes from a wonderful family—she’s educated, charming and is adept at all household chores. So, you decide to meet; you think, “hey, I’ve got nothing to lose, right?” Well, she doesn’t exactly turn out to be how your aunt describes—she’s at least 10 years older, and doesn’t seem to be very interested in what you have to say. The first meeting goes disastrously, (at least it will make a good story for your buddies,) and you swear off anymore arranged dates.

I’m finding someone myself, you decide. I know what I like, and I’m perfectly capable of doing it on my own. That’s when you suddenly realize just how hard it can be to find someone that you connect with.

Nearly a month ago, a college student was getting ready to board his flight at Philadelphia International Airport, when he was asked to step aside, held in a questioning room for hours, handcuffed, and missed his flight for the day.

What exactly was it that made TSA suspicious of Nick George, the college senior from Pomona College in California? It certainly wasn’t his appearance. He’s got a clean-cut, California-surfer look that should have made it easy for him to breeze past the metal detectors and security.

Jaleel seemed like a great guy. He was charming, funny and very ambitious. Everything was going great until the day I heard him talking to his mother on the phone.

He was being so rude and short with her, that I couldn’t believe he was actually talking to his mother. I was a little startled, but I wasn’t sure exactly how to perceive this glimpse into another side of him.