Spending our days on the interwebs has its advantages, one being that we come across lots of excellent pieces of journalism. Every week, we'll bring you our favorite online reads that didn't appear on our site. Disagree with the selection? Leave your suggestions in the comments or tweet #bestreads at @HuffPostWorld.
Syria Divided: Crossing A Bridge Where A Sniper WaitsLA Times -- Raja AbdulrahimPeople call it the crossing of death. The Karaj al-Hajez crossing and bridge divide the rebel-held part of Syria's Aleppo from neighborhoods under government control. Every day, hundreds of people attempt to make it from one side to the other — in search of food, relatives or friends. But a sniper has focused his crosshairs on the bridge, ensuring that every single day a few passersby don't make it across.
With Or Against UsMada Masr -- Sarah CarrSarah Carr predicts Egypt is headed for a kind of media repression unseen in recent years. "The current regime is combining the very best of pre-2011 media repression techniques with a classic February 2011 xenophobia campaign, combined with the force of an Interior Ministry stretching its sinewy muscles as it resurrects itself."
Female Car-Washer Makes A Living In A Man's World In Northern NigeriaThe Guardian -- Monica MarkMeet 27-year-old Madinat Aliyu, the only female car-washer in the north of Nigeria. While she has been threatened and made insulted, Aliyu has no plans to give up. "My grandmother cried for many days. Some people thought it was a joke to bring more customers. Others said if she is doing it for money, let's just give her money to stop disgracing us," she said. "But I hate laziness or depending on somebody else."
An Afghan Poet Shapes Metal And Hard WordsNYTimes -- Azam AhmedOne of Afghanistan's most famous poets feeds his family by working in a garage repairing Pakistani caravan trucks. “A poet’s job is not to write about love,” Matiullah Turab said. “A poet’s job is not to write about flowers. A poet must write about the plight and pain of the people.”
Homes Are Us: The World According To IkeaLe Monde/Worldcrunch -- Laure BelotIKEA counts stores across 41 countries, reaching roughly one billion people around the world. Seven hundred million customers visited one of the the yellow-and-blue stores in 2012, and the company's catalogue is the most printed publication after the Bible and Mao's Little Red Book. But can the Swedish furniture giant teach us anything about living patterns around the world?