It might once have been at the heart of the pearl hunting trade, but nowadays Qatar stakes its claim as the pearl of the Persian Gulf. Few countries have had the Cinderella moment that this tiny, Middle Eastern nation has experienced, transforming from dull, desert state to a sparkling gem of futuristic skyscrapers and city chic. That’s right: Qatar got cool. What’s more, for those looking for teaching jobs in Qatar, it has never been a better time to pack up your whiteboard markers and jet off to the Middle East.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — More than two months into Israel's war against Hamas, the militant group's popularity appears to be rising dramatically among Palestinians in the West Bank. "Hamas made the most important action against Israel since its existence," says Nihad Abughosh, a Palestinian journalist and political analyst, who describes himself as a secular moderate. "To me it's something like a miracle, the 7th of October," he tells NPR in an interview in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Florida Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy, the first woman born in Vietnam to serve in Congress and the first minority woman to co-chair the moderate Blue Dog Coalition, said Monday she would not seek a fourth term in 2022.  “These last few years have been some of the most rewarding moments of my life, but also some of the most challenging,” she said in a video announcing her decision. “Public service is not without personal sacrifice.

A new animated Super Mario movie is about to hit theaters, coincidentally, 30 years after the first film based on the video game—in fact, the first film based on any video game—was released. Everyone behind it is no doubt hoping that the Chris Pratt-led The Super Mario Bros. Movie will do much better than 1993's Super Mario Bros., which was a box office flop and a critical failure. Other than the characters having the same names, that live-action adaptation is barely connected to the iconic Nintendo game, and as some of the filmmakers and actors explained in a new oral history of the film for Inverse, the production was a mess.

PASSAU, Germany, March 24, 2009 — -- It's what many movies are made of: the perfect crime. Identical twins Hassan and Abbas O., charged in a spectacular multimillion-dollar jewelry heist in Germany, have gone free because their genetic information is so similar that traces of DNA found at the crime scene failed to provide conclusive evidence for trial. In the early morning hours of Sunday, Jan. 25, thieves managed to break into Berlin's famous, luxury department store Kaufhaus des Westens, universally known as KaDeWe, stealing fine jewelry and pricey watches worth $6.