An Air France male flight attendant is suing the airline for discrimination and violation of his dignity. The cause of turbulence: his cornrows, which the aviation company believes are undermining its glamorous image.
Month: May 2012
EL PAÍS (Spain) BUENOS AIRES — Just days after finalizing the hostile takeover of Spanish-owned oil and gas company YPF, the Argentine government got even more hostile, freezing imports of Spain’s signature delicacy: ham. The Cristina Kirchner administration agreed to the measure at the behest of the Argentine meat industry and farmers, who are looking […]
Thilafushi Island, in the Maldivian archipelago, is a giant garbage dump where mountains of toxic trash are burned in the open, threatening to turn the Indian Ocean paradise into an ecological nightmare.
Analysis: The Obama administration has made its intentions clear in shifting US foreign policy attention toward Asia. Why has Beijing failed to understand the importance of strong diplomacy in its own backyard?
An Italian mother, now 58, and father, 70, are fighting to have their two-year-old back from foster care. The couple appealed in court to get the child back, claiming that she was taken away from them because of their age. Now a judge has ordered a new pr
Thieves in and around Sao Paolo are employing an effective, albeit not very delicate, tactic for robbing ATM machines. They blow them up. In the island town of Ilhabela, a gang of 20 men recently stormed ashore, exploded five ATMs, and took off with a sm
LE QUOTIDIEN D’ORAN (Algeria) ALGIERS – Algerians are turned off and tuned out when it comes to today’s legislative elections, Le Quotidien d’Oran reveals. The Algerian newspaper expects just a fraction of the country’s estimated 21 million voters to cast their ballots in the election, which will decide the next People’s National Assembly. Here’s a […]
EL MERCURIO (Chile) SANTIAGO – A pair of farm workers in northern Chile died Wednesday after being attacked by a raging bull that was captured – several hours later – with the help of a bulldozer. “After its capture the bull was killed,” El Mercurio Online reported. “According to witnesses, its furious reaction could have […]
LES ECHOS (France) PARIS – François Hollande, the French President-elect, has chosen the car he (or rather, his chauffeur) will drive down the Champs-Elysées on Inauguration Day. While outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy favored the Vel Satis by Renault five years ago, his Socialist successor picked the hybrid DS 5 by Citroën in a “metallic grey” […]
CHINA TIMES (Taiwan) SEOUL – In 35 separate drug raids, South Korean customs officials say they have confiscated 17,000 “capsules of human flesh” originating in China. These capsules are allegedly made from the corpses of dead babies or fetuses, according to information first reported in JoongAng Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper. This so-called “medicine” is […]
Editorial: From Spain’s indignados to Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, fringe groups are gaining strength in Europe. And while they don’t tend to share much common ground, together they are posing a region-wide challenge to
A rescue team found no survivors but several bodies when it reached the wreckage of a Russian plane that crashed into an Indonesian mountain during an exhibition flight with 45 people on board.
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Sony reports record annual loss
Sony Corp. racked up a record annual loss of 457 billion yen ($5.7 billion) in its fourth straight year of red ink as the once-glorious maker of the Walkman and PlayStation struggles to turn things around under a new president.
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Olympic flame lit in Greece
The London 2012 torch has begun its journey to the Games after being lit at a traditional ceremony at the ancient site of Olympia.
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In Somalia, The Show Must Go On
In Mogadishu, artists have been forced to work underground for the past 21 years. Now as the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab warlords lose their grip on the city, Somalian culture rises from its ashes, as symbolized by the reopening of the once bombed Mogadish
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Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, What Next?
Singer-songwriter, former model and novice actress, Carla Bruni has lately mostly been known for being married to now outgoing French President Nicolas Sarkozy. When she became the First Lady, she may have lost her left-wing Bohemian fans. What’s
Protesters in Russia have spent the nights since Vladimir Putin’s inauguration walking the streets of Moscow as a new way to keep the opposition movement kicking after the election. Moscow’s heavy-handed police force is not amused.
LES INROCKUPTIBLES (France) ATHENS– “The time has come for this country’s traitors to fear us,” said Nikolaos Michaloliakos, leader of the Golden Dawn, the neo-Nazi movement that won 7% of the seats in Greece’s Parliament this past Sunday. Until a few weeks, reports the Inrockuptibles magazine, no one had heard of these skinheads. Here’s the […]
As divorce and blended families are becoming mainstream –think of the Brady Bunch as pioneers in the field– the homes where they live have to adapt to the new family dynamic. Architects and real estate agencies are eager to jump on the bandwagon.
LA REPUBBLICA (Italy) ROME – After a lull, Italy has registered a new spate of economic-related suicides following a wave of such deaths last month. Three Italian men killed themselves Tuesday because they could no longer bear their economic situation, La Repubblica reports. In the southern city of Salerno, Generoso Armenante, a 49-year-old who lost […]
Is this what happens when Tiger Moms (and dads and schools…) go berserk? They turn their children into livestock? A photo is circulating in China of a classroom of children preparing for a key exam with intravenous drip tubes, apparently feeding them am
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Al-Qaeda bomb plot foiled by double agent
Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency and the CIA have used an informant to infiltrate an Al-Qaeda cell in Yemen and hand over a new bomb purportedly designed to slip through airport security.
LE JOURNAL DU MALI (Mali) BAMAKO – Want to try and guess which part of the world has a projected growth rate of 6% for 2012? South Asia? South America? Wrong – It’s Africa! “Africa is on the brink of a major transformation,” declares Elsie Kanza, World Economic Forum director for Africa. So long associated […]
Twitter is contesting a US court order ordering it to hand over tweets written by an activist who took part in the Occupy Wall Street protests last year.
An inferno at a three-story clothing store in the southern Philippines kills 17 employees, most of whom were women asleep and trapped on the top floor.
LE FIGARO (France) PARIS – The French political etiquette is about to be put to the test: for the first time in France’s history, the incoming President is unmarried. François Hollande’s personal history is well known: he was together for decades with fellow Socialist party leader Ségolène Royal (who lost to Nicolas Sarkozy in the […]
Analysis: The 10-year alliance between the US and Pakistan has always been shaky. But a year of bitter disputes have put the final nail in their partnership, leaving Pakistan to set out in search of new “friends,” including age-old rival
Acclaimed author Ralf Bönt says it’s high time men “claim a place of their own.” In a new manifesto for the “Dishonored Sex,” the trained physicist notes that while men dominate the top of the social scale, mos
LA REPUBLICA (Peru) LIMA – A government geological institute in Lima has confirmed what many Peruvians are already keenly aware of: there’s a whole lot of shaking going on. Already in 2012, Peru has registered 66 quakes, according to the Instituto Geofísico del Perú (IGP). On average, the coastal country – which is part of […]
Angela Merkel openly supported Nicolas Sarkozy during France’s just concluded presidential campaign. Now that her man was beaten by Socialist candidate François Hollande, Merkel is ready to make concessions on growth, but won’t budge on deficit.
A plot to bomb an airliner that al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen hatched was thwarted two weeks ago through a tip that Saudi intelligence officials provided.
Ukraine has postponed a regional cooperation summit of Central and Eastern European nations boycotted by most heads of state over the treatment of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
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Time To Abolish China’s One Child Policy
Analysis: Implemented in the late 1970’s in the face of overpopulation risks, China’s one-child policy stands today as an outdated, perverse system that fosters corruption and social injustice.
In surprise move, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and opposition head Mofaz agree to form unity government, cancel early elections
Lucas Santos was an illegal immigrant when he arrived with his family 13 years ago. His father eventually got a green card, and Lucas has landed in Congress with a prestigious internship where he works on immigration issues and dreams of a political caree
LA VOIX DU NORD (France) LILLE – “You need a car? HolLowCost, your cheap rental solution.” Now, say that again out loud. Christian Camelot, the 53 year-old owner of the offensively named rental service in northern France admits “To be honest, my company wasn’t doing so well, but three weeks ago I put up stickers […]
Essay: With his hyperactivity and “cop-in-chief” attitude, Nicolas Sarkozy was unlike any French president before him. His failure to win a second term is due to his own mistakes and an economic crisis he couldn’t contain. Now F
Police arrested nearly 600 during demonstrations against Vladimir Putin’s latest presidential inauguration. Hundreds of others were injured in the melee and one photographer died. Putin’s press secretary said later that police should hav
Op-Ed: François Hollande’s winning campaign was cut from the cloth of the last Socialist to lead France, François Mitterrand, who swept into office in 1981. But to best serve France (and the French left) Hollande must break from his onetime mento
LA NACIÓN (Argentina) BUENOS AIRES – From a consumer’s perspective, the Argentine capital can be the best of cities…or the worst, depending on what you’re in the market for. A ticket on Buenos Aires’ Subte underground costs $0.50. That’s about a fifth of what the New York City subway charges. Cigarettes are cheap too: roughly […]