Ethnic Tatars are deeply attached to their native Crimea, but risk again becoming the first victims of the maneuvering of greater powers.
Month: March 2014
MILAN — The economic crisis isn’t affecting just bipeds. Our furry four-legged friends have also been struggling, as many have been abandoned or neglected when their families no longer had the resources to care for them. Italy has launched its first food bank for animals to help with this problem, thanks to the volunteer group […]
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The Lion’s Share
We haven’t seen much of Sub-Saharan Africa over the course of our travels, except for Zimbabwe, Swaziland and South Africa, where I took this picture, in one of the continent’s largest game reserves. This lion was feeding on giraffe remains by the side of the road. As grim as it sounds, there is something about […]
MALAJPUR — Every February, people gather in the village of Malajpur, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, for a unique ghost fair. It’s one of India’s most celebrated festivals — an ancient event where exorcists rid the body of evil spirits. Amardas believes that a ghost has taken control of her sister-in-law, Dharmati Bai, who has been shouting strange words for more than a month now. “My sister-in-law must have been possessed by a ghost,” she says. “We’ve come to the Malajpur ghost fair to pay our respects to the temple. They’re treating her now, and I hope she’ll be […]
Quotables and notables to quote and note from the past 10 days.
Driven by a nationalist vision and contempt of the West, the Russian president knows Europe’s fear of armed conflict is his ace in the hole in Crimea. But what does he lose by winning?
JOAL — On the beach here in Joal, a large fishing harbor south of Senegal’s capital of Dakar, a group of women watch as fishermen unload their catch from their motor boats. It wasn’t such a good day. But empty nets are not the only disappointment here. A Russian factory that will transform fresh fish […]
The massacre of 29 people in Kunming this month is related to Xinjiang, a province where the relations between the Han Chinese and Uyghur are more tense than ever.
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Hit It! The St. Patrick’s Day Edition
March 17th is St. Patrick’s Day and while Ireland gets the day off to celebrate, those of Irish decent (and whoever else may be thirsty) will be celebrating this weekend. So, we decided to put a “green” version of Hit It! for this week to get you in the mood. Our bonus video this week […]
KAMAISHI — Tsukayo Ito lost everything in the tsunami three years ago. Since the 2011 disaster, the 88-year-old geisha has been living in a settlement of containers in Kamaishi. On the walls of her tiny living room are the few photos that could be salvaged from the rubble. She has almost no possessions, but still […]
HONG KONG — Rarely do Chinese names appear in news stories about people donating their art collections to museums. That is especially true in the realm of contemporary visual art. But prominent Chinese art collector Guan Yi recently made an exception by donating 37 pieces of his collection to Hong Kong’s M+ Museum, which is […]
A former soldier accuses the Colombian Army and aides to former President Álvaro Uribe of ordering the killings of innocent civilians amid a “dirty war” against FARC rebels.
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Stairway To Heaven
This is the famous Dashashwamedh Ghat in Varanasi — the city also known as Benares, the holiest of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism and Jainism. “Ghats” are a series of steps leading pilgrims to the Ganges River to perform ritual ablutions (while tourists on a moving boat try to take non-blurry pictures).
The American-invented dream of averting the finality of death by freezing one’s body is a world unto its own. Now it’s spreading to the UK, France and beyond.
Given Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, Western diplomats and hedge fund managers alike are well aware of the risks of punishing Moscow with sanctions after its strong-arm tactics in Crimea. Tehran, meanwhile, may be calculating the stakes in a somewhat different way. The daily Aftab-e Yazd asked Thursday how could European states and the United […]
It will take the international community years to recover from the trust Russia violated over its illegal interference in Ukraine. But Putin and his close collaborators will never be punished.
It has been one year since Pope Francis was elected to the head of the Catholic Chuch. It was virtually instant stardom for the Argentine-born Pope, and magazines around the world couldn’t get enough of the supremely humble 266th pontiff. UNITED STATES ARGENTINA: BRAZIL: PERU: ITALY: POLAND: PORTUGAL: GREAT BRITAIN/IRELAND: FRANCE: GERMANY: SWITZERLAND: GREECE: NIGERIA: […]
Illnesses in children rise along with the stress levels of their parents, according to a new survey in Germany. Are households with two working parents sending more kids to the doctor?
BAGHDAD – Everywhere in the Iraqi capital is an off-limits “red zone” for Westerners except for the American invasion’s legacy known as the “green zone.” This central quarter in Baghdad, accessible only by the right identification document or special permission, is actually a sort of privileged prison for those with valuable blood. But I have […]
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Portuguese Passersby
Going through all my slides, I’ve noticed some recurring themes in the thousands of photos I’ve snapped. One of them is “women carrying things on their heads” — like in this Portugal street scene in 1958, when the country was still under the authoritarian rule of Prime Minister Antonio de Oliveira Salazar.
Some of the images that have caught our eye, and events that have captured the world’s attention…
BERLIN — Sonya* disappeared during the fall school vacation in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The 16-year-old high school student, the daughter of an Algerian and a German, left her family’s house in Konstanz and never returned. Sonya’s parents called the police fearing the worst. Had their daughter been kidnapped? Was she possibly the victim […]
Tensions between China’s majority Han population and various ethnic minorities tend to simmer just below the surface. But the issue is now stirring open debate following this month’s coordinated knife attack on a train station in the southern city of Kunming that killed 29. The attack has been blamed on separatist extremists of the Uyghur […]
A look from inside Russia at the prospect of an Iran-style oil embargo, travel bans and other measures the West could apply to make Moscow pay for their policy in Ukraine.
BEIJING — McDonald’s is planning to expand franchising in China’s biggest cities, such as Shanghai and Shenzhen, for the first time since its entry into the country. Since its founding in 1955, McDonald’s has relied on its franchisees to play a major role in the company’s global success. Franchisees account for 80% of the 30,000 […]
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The Llama Guarantee
There are llamas and alpacas everywhere in Peru. Contrary to what people may think, they are very docile creatures and their infamous bouts of spitting are apparently quite rare. More to the point, both animals produce high-quality wool, which I can attest to: The bedspread I bought in Peru on this trip is still as […]
While much of the West has seen the danger in abusing psychoactive drugs such as Valium, sales of these drugs in Brazil are skyrocketing, and doctors warn that it’s out of control.
BEIJING — The Tibetan mastiff is a breed of dog prized for its hardy build and exotic beauty. (photo: Pleple2000) Though now domesticated, it traces its origins to ancient times when it roamed the highlands of Central Asia. Here’s one in its native stomping ground on the Tibetan mountain of Gonggar. (photo: Dennis Jarvis) But […]
PARIS — Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, on the verge of collapse, has ruined the hopes carried by the policies of the far left. Vladimir Putin’s Russia will make a similar demonstration of inanity with those across the political spectrum — those of the far-right, or if you prefer, of extreme nationalism. The two elected dictators have […]
Why can’t the Italian state take better care of one of the world’s most treasured archeological sites? A tour of ancient artifacts, contemporary degradation and out-of-order bathrooms.
Evidence is piling up that the Damascus regime has used rape – of daughters in front of fathers, wives in front of husbands – as a targeted weapon.
TEHRAN – A senior general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards issued a blunt warning Tuesday to Israel, saying Iranian forces and weaponry “can destroy all points controlled by” Israel, with “any volume of firepower.” General Hassan Salami made the declaration during a conference on the role of the Islamic religion on global power relations, the official […]
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Parthenon Like It’s 1961
In 1961, my wife Claudine could still walk freely inside the Parthenon — the world-famous temple on the Athenian Acropolis. Actually, we didn’t even have to pay an entrance fee. The government didn’t begin restoration efforts, at which point it limited tourist access, until 1975. Up until then, there were no fences around most ruins […]
BEIJING — The continuous heavy haze over Beijing is an ever-present reminder of the country’s losing battle with pollution. But it may also have been the engine to jump start the Chinese government’s recent push to promote the sale of and use of electric vehicles. Beijing officials, who had instituted incentives for purchasing electric cars, […]
Restrictive U.S. entry requirements deprive talented people of work opportunity but also drag down the competitiveness across the Americas.
Siberia provided 76% of Russian exports. And taxes on its mined resources account for over half the federal budget. As tension grows at the Ukraine border, some in Siberia want more control.
War, famine and poaching are taking direct aim at the signature five beasts of Africa’s savannah that Ernest Hemingway once made legendary. What can be done now to save them?
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When Poverty Is ‘Picturesque’
Brazil’s Nordeste was written about in the 1990s as one of the poorest regions in the world. What travelers find out is that photographs in the middle of poverty risk looking “quaint” and “charming,” losing that feeling of desolation that we felt there. That seems to be the case looking at this shot 22 years […]
KEMPTEN — Perhaps it’s a rather tired comparison, but the Allgäu region in the southern German state of Swabia is well known for its snow. This past weekend it was piled several feet deep on the Nebelhorn mountain. Eight ski lifts were in operation, with winter vacationers on every run. A few miles to the […]
KAMPUNG CHETTI — The Malaysian states of Penang and Malacca are home to UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but now a 600-year-old village in Malacca is under threat from a high-rise development and highway project. About 300 people live here in Kampung Chetti, the heart of the Chettis community whose heritage can be traced back to South India. Their ancestors came here 600 years ago as traders, and since then they have intermarried with the locals and have created a strong bond with the other Malaysian races, says resident SK Pillay. “We can mix very well with the Chinese, we can […]