At least one person has died in fresh clashes between protesters and troops in the Egyptian capital Cairo, bringing the death toll since Friday to 11.
Categories
Month: December 2011
Seoul put South Korean forces on high alert and Pyongyang urged an increase in its “military capability” as the death of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Il spurred fresh security concerns in the tense region.
Many of India’s 170 million Dalits still live as outcasts. Some of these so-called “untouchables,” however, have turned to entrepreneurship as a way out of poverty and social isolation. Portrait of a nation caught between ancient traditions and bustling i
Op-Ed: As the US officially declares its military engagement over in Iraq, the toll can be measured in human lives, but also in a geopolitical chessboard ever more shaped by energy security.
Analysis: Changes are afoot in Latin America, where the influence of Venezuela’s cancer-stricken president, Hugo Chavez, is waning. President Obama, meanwhile, is looking to forge new ties – in both Latin America and Asia – via the Trans-Pacific Partnersh
The Chinese business world has seen several recent examples of how bad management of customer relations can inflict serious damage on the social web. But will the big corporations see the upside in time?
Op-Ed: The violence of Jewish settlers on the West Bank is no longer only aimed at Palestinians. Some settlers are attacking soldiers who are there for their protection. In the end, though, Jerusalem’s leadership has no one to blame but themselves.
A laboratory in Rennes is developing ‘bio-batteries,’ fuel cells that use bacteria rather than expensive metals to generate electricity.
The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) looks set to finish first following Thursday’s second round election for the People’s Assembly. Early results have the Nour Party in second place in most of the country’s governorates.
Engineers have brought the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to a “cold shutdown condition”, nine months after the earthquake and tsunami, Japan has confirmed.
Categories
Batman star ‘roughed up’ in China
Hollywood actor Christian Bale was blocked by security guards from visiting Chen Guangcheng, a Chinese human rights activist living under house arrest.
Retreating from their harsh partisan sniping, and perhaps fearing public rebuke, Congressional leaders have agreed on a large-scale spending measure to keep the government running for the next nine months.
Macedonia has become a new transit country for clandestine Afghan and Pakistani immigrants who gather near the Serbian border as they try to find their way into the European Union. Macedonian police turn a blind eye, and humanitarian groups aren’
Seven grandchildren of French carmaker Louis Renault are challenging the confiscation of property from the company’s 1945 forced nationalization. As the courts decide whether to hear the case, historians raise old questions about French industry’s role in
Op-Ed: Turkey’s economy grew by 8% in the third quarter of 2011, the world’s fastest growth rate after China. At the same time, however, its trade deficit is ballooning. A hard landing awaits. When it arrives, Turkish policy makers must accept re
Categories
Cracking Da Vinci’s Code On Tree Growth
Leonardo da Vinci certainly had an eye for detail – and a brain to match. Among his many musings was a theory that a tree’s branches grow in mathematical proportion to the diameter of its trunk. A French researcher now says he has the math to prove Da Vin
A Belgian M.P. in the European Parliament is so livid over David Cameron’s E.U. treaty veto that he is refusing even to speak the English language. Another accused the British Prime minister Tuesday of selling out to London bankers.
Op-Ed: Emerging countries are wobbling, Italy is paying record interest rates, and the Germans are on alert. With the next economic crisis gathering like a winter storm, politicians must act quickly – never forgetting the lessons of a certain 20th-century
In one of the worst-ever hooch tragedies in West Bengal, 111 people, mostly labourers, rickshaw-pullers and hawkers, died and over 50 were still battling for life in three hospitals after consuming spurious liquor at Mograhat in South 24 Parganas district
Categories
US officially shuts down war in Iraq
After nearly nine years, 4,500 American dead, 32,000 wounded and more than $800 billion, U.S. officials formally shut down the war in Iraq.
A French court has given former President Jacques Chirac a two-year suspended prison sentence for diverting public funds and abusing public trust.
Tanja Höls’ curiosity has earned her a big ‘thank you’ from the State Library in Passau Germany, where the 43-year-old janitor discovered more than 170 valuable old coins worth somewhere in the six figure range. The head of the library h
After two Senegalese men were slain in a central Florence market by a local man inspired by racist hatred, immigrants turned out in the Tuscan city to demand justice and insist that the murder was the fruit of years of official tolerance of xenophobic att
Exclusive: Pushed by human rights groups, the European Union is set to ban the sale to the United States of one of the main active substances needed for lethal injections. Sodium thiopental is already in short supply, and executions are now set to be furt
With a final decision looming, FIFA President Sepp Blatter has reversed his longstanding opposition to using instant replay to help referees. But other soccer officials oppose the idea, like UEFA President Michel Platini and German legend Franz Beckenbaur
Categories
Highest unemployment in UK since 1994
UK unemployment rose by 128,000 in the three months to October to 2.64 million, the highest level since 1994, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Prospects for a year-end congressional compromise on key tax and spending legislation grew more complicated, as the Republican House passed a controversial version of a payroll tax cut extension despite a veto threat from the White House.
Categories
Body found in home of Belgian attacker
Police in Belgium have found a woman’s body in a shed belonging to the gunman who went on a rampage in the center of Liege on Tuesday.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا By Kristen Gillespie TUNISIA TURNS PAGENewly sworn-in Tunisian President Monsef al-Marzouki said his primary task is “building the republic into a pluralistic democracy and tolerant society.” The challenges ahead are due largely to the “enormous devastation left by dictatorship,” with Marzouki pledging to strive for the “development […]
Before Afghanistan descended into civil war, a French geologist collected massive data on the country’s mining resources. His findings, recently rediscovered, could unlock huge wealth in the troubled nation. But look who’s already busy exploiting it…
From the Philippines to Mexico, things like extreme poverty, topography and security problems often make traditional banking a serious challenge. Global cell phone penetration, however, has opened up a new option: mobile banking.
A group of German sales reps have been caught with their pants down – so to speak – following revelations that they “had contact” with prostitutes during an incentive trip to Brazil. The scandal follows a similar story involving sales reps who behaved bad
Russian billionaire and New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has thrown his hat in the ring for next spring’s presidential election. Is it the most serious challenge to Vladimir Putin’s cake walk back to the Kremlin or a bit of Russia
A permanent alcohol ban went into effect Sunday for the S-Bahn, Munich’s subway system. The night before, thousands turned up for one last binge. Reporter Marco Marco Völklein shares his notes on this most unusual of underground parties.
Op-Ed: Britain’s Tories are elated over David Cameron’s recent E.U. Summit veto. On closer examination, however, the prime minister’s move may not be as “heroic” as they and the country’s conservative newspapers insist – especially if it causes a rupture
Categories
Syria rejects U.N. estimate of 5,000 dead
Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations rejected the world body’s estimate that 5,000 people have died in an uprising against the government, calling the allegation “incredible.”
Two U.S. Army helicopters crashed during training exercises at a Washington state military base, killing four aviators on board, the base said in a statement.
Iran’s defense minister, Ahmad Vahidi, shrugged off a U.S. request for the return of an American spy drone captured by Iranian armed forces and instead demands an apology from Washington.
Michele Zagaria’s arrest was hailed by Italian law enforcement as a key victory in the war against the Camorra crime syndicate in and around the southern city of Naples. But in the small town where Zagaria had been sheltered, his arrest means les
Analysis: As Japan tries to regain its late 20th century prowess in cultural exports, it should look next door to the steamrolling Chinese economy: both as a market and an industrial resource. A soft-power plan to conquer the world.