Cafebabel.com

The US-based Turkish architect shared his experiences on design and architecture with students at the groundbreaking Connect-Collaborate-Create seminar in Istanbul, in November 2012

Barcelona, la capital de la comunidad autónoma de Catalunya y ​​la segunda ciudad más grande de España, es una de las ciudades más multiculturales del país, donde los extranjeros oficialmente registrados representan el 17,4% de la población total. Cada uno con su propia razón de por qué vinieron a Barcelona, ​​cada uno con su propio deseo de una vida mejor, ayer todos se prepararon para celebrar la noche más larga del año. En esta entrada voy a presentar algunas personas, que viven en el mismo edificio que el mío, tratando así de mostrar la diversidad cultural a través de sus celebraciones del año nuevo.

By Thomas Bignal

A survey published by ComRes only a few weeks ago pointed that 54% of the British public were willing to leave the EU, a number far higher than their other European counterparts. How come the British people are so adamantly opposed to the EU that they would rather leave the Union as a whole, rather than play an important role from within?

By Marnix de Witte

The Hives! This Swedish garage rock band has, during more than fifteen years, established itself as one of the most exciting live rock acts. Their energy and stage performance are unbeatable. Cafebabel asked the band some questions; about Belgium, their experiences throughout Europe, and their Swedish roots. What is the European dimension of this band after all these touring years?

In mid-2011, youtube exploded with the video of a petite, dark-haired girl dancing around the colourful streets and markets of Paris, along with a belly dancer and foreign looking youngsters, singing in French to an upbeat rhythm mixed with oriental tunes. It turned Riff Cohen into a sensation. Born in Tel Aviv to a French-Algerian mother and an Israeli father with a Tunisian background, the 27-year-old has been working towards her first official video since childhood

By Carlo Peano

On the 5th December 2012 the Renewables Grid Initiative (RGI) organized the Second European Grid Conference in order to explain the lessons learned by its members during the last few years.

The controversial theory of impending doom has it that the world will end this Friday, 21 December. Nasa says don't worry about it. But I do: religion, gender, human rights, economy .... before the world ends, I had to get this off my chest - if not, I have to put this rant out there in case the EU decides to start up again as it has been doing

The world ends on 21 December 2012 (as the Mayan calendar decided) and we're left with only a few places on the biblical boat, a chance to create a new society two by two. So what are the objects and who are the companions we'd most take on board with us after doomsday? Members of cafebabel.com's pan-European network share all

El Coco in Spain, Black Pete in the Netherlands, the croque-mitaine in France and the Butzemann in Germany - this band of amorphous beings and monsters are closely related to the Anglo-Saxon Bogeyman who is evoked by adults to ensure children comply with their rules

How does the end of the world happen? Does a meteor crash into Earth, or does a tsunami come to engulf us, like the movies show? Does facebook start charging for its social network services? Anyway the apocalypse is already here - it's just that we've been too busy to notice it because we have been tagging ourselves on FourSquare

Vintage can be trendy, boring, hipster or fake. But what does the term really mean - does the new version of Fiat 500 or a super trendy Mini car qualify as vintage? Is it a trend, lifestyle or an answer to reduce Europe overgrown consumption, asks Artur Krzykowiak

The story of the end of the world started with the planet Nibiru. It collided with earth and almost provoked its destruction in 2003, before being re-prophecised for December 2012. Nasa scientists assured citizens well in advance of the insignificance of the date, but some Europeans more than others are susceptible to the bad news 

'Stay hungry, stay choosy' was the reply of young Italians to the gaffe made by the welfare minister Elsa Fornero, when she invited lazy young citizens to stop being so ‘choosy’ – a term she even made the effort to pronounce in English, instead of the Italian ‘schizzinosi’ – about working

A mass school shooting in Connecticut left 20 children and 6 adults dead on 15 December. Newly re-elected president Obama has warned that the country can no longer tolerate such tragedies. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California plans to introduce a new weapons ban bill at the start of congress in January 2013. Europe remembers its own gun tragedies

By Aris Kokkinos

To boost growth between the EU and the Arab world is the ambition of many public and private institutions, both in the West and in the East. On December 4, Friends of Europe and Dansk Industri organized a meeting whose purpose was to pave the way in this direction.

While on a cycling trip through Europe in 2011, I travelled across the continent from west to east, across fifteen borders, two seas, over three major mountain ranges and innumerable potholes. I intermittently followed the Eurovelo Cycle Route 6 which leads adventurous travelling cyclists from the Atlantic to the Black Sea