News that Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party won 53% of the seats in parliamentary elections sparked protests in both Moscow and St. Petersburg. Unsure they can sustain a mass movement now, organizers have their sights set on Putin’s upcoming r
Month: December 2011
European stocks dropped following Standard & Poor ‘s threat to downgrade 15 Euro zone countries.
In another step toward finding Earth-like planets that may hold life, NASA said that the Kepler space telescope has confirmed its first-ever planet in a habitable zone outside our solar system.
At least 58 people are dead after explosions hit the Afghan cities of Kabul and Mazar-e Sharif on the Shiite holy day of Ashura, officials say.
Inheritance can provide a nest egg for children of the deceased. But increasingly in France, deceased parents leave a mountain of debt to children who can’t afford to pay it off. A sign of both economic hard times and shifting demographics.
Op-Ed: Examples abound of Latin American first ladies trying to succeed their husbands as president. That’s not a good thing. “Family presidencies” represent a step backward for a region whose executive branches already have too much power.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia won slightly less than 50% of the vote in the State Duma elections, which coincided with an unprecedented series of threats against media and hacker episodes against websites of many liberal outlets,
Throughout the euro zone, banks are quietly hemorrhaging money as nervous clients seek safer havens for their cash. Some large companies deposit directly with the European Central Bank. Other clients are looking north, to the presumably more secure Scandi
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Syria says ready to sign Arab League deal
Syria has responded “positively” to a proposed Arab League plan aimed at ending eight months of violence, and expects the agreement to be signed soon, says Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad al-Makdesi.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted permission to apply to England’s Supreme Court in a final attempt to block his extradition to Sweden over rape allegations.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s party saw its majority in Russia’s parliament weaken sharply, according to preliminary election results released Monday, a humiliating setback for the man who has steadily tightened his grip on the nation
In France, a controversial new decree is wreaking havoc among foreign-born francophone students who arrived looking to enter the global elite via the country’s top universities. Now that they have their degrees, they are being told to leave. Is t
Many Kosovar Serbs would rather throw their lot in with Russia than with the European Union, which is currently considering Kosovo’s request for membership. Thousands have requested Russian citizenship, saying it would protect them from ethnic Al
By acting more like its American counterpart, the European Central Bank (ECB) can help calm the continent’s shaky markets. But don’t expect it to “solve” the crisis – at least not without cooperation from Europe’s stingy commercial banks.
Peter Priller was a Catholic town chaplain in Germany until he fell in love with a male parishioner, and was subsequently excommunicated. Though many closeted gay Catholic priests live in “secret societies,” Priller says there are other choices.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez says he’s cancer-free and ready to rule another 20 years. But others say there’s reason to question both his health and political future. If cancer doesn’t end his presidency, next year’s October election may.
The Italian Jewish author and scientist lived through the worst that mankind has wrought. Now his name lives on beyond his work, and beyond the earth, in a 17-km-wide celestial body — discovered in 1989 — that has now officially been named planet Primol
Europe is threatening stiffer sanctions on Iran following a recent attack by students on the British Embassy in Tehran. Diplomacy remains the strategy of choice for the Europeans, but at least one German lawmaker isn’t ruling out military intervention.
One of the many unusual chapters of the Republican candidate’s biography was a four-year stint in France as a teenager. But will the brainy but flawed presidential candidate, now surging in the polls, wind up more of a de Gaulle or DSK?
Under cover of darkness, Chaim Lazaros works the streets of New York City disguised as “Life,” a real life superhero with a mission to help the homeless. He’s not alone. The U.S. is now home to some 300 wannabe urban vigilantes determined to help their fe
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U.N. puts death toll at 4,000 in Syria
Syria has entered a state of civil war with more than 4,000 people dead and an increasing number of soldiers defecting from the army to fight President Bashar Assad’s regime, according to the U.N.’s top human rights official.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continued her visit in Myanmar with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who intends to run in upcoming parliamentary elections. The secretary was to tour Suu Kyi’s home, where the activist spent
German Chancellor Angela Merkel likened solving Europe’s debt crisis to a marathon, shunning investor calls for quick action while pushing for stricter budget enforcement and overhauling the region’s governance.
Analysis: China’s decidion to donate 23 school buses to Macedonia seemed like a small, generous gesture. But it has sparked a firestorm of criticism from ordinary Chinese, still angry about a badly overcrowded school bus that crashed in rural Chi
A R A B I C A ارابيكا By Kristen Gillespie EGYPT, ELECTIONSIn Cairo, the High Elections Commission is postponing for a third time the announcement of parliamentary election results. A larger-than-expected voter turnout is responsible for the delay, the commission said. EGYPT, RESERVESAlso in Egypt, foreign-currency reserves are expected to drop to $15 billion […]
Chinese manufacturers have figured out a way to cash in on Brazilian Catholicism, flooding the market with inexpensive images of Our Lady of Aparecida, Brazil’s patron saint. Local producers can’t compete, and want the government to intervene.
As U.S. Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton makes a historic visit, Myanmar may be starting to edge to more openness, and perhaps even real democracy. But along the border with China, the so-called “golden triangle”is a haven of drug and
The Federal Administrative Court in Germany has ruled against an 18-year-old Muslim student involved in a drawn-out legal quest for permission to pray openly at school. The decision, however, does not rule out all prayer at school, which pleased activists
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Market Bomb and Gun Attack Kill 17 in Iraq
The two separate attacks in Northeastern Iraq came on the third day of US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Iraq.
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Pakistan fed up with NATO airstrikes
Pakistan announced that it would cease to support the War on Terror if NATO does not stop bombing parts of Pakistan.
Laurent Gbagbo’s trial for crimes against humanity will start on Monday at the International Criminal Court.
Op-Ed: With the euro on the brink of collapse, German Chancellor Merkel wants to exploit the acute crisis to impose strong fiscal discipline across the currency union. But facing a vicious cycle of low confidence, now may actually be the wrong time to tig