Shia militiamen, Sunni clans, al-Qaida, Iran and Saudi Arabia all have their hands in the rapidly shifting sands of the poorest state in the Arabian Peninsula. Yemen is everybody’s business.
Month: March 2015
China’s ambitious judicial reform must include such basic principles as ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ and equality before the law. But it must also happen one small detail at a time.
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Song Du Jour #19, Dieter Meier
Today is Dieter Meier’s 70th birthday. In addition to being the best Swiss in the world, the frontman of the band Yello, a millionaire, a performance artist and a professional poker player, Dieter also released a couple of punk records with his previous band Fresh Color. In 1978, their track “Cry For Frame” proved that […]
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Ukraine Mine Blast, Boston Trial, Roman Smog
AT LEAST 32 KILLED IN EASTERN UKRAINE MINE BLASTAn explosion believed to be gas-related at the Zasyadko coal mine in rebel-held Donetsk, Ukraine, has killed at least 32 people, local officials said Wednesday. Reuters reported some 70 miners were working in the mine at the time of the blast, and that dozens more people are […]
Lilou, 32, lives a double life as a married mother of an infant and libertine blogger. Her endless string of lovers are shared on Twitter, with pictures as evidence. And her husband?
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Extra! Chilean Eruption
Diario Austral, March 4, 2015 The Villarrica volcano, one of the most active in southern Chile, erupted Tuesday, prompting authorities to evacuate thousands of people from the region. The eruption was the strongest since 1985, sending plumes of ash up to 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) into the air for about 20 minutes, before calming down, […]
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Leaning That Way
Before you ask: Yes, I also have the tourist shots of my wife and daughter pretending to hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But this one catches it in a much different light, both in space and in time.
Countless displaced by the war in Syria include those forced to move from one part of the country to another. Misery tends to follow.
Even as the U.S. and world media mark every step of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s U.S. visit, the Israeli press is keeping even closer eye on his reelection bid later this month. The Israeli leader is set to address the U.S. Congress Tuesday in a speech that has already increased friction with President Barack […]
Pope Francis has been surprisingly progressive on such issues as gay rights. But so far he’s taken the hard line on denouncing drugs. That could change if he sees that legalization is the best chance for reducing violence.
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Song Du Jour #18, Rolling Stones
OBAMA’S IRAN ULTIMATUMIran should agree to a verifiable freeze of its nuclear program for at least a decade if the country wants to strike a deal with the U.S., President Barack Obama told Reuters in an exclusive interview. Obama explained his goal was to make sure “there’s at least a year between us seeing them […]
By a twist of history and weight of geopolitics, Greek law recognizes the authority of Sharia in settling civil matters for the country’s Muslim minority. One widow is fighting to end this European anomaly.
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Fields Of Yore
On our way to Ürgüp and its strange rocks, we drove past a couple of field workers. The whole scene threw me back to my childhood, when I would watch farmers harvest in eastern France.
BERLIN — Frank Underwood is a cult figure to those besotted by politics. The House of Cards protagonist is willing to walk over dead bodies to achieve absolute power. As the third season begins, we are obliged to ask ourselves why Germans have such a deep love for this American villain played by Kevin Spacey. […]
Khaled walked into an ISIS recruiting office and volunteered to fight — for $30 a month. Now he’s a refugee in Turkey. Here’s how he got from there to here.
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Song Du Jour #17, Grateful Dead
Reports of skyrocketing ticket prices for the Grateful Dead’s reunion shows in Chicago on July 3-4-5 made us long for the good old days when, as one YouTube commentator puts it, you could see the legendary San Francisco psych rock band for cheap, “sleep in the back of your car, wash up at a gas […]
860,000UN Refugee Agency Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl told the BBC that “it is a figure of shame for the entire world” that 860,000 Palestinians are dependent on food assistance. He also highlighted the significant gap between the money pledged after last summer’s Gaza conflict and the actual money that the agency received to help with the […]
Globalization downsized? Taking lessons from Chinese immigrant-owned shops, foreign chains Carrefour and Walmart are opening smaller markets to make shopping faster and cheaper.
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FULL MOON – March 2-9
(March 21 to April 19) A powerful desire for love leads you to out-of-the-ordinary situations. The pairing of Venus with Uranus now no longer permits you to shirk the passionate responsibilities of your heart. True, there are rivals, psychological resistance and obstacles, but trust me: You will have the energy to deal with everything and […]
Growing old doesn’t necessarily have to mean leaving a beloved home. A growing market of technology-related services for senior citizens is helping them to keep their beloved independence.
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Vintage Hues
Sidi Bou Said in northern Tunisia is famous for its crisp blue and bright white houses of Ottoman and Andalusian influence. But a few of my slides from the 1970s (probably because of the film I used during that period) have lost a bit of their original color — and the village looks a bit […]
“The reaction to the murder of Boris Nemtsov turned out to be as extraordinary as the politician himself,” Moscow-based daily Kommersant writes on its front page article, alongside a photo of Nemtsov that was carried at Sunday’s memorial march. Organisers said that up to 70,000 came out Sunday to mourn the opposition leader in the […]
CAIRO — Antique dealers, second-hand markets, auction showrooms, music lovers and historians are the cornerstones of the wondrous world of vintage vinyl records in Egypt, just as they are in similar dusty corners around the world. Egypt’s phonographic history is particularly rich in oriental music, with record labels running from the end of the 19th […]
As an internationally renowned cryptography expert, American Bruce Schneier used to be a welcome visitor everywhere. But that’s no longer the case. “I used to be popular with the National Security Agency,” he says. “They used to invite me to their seminars, they listened to my advice. But it’s over. I was very critical after […]