Worldcrunch
In the past few years, the Chinese government has decided to dust off quite a number of “dormant” taxes, including those levied on property and personal income, as well as a local education surcharge, all signs of both the causes and effects of its high-o
Op-Ed: Le Monde remembers the Apple founder, as a corporate executive who was always more than a businessman. His gift was to see the ways that the latest technology could enter into ordinary lives.
The life and death of the visionary Apple founder is being shared — often on devices Jobs invented — all across the world.
Op-Ed: The demonstrations are chaotic and their messages tangled, but the Occupy Wall Street protesters are anything but crazy. In drawing attention to the gaping chasm between America’s haves and have-nots, they have correctly identified a situa
Some European companies and government offices are sticking it to their tobacco-loving employees, forcing them to punch the clock any time they step out for a cigarette break. In France, Belgium and Italy, the policy has sparked controversy and left smoke
Once upon a time, hand-painted portraits were more valued in Vietnam than photographs. But with the arrival of digital cameras, the country’s remaining portrait painters have faded to black. In the old royal city of Hue only one remains: Master Huu Vinh T
Alongside the changes emerging from the Arab spring, the fashion world in France’s southeast corner is shifting its focus away from Asia to its Mediterranean neighbors in North Africa, and establishing a textile industry network that is close at hand.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا By Kristen Gillespie FAISAL AL-QASSEM V. SYRIAN REGIME One of Al Jazeera’s most famous talk-show hosts, the combatative Faisal al-Qassem conducted an interview with a Syrian official that has gone viral in the Arab world. The highest-rated host on the highest-rated network presided over what can only […]
Op-Ed: President Obama has been wagging his finger at Europe, and Germany in particular, to do more to stimulate the world economy. It reveals a major transatlantic gulf on both philosophical and practical solutions to the global economic crisis.
With fares as low as 250 rubles, Avianova made a splash when it entered the competitive Russian market two years ago. But plagued from the start by delays and cancellations, the low-cost carrier will be grounding its fleet for good on October 9.
In Beijing, housing price per square meter is as high as $2,000, which means most people who work in the city can’t afford to live there. Government efforts at subsidized housing have fallen short, as China begins to pay the price for its modern
Vasily Aleksanyan is dead at 38. He used to be a lawyer and top executive of oil company Yukos, whose chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky is in jail since 2003. Aleksanyan had long battled with Russian authorities to be released from jail to be treated for AIDS.
Over the past six years, Germany has opened three treatment centers for men with pedophilic tendencies. Patients enter the therapy-based program voluntarily, as a way to explore their impulses and control their behavior – before it’s too late.
The not guilty verdicts in the Meredith Kercher murder case are a bitter pill for Italian investigators. That Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito walk free – after four years in prison – leaves no one satisfied.
Poverty is getting worse in Egypt, particularly in rural areas, according to a study released by the government statistics agency. Analysts blame the worsening situation in rural regions on the government’s bias in recent years towards funding urban devel
Op-Ed: Three cheers! The relevant EU states approved the new euro bailout package. There’s just one problem: everybody knows the money is not enough, which is why they are already planning their next steps. Why are politicians ignoring the truth and playi
A R A B I C A ارابيكا By Kristen Gillespie KILLERS IN SYRIAThe situation in Syria appears to be worsening further as intellectuals and doctors are being assassinated. Opposition activists blame the government for the deaths they say are an attempt to stoke sectarian tensions while the government continues to blame unnamed “armed terrorist […]
Two female reporters run the gauntlet at Oktoberfest and share their tales of grabbing, groping, drunken come-ons, sexist insults and flashing foreigners. For women, the annual event’s drunken antics can cross the line to degrading and even dangerous.
After this weekend’s arrest of some 700 activists in New York, the so-called Occupy Wall Street squatters appear to be gaining strength – and media interest. France’s Le Monde notes the parallels with Spain’s ‘Indignados’ movement.
In his first interview since being jailed in Switzerland in 2009, Oscar-winning director Polanski talks about the 1977 case of unlawful sex with a minor that led him to flee the U.S, and prompted his arrest two years ago. In the Swiss TV interview, the me
In France, a growing number of corporate coaches are taking unconventional approaches to introduce basic management skills. Some teach executives to work with horses. Others in the largely unregulated industry organize their trainings around cooking, musi
Outrage follows an investigation into the confiscation of a dozen infants from a poor rural area of Hunan province. There, local officials offered dozens of children up for adoption to foreigners after the biological parents failed to pay fines for violat
Essay: From centaurs to werewolves, people have long created human-animal hybrids in their imaginations. Biotechnology is now making that possible in the real world. But there are reasons to draw a line between what science can and should do.
A Swiss town has agreed, grudgingly, to accept 19 new asylum seekers. But the town is doing all it can to keep them out of sight, including a “Refugee path” that recalls “Jewish paths” that used to lead to and from ghet
Op-Ed: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is growing more strident in his rhetoric across the Muslim world, even as he cynically pursues Turkey’s self interest.
A shocking suicide in central France has prompted authorities to look at why, how and when a growing number of young children decide to take their own lives. Rates are highest in South Korea, lowest in Finland.