Chinese consumers still don’t trust goods made in their own country. The latest buy-abroad craze? Japanese toilet seats. Why the country must pull up its pants and stand proud.
Month: March 2015
Recent beheadings highlight an ongoing exodus of Christians from territories targeted by ISIS. Some have taken refuge in Lebanon.
Surveys show that Germans are much more welcoming toward refugees than they were 10 years ago or even last year. The robust state of the economy helps, and they want young, skilled labor to meet demand.
Both born with the incurable disease of cystic fibrosis, 35-year-old Nicolas and Damien Delmer are desperately sick. With the life they have left, they’re working for the right to die the way they want.
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Song Du Jour #27, Goats
Our Song du Jour is these goats giving it all they’ve got to Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer.”
ISRAEL VOTESPhoto: Omer Messinger/ZUMAMillions of Israelis are voting today to elect a new parliament and potentially a new prime minister in a tightly fought election that has become a referendum on incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu, who is running for a fourth term. Late polls show center-left opponent Isaac Herzog, leader of the Zionist Union, with a […]
Die Tageszeitung, March 17, 2015 Things are heating up between Germany and Greece, again. The news Monday that Germany’s DAX index reached an all-time high — even as cash-strapped Athens is trying to scrape enough money to make a $2 billion debt payment on Friday — prompted the Berlin-based daily Tageszeitung to give Greece’s radical-left […]
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Himalayan Fate
The valleys of south Ecuador are lush, and the Andean foothills impressive. But 22 years ago, it was better to look up, not down because the amount of plastic waste along the roads was simply astonishing.
A final survey by Calcalist focused not on the candidates, but on the issues. It doesn’t sound good for incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu.
Why do so many Filipinos own and carry weapons? One theory points to the influence of former American colonial rulers.
Brazilians are furious as their personal prosperity slips away amid reports of runaway corrruption. All the while, President Rousseff looks forced to impose new austerity measures. Which way out?
GENEVA — Drones are increasingly hovering over our heads. In the past six months, dozens of them were seen flying in France over sensitive Parisian sites, military installations and nuclear power plants. And with the threat of terrorist attacks, these machines are a real source of concern for the military and the police, and not […]
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Song Du Jour #26, Robyn Adele Anderson
The New York jazz singer Robyn Adele Anderson gives us an idea of what Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” might have sounded like if he had written it in the 1920s.
CYCLONE LEAVES 150,000 HOMELESS Photo: Luo Xiangfeng/Xinhua/ZUMAA tearful Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale urged the world to send humanitarian help immediately to the South Pacific archipelago after cyclone Pam devastated the country over the weekend. “The humanitarian need is immediate,,” he said. According to aid agencies, up to 150,000 people could be left homeless in the […]
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NEW MOON – March 16-23
Those who have gone along with the flow of change, as suggested by the stars in recent weeks, have nothing to fear. For those who still don’t see reality for what it is better put their armor on. The need to make a correction is increasingly evident. Security of a new job and affections are […]
A nationwide protest against left-wing Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff drew at least 1.5 million people across 147 cities in the country Sunday. Shouting “Fora, Dilma!” (“Dilma out!”) and dressed in the national flag’s colors of blue, green and yellow, the protestors marched against the deteriorating state of Brazil’s economy, inflation and corruption, the daily Folha […]
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Save The Dates
When we first visited Tunisia, the tourism industry was just starting to take off in the country, although most of the economy still relied on farming. Here in the oasis of Tozeur, it was the harvest of dates.
Buildings, tarmac and air conditioning are turning some cities into fetid, airless saunas. Experts urge more trees and grass to mitigate the heat of increasingly hot cement jungles.
Ambitious and unafraid to anger foe or friend, the 38-year-old Speaker of Parliament may be Greece’s most powerful woman. And fighting corruption is at the top of her agenda.
Scandals and stagnation, crime and curbs on democracy are spreading across the region. Are things about to take a sharp turn back to the bad old days?
The French great-nephew of the Hungarian-born inventor of the ballpoint pen is writing his own chapter in innovation with a design of a super-light electric car that is turning heads.
-OpEd- PARIS — With just days to go before the Israeli election, it becomes increasingly difficult to predict who will win the race. The latest polls show the center-left Zionist Union candidates Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni leading over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ruling Likud party. Of course, the country’s proportional system means […]
With the Panama Canal set to expand and Nicaragua planning its own huge canal, the Caribbean is bracing for big shifts in shipping traffic. On the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, hard questions from both fishermen and environmentalists.
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Extra! Maduro Compares Himself To Stalin
“I am just like Stalin,” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said. Today’s Mexican daily La Razon featured the shockingly proud comparison to the Soviet dictator, which the Venezuelan president made during a visit to the Caracas Book Fair on Thursday. “And here they have a copy of Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend,” Maduro […]
CAIRO — Amid shifting copyright and publishing norms, adaptation and translation of existing works is as contentious an issue today as ever in the literary world. The questions are particularly relevant for the Arabic novel, both for its recent and not-so-recent history. Many have accused Ahmad Mourad of reproducing characters from Naguib Mahfouz in his […]
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Song Du Jour #25, Hip Hop For The World
The American MC KRS-One gathered 14 rappers from 14 different countries (South Korea, Italy, Bosnia, Singapore, India, Portugal, Wales, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Japan, Egypt, Taiwan, Finland and the U.S.) to record this amazing track. The goal is to unite the world under the love for hip hop, as “We are the World” aimed to 30 years […]
CHAMBÉRY — Seen from afar they might be mistaken for a father and son. Dominique is 56. Mohammed is 23. But talking to them and seeing how they interact, it’s clear they’re a couple in love. They agreed to meet early in the morning, in a fast food restaurant in the Landiers industrial zone in Chambéry, southeastern France. It’s an impersonal place, where people come and go without paying much attention to others around them. Dominique and Mohammed prefer it that way. The couple shows up late, which somehow makes sense. It’s their privilege. They’re in love. The rest of […]
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Cattle Pride
In the barren Hungarian puszta, livestock dehorning is out of the question — unlike in my native France, for instance. That’s lucky for the Hungarian Grey cattle, with their long slender horns.
It’s the consultants …
TIKRIT SIEGE TIGHTENS Iraqi armed forces and Shia militias were surrounding ISIS fighters inside the city of Tikrit yesterday with Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi confident that victory over the terrorist group was only a matter of time. “Time is on our side. We have the initiative,” AFP quoted him as saying. Since the operation started […]
Obama’s executive order slapping sanctions on Venezuelan officials is ostensibly in defense of liberty. But it could just as well be another of a long line of aggressive American interventions.
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Song Du Jour #24, Tame Impala
Three years after Lonerism, the Australian psychedelic band are seemingly set to release their third album this year. They revealed a first new track this week, “Let It Happen.”
The Solar Impulse flight aims to show that clean technologies exist. Masdar City, the plane’s departure site near Abu Dhabi, was set to be the city of the future. What’s left of this dream?
U.S. SENDS WEAPONS TO UKRAINEThe United States will send more “non-lethal” military equipment to Ukrainian forces, including Humvees, drones and night-vision goggles, $75 million worth, a senior administration official said yesterday. Washington also extended its sanctions on Russia by adding a bank and eight Ukrainian rebels to the list of targets, Reuters reports. The decisions […]
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David Guetta, The Happy, Genre-Busting DJ
The second highest-paid DJ in the world, a celebrity with 17 million Twitter followers, is currently touring the world. The hedonist sits down with Le Monde after a concert in Brazil.
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Delicate Like An Elephant
Elephants, symbols of steadfastness and mental strength in Buddhist culture, are a recurring motif in Sri Lankan sculpture. Some of the finest examples can be found in Anuradhapura, the former center of Theravada Buddhism.
GORNJA MAOCA — In Sarajevo, you come to realize that all the essential things in the world have been affected by war, or rather, by the circumstances of war. You realize the economy’s upheaval, the general misery and, above all, the turmoil in each individual life: embarrassment, uncertainty, anxiety. “It’s like being in a prison […]
As electricity costs climb in the face of energy shortages and a steep reduction in government subsidies, a new website helps consumers track their consumption and calculate costs.
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The 10 Best Songs About Putin
It’s been a year since the Russian Federation annexed Crimea. The controversial move, which caused as much anger as paralysis in the West, confirmed Vladimir Putin in his role of strongman of the East. This was a move that the Russian president prefers calling a “restitution” rather than an “annexation” — a mere question of […]