WorldcrunchDEADLY NEW WARFARE IN UKRAINEDespite recent talk of a possible ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian rebels in the embattled city of Donetsk, fighting has escalated following an army offensive, the BBC reports. Heavy shelling targeted rebel positions in the city, and the military said it had regained most of the territory around the […]
(March 21 to April 19) The New Moon in Aquarius throws the spotlight on your growing popularity! More sociable and treasured than ever, your satisfaction ratings just keep rising — but at the same time, so does the sensation that every move you make has become the focus of gossip and that everyone is getting […]
Police in the eastern city of Dresden have issued a blanket ban on all demonstrations following reports of a “concrete threat” against the founding member of the anti-Islamization movement Pegida (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West), the daily Die Welt reports on its front page Monday. Pegida had been marching in growing numbers […]
Forget Frontex, Mare Nostrum and Schengen. It’s gray squirrels causing major emigration headaches for Italy. Not only has the EU sent the Italian government three official “recommendations” asking it to get rid of its gray squirrels, but France and Switzerland have opened a case file too. They have essentially sent the message, “If we find […]
BEIJING — It seems not so long ago that people were still looking at online literature with disdain. But no one can deny that, at the very least, it is a very real business opportunity. Last year, Choose the Day, a very popular Chinese online novel, was adapted into a webgame by Giant Interactive, a […]
Islamist radicals have long known that inmates offer prime soldiers to help wage their war on the outside. Now the state must react.
-OpEd- BOGOTA — Skokie is a mostly Jewish district outside of Chicago, Illinois. In 1977, the far-right National Socialist Party of America decided to organize a march there, which the scandalized residents, including thousands of Holocaust survivors, naturally sought to stop, arguing it would incite hatred and lead to violence. But the ACLU, the American […]
The increasingly authoritative stances of Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Erdogan are only isolating them inside their own countries and on the global stage.
A satirical comedy about an alien who comes to earth and questions religious dogma has found an enemy among many of India’s Hindus. A new view after the Charlie Hebdo killings.
After last week’s deadly attacks in Paris, a passionate open letter from four high school teachers in a French neighborhood not unlike those where the killers grew up.
In France, the sacrosanct freedom of speech is cited over the offensive images of Islam’s prophet Muhammad. But the same standards have not always applied to anti-Semitism.
Two entrepreneurs have seized on a business idea first founded in Dallas, a place where people who want to dispense with their aggression can destroy set rooms with castoff furniture. But does it work?
ANTI-TERROR SWEEP ACROSS EUROPESuspected terrorists were arrested in France, Belgium and Germany in a series of dawn operations aimed at preventing future attacks. According to Le Figaro, 12 people were arrested in several outlying towns around the French capital, with some of the suspects believed to have provided weapons, hideouts and cars to to Said […]
In the socially and religiously mixed neighborhood in northern Paris, security precautions at Lucien de Hirsch Lycée are high, but they were even before last week’s attacks.
Art Week and the sumptuous events around its star show, Art Basel Miami Beach, was a perfect showcase not just for art, but also guiltless expenditure of vast amounts of cold hard cash.
These good old-fashioned haystacks in the Ötztal valley, in the Austrian state of Tyrol, remind me of haymaking in the village of my ancestors in eastern France, before mechanized balers and tractors became commonplace.
The attacks in Paris last week put us face-to-face with the fact that our neighbors may live their lives in ways that make no sense to us. How do we keep this from spiraling toward hatred?
ISTANBUL — Instead of discussing the Paris massacres and the ties between Islam and terrorism, Turkey has instead been focused on “Islamophobia.” Someone not following the news could mistakenly believe, based on the debate here, that there had been a violent attack against Muslims in France instead of a jihadist terrorist attack against journalists, Jews […]
It was a small Italian town, where an affectionate stray dog wandered up, eventually becoming so conspicuous that he attended all town events — weddings, funerals, pizza night at the local pizzeria. Ultimately, he became a guide for visitors and a beloved member of the community. Though it sounds like a fairy tale, it’s actually […]
SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW NIGERIA MASSACRENew satellite photographs released by Amnesty International today provide evidence of the scale of the Boko Haram attacks in northeastern Nigeria that are believed to have left hundreds dead earlier this month. Before and after images, taken on Jan. 2 and 7, show razed and burned structures in Doron Baga, a […]
On Sept. 3, 1967, traffic in Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right. Our daughter Cécile was understandably puzzled by the overlapping lane markings on the road, just a couple of months before the big change — and frankly, I find it somewhat of a miracle that no […]
An odd postscript to the dramatic events in Paris that says much about the evolving state of the media in China, which sometimes can be as “free” as it wants to be.
MOSCOW — If you happen to produce widgets in Russia and sell them in foreign currency, your time has come. Konstantin Babkin, president of a company that produces tractors, is convinced that the ruble should have been devalued long ago. “An excessively strong ruble already killed our airplane construction, food and light manufacturing industries,” he […]
PARIS — What just happened? This question, which is still on everybody’s lips after Sunday’s historic rallies, goes beyond the three days of massacres that have shaken France, and also applies to its president. François Hollande has indeed seen an astounding reversal of fortunes. His popularity was stuck at its lowest levels just a week […]
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PARIS — As the world watched France taken down by an Islamic terrorist attack last week, and followed live coverage of the nation getting back up with Sunday’s historic march through Paris, another devastating wave of terrorism did not get quite as much media attention. Reports that Islamist militants from Boko Haram has killed as […]
The discourse of East and West, and specifically Islamic East and Christian West, is flawed and implicitly destined for conflict. A view from Latin America as Paris burns.
It only seems fitting that to achieve Nirvana — or, as it is sometimes referred to in the West, “enlightenment” — some Buddhists would turn to burning candles. This woman picked the right place to pray: The ancient city of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka was the center of Theravada Buddhism for many centuries.
KUCHING — For eight years now, Irwan and his buffalo have worked through the neat rows of palm trees at the United Plantation in Teluk Intan, a town three hours drive north of Kuala Lumpur that overlooks the Straits of Malacca. For just less than 450 euros a month, he collects large clusters of oil-rich […]
The imminent injection of wealth into Cuba as the U.S. embargo ends, and the measure of prosperity that should follow, may be the first steps toward its eventual democratization.
PARIS — Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner instructed her Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman, who happened to be in Paris this past weekend, to skip Sunday’s march to honor the victims of last week’s terror attacks, Buenos Aires daily Clarín reports. The march, which followed the deadly Jan. 7 attack on the Paris-based satirical weekly […]
VAPI — Teenager Prerna Agarwal is autistic and blind. She also happens to be one of India’s latest singing sensations, thanks to a 2013 appearance on Indian Idol Junior, a popular television show that gained her international attention. When reporter Jasvinder Sehgal visits the young singer at her home, he finds her listening to a classic Hindi hit from the 1970s while cuddling her favorite soft toy. “My Teddy loves singing songs,” she says. “He loves eating pasta and drinking orange juice. He wakes up earlier than me and also wakes me up every morning.” Prerna then excitedly introduces her […]
After the Paris attacks, French authorities are looking for new tools to combat terrorism. But the risk is high for undermining basic democratic liberties.
One week after the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo’s offices in Paris that killed 12 people, the weekly satirical magazine, which has taken refuge in the headquarters of the daily Libération, will publish a defiant new issue Wednesday. The day before its publication, several pieces of information filtered about what has been labeled the “survivors’ […]
Quito’s old market takes place right in front of the presidential palace, in the city’s centro histórico. It’s this colorful jumble of rowdy, narrow streets and dignified colonial buildings that makes the Ecuadoran capital one of the most beautiful Latin American cities.
Following a Sunday that may have restored our collective faith in humanity, the hard work for France and all of Europe begins in earnest. Will the rare burst of unity last?
TEL AVIV — After Israel announced plans to freeze the transfer of $126 million in taxes it collected for the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah attended a round of meetings in Saudi Arabia to nurture solidarity for his government. And they obliged. The Arab States promised that if Israel wouldn’t transfer the money, […]
(March 21 to April 19) The start of the week oscillates between agitation and full dilemmas, but there is no need to panic. This is the final backlash of a mediocre lunar phase for you. It has at least led you to resolve some problems. At work, straight after the weekend some sticking points which […]
Ever heard (no pun intended) of echolocation? It’s the ability of some animals, most famously dolphins and bats, to emit sound waves to determine the location and size of objects around them, which helps them “see.” Scientists have long known that some blind humans shared this skill and were able to also emit clicking sounds […]
‘Je suis Charlie’ is a defense of neither blasphemy nor free speech. It is a stark and collective reminder that we know our enemy, and the stakes.