The Bangladesh military says it has foiled a bid by mutinous officers to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Month: January 2012
For the first time in modern history, Russia is turning to foreign weapons manufacturers to boost its military arsenal. Russia’s armed forces have already signed contracts with Italy and France.
A new documentary film takes food giant Nestlé to task for its water bottling practices. Critics say the multinational is busy extracting ground water for its bottled brands and leaving locals, often in poor corners of the world, with the dirty remains.
Art might be the only thing harder than politics to pull off in Gaza, with limits imposed by both Islamists and Israelis. Still, there are small and big achievements, like Palestinian artist Mohamad Abusal’s dream of a full-fledged metro system c
We’re used to seeing blatant racism in children’s classics such as TinTin. But are contemporary books just as guilty of propagating African clichés?
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‘Smoking object’ tossed at the White House
A “smoking object” was thrown over the White House fence late Tuesday. Authorities have closed the north gate of the residence while the object is being investigated.
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Uk unemployement hits 17-year high
Official figures show that Britain’s unemployment rate spiked to 8.4 percent in November, its highest level since 1995.
Five foreign tourists have been killed in Ethiopia in an attack by unknown gunmen in the northern Afar region.
An upcoming documentary lays out an intriguing new twist in the historical saga of the Cold War space race: Yugoslavia had secretly made major advances in space travel technology. Did Yugoslav leader Tito make a pact with President Kennedy that would chan
Essay: As the death toll climbs in Italy’s cruise ship disaster, Concordia captain Francesco Schettino must answer charges that he abandoned his post in the hour of greatest need. It’s a tale as old as the sea itself, where courage or fe
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Egypt’s Africa Problem
Analysis: While everyone from Chinese to Turks is busy profiting from Africa’s newfound economic growth, Egypt has been slow to capitalize on opportunities on its own continent. It’s a question of both initiative and identity for a count
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Rafael Nadal Gets His Game Face Back
The Spaniard is coming off a 2011 that saw him served as a whipping boy for Serbian sensation Novak Djokovic in a series of tournament finals. He insists that his game — and his will — are back in full stride.
Analysis: A French look at the euro zone’s prospects after Standard and Poor’s (S&P) downgraded the public debt of half of the euro zone. Not only did France lose equal partnership with Germany, Italy risks sinking further into crisis. Bu
The small Baltic nation was caught between Soviet and Nazi ambitions, and Estonian members of SS units are remembered by some for staving off the Red Army. But others can’t forget that some 1,000 Estonian Jews, 250 Roma and 7,000 Christians were
Along the river Evros, at the Turkish border, the Greek town of Nea Vyssa has become the first point of arrival for immigrants coming from all points east. Nowhere can you see better both the hopes and futility of the waves of immigration that continue to
Lawyers for the ousted Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, have begun arguing the case for the defense, after his trail reopened in Cairo.
A handful of large websites, including Wikipedia and Reddit, have confirmed they will go dark on Wednesday to protest the SOPA anti-piracy bill that critics say will wreck the Internet as we know it.
Italian naval divers have blasted holes in the hull of a cruise ship grounded off a Tuscan island to speed the search for 29 missing people while seas are still calm.
The “veil,” a work from an Italian-French team, is the first new major architectural addition to the Louvre since the famed pyramid entrance of I.M. Pei opened. It will cover three floors and 4,600 square meters of new exhibition space d
Sweden claimed the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature for one of its own. But a visit to the home of Tomas Tranströmer finds a complex road to communication, as the ageing poet relies on a few spoken words and gestures, his wife’s aid — and, of cou
Panic was unleashed aboard the Costa Concordia after it ran aground Friday night off the tiny Italian island of Giglio. Claudio Masia, 49, had his entire family to rescue, from his two children to his elderly parents. In the end, he couldn’t quit
At least six people have died after a cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Tuscany. The owners of the cruise ship say there may have been significant human error on the part of the ship’s captain, an allegation he denies.
Labor leaders have rejected the Nigerian government’s concession to drop fuel prices after a nationwide strike paralyzed the country last week.
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Huntsman quits GOP race
GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman has decided to drop out of the race and endorse Mitt Romney.
Brazil is portrayed as the poster child for Latin American potential, while Mexico is the symbol for what’s gone wrong. But with near identical growth rates and similarly ambivalent trading relationships with China, Brazil and Mexico share simila
Lawyers for both Philipp Hildebrand, the recently resigned president of the Swiss National Bank, and for Bank Sarasin, a Swiss private bank, may take separate actions on privacy grounds against the Zurich weekly Weltwoche that broke the story that led to
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Meet China’s Most Open Party Leader
Both by what he says and what he blogs, Chinese politician Zhang Chunxian appears to want to truly hear from the people he’s charged to lead. But he may have pushed his luck by posting messages on his microblog account directly from inside a Comm
“Tunisia Has Not Become Islamist…” So declares newly installed President of the Republic Moncef Marzouki, a longtime opposition leader, now considered the secularist counterweight to the majority Islamist party, Ennahda.
The German travel company Dertour, one of the world’s leading tour operators, publishes catalogues covering many different countries and themes each season. Now for the first time, a catalogue is out called ‘Gay Travel,’ with some offers
From portraits of world famous authors to pulsating religious rites in his hometown, Sicilian photographer Ferdinando Scianna has an expansive body of work. A major retrospective is on display now in two locations in Palermo.
A London-based project dubbed OPEC (Orange Peel Exploitation Company) aims to make biofuel from the waste from the more than 10 million tons of oranges that Brazil squeezes into juice each year. It is the latest of many research projects aiming cut CO2 em
Good news for people who can “only” afford cars like the Mercedes S-Class or Porsche 911 Turbo S. Ferrari, Lamborghini and other ultra-deluxe automakers are starting to market models that run in the $200,000 range.
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US warns: Terrorist threat to Bangkok
The US embassy in Thailand has alerted its citizens to possible terrorist attacks on tourist locations in Bangkok.
Some of the most important Burmese political dissidents have been freed. It is another sign that top officials in the long repressive Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, are softening their stance toward the opposition.
Obama administration officials say they are relying on a secret channel of communication to warn Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that closing the Strait of Hormuz is a “red line” that would provoke an American response.
Though he still gets his kicks doing motorcross and car rallies, Rossi, now 32, has secured his status as one of history’s best ever motoGP racers. Before the 2012 season, he reflects on the death of a fellow Italian racer, and eyes the road to one more c
Op-Ed: As the winter presidential campaign sets to heat up, Vladimir Putin has laid out a campaign platform that is intended to neither inspire nor enrage. So lacking in ambition, his list of promises even includes goals that have already been achieved.
A sports collection, new fabrics, fewer gold buttons and an influx of Indian money have Escada back on track. The German clothing company still isn’t back to break-even, but sales – up 7% last year – look set to keep rising.
In an in-depth interview, the legendary American director explains how he scanned dusty files from the past in search of the keys for understanding longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, one of the 20th century’s most powerful and indecipherable
The Fitch ratings agency offers the latest vote of no-confidence on Italy’s finances, as the situation only grows worse in Greece. Germans try to measure whether the vicious cycle of bailouts will ever end.