Worldcrunch
PYONGYANG — In the Beijing airport, as I was preparing to fly to North Korea, you could practically smell the communism. Traders were checking large, beat-up bags of household items. A family was buying a large appliance in the duty-free shop. The North Koreans were easily identifiable: They were required to wear buttons with portraits […]
Ten years after the 2005 French riots, the anxious image of the country’s banlieues has changed. The fear is no longer about hooded youths armed with Molotov cocktails, but instead the suspected radical Islamist.
The extreme economic condition that is now practically extinct across the globe could return in Venezuela if a range of corrective measures that are anathema to the socialist government aren’t swiftly instituted.
BEIJING — Throughout the world, people eat in one of three ways: with a knife and fork, with chopsticks, or with their hands. Though the knife-and-fork folk seem to be the most powerful and widespread group, those who use chopsticks most clearly reflects human wisdom when they eat. Nobody is sure when chopsticks were invented, […]
SYRIA SUMMIT BEGINS IN VIENNA Envoys from 17 countries are gathered in Vienna for the broadest peace talks since the beginning of the Syrian war, a summit nevertheless marked by the notable absence of both the Syrian government and its opposition, The Guardian writes. The U.S., France, Turkey, Russia and China are among the participants, […]
MORELIA — The violence-plagued state of Michoacán on Mexico’s central Pacific coast has risen to become the center of narcotics production in the country, according to an investigative report by leading Mexican newspaper El Universal. Mexico is the world’s leading supplier of methamphetamines, as identified in a 2014 UN report . And Michoacán, where some […]
There wasn’t much to see in this remote and destitute Bulgarian village. And then, around the corner, there was this huge advertisement for the local communist party, in Bulgarian and … French. This defied logic in a town where not a soul seemed to speak French.
The terror group has made its Syrian headquarters in the northern city of Raqqa, where those doing business with it report mounting ISIS financial difficulties and flagging morale.
DUBAI — Unlike other places, where building a new subway line can wind up taking a decade or more, the United Arab Emirates offers a very different approach to major public project deadlines: It meets them. This Gulf metropolis has made itself a regional and global hub for commerce, financial services and investment, and virtually […]
NEW DELHI — Five months ago, Devanish Meena, a young Indian man from New Delhi, eloped with his longtime girlfriend. Now he is a widower. Adding to Devanish’s anquish is his belief that the young bride, Pratibha Gujar, was murdered — by her own family. In India, approximtely 1,000 young people are murdered each year in name of saving a family’s honor. The “honor killings,” as they’re known, are often committed when a forced or arranged marriage is rejected. Pratibha’s death seems to fit the profile. The young woman’s relationship with Devanish was very much opposed by her family. And […]
PARIS — In today’s globalized automotive market, the average driver has two dreams: to purchase an SUV, and to switch from a manual to an automatic transmission. Used by just about everyone in the United States, Japan and China, this transmission mode is gaining ground in Europe and is set to takeoff in India and […]
CHINA ENDS ONE-CHILD POLICY After months of speculation, China today officially ended its notorious 35-year-long one-child policy, allowing couples in the country to have two children, Xinhua state news agency reports. China’s so-called “family planning policy” was implemented in September 1980 in an effort to alleviate social, economic and environmental problems. But as The Guardian […]
Next year’s Chad elections will represent a novelty for the central African country. No, not a new president. Chadian voters are being asked to register to vote biometrically. Although this method is relatively absent in more developed countries, it isn’t exactly an innovation in Africa, and Chad will become the 30th country to adopt registration […]
Children were playing next to a man painting a wood panel for one of the countless Hindu festivals in Kathmandu, Nepal.
SENDAI — Alcoholism and related problems are becoming serious in the three Tohoku prefectures severely affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011. The deaths of loved ones or the stress of a prolonged life as evacuees have led to increased alcohol consumption, and some are newly diagnosed as alcoholics even 4 1/2 […]
Born in Egypt and educated in journalism at university, Mohannad Ghallab became an extremist and joined al-Qaeda after 9/11. He went on to become an influential voice for the terror group before being killed by a U.S. drone strike.
Gustavo Petro, the former Marxist guerrilla who became Bogotá’s mayor for the poor, has left the Colombian capital a wreck. But he’s on the way in favor of a newly elected leader voters hope will put the city back on track.
The top leaders of China’s Communist Party are gathering this week to develop the latest roadmap for the country, which could supercede the U.S. in economic and military might as soon as five years from now.
U.S. TO STEP UP ANTI-ISIS FIGHT The United States may soon dramatically escalate its military campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said at a Senate hearing yesterday that the new policy could include more “strikes from the air or direct action on the ground,” The Washington Post reports. The recommendations […]
Between Mexico and Guatemala lies the small, lesser known Belize, the only country in Central America whose official language is English. The former colony, once called “British Honduras,” was granted full independence only eight years before we visited.
A new study finds that fathers who take more than two months of parental leave for the birth of a child see a sharp decrease in promotion opportunities and are often asked to go part-time, a scenario all too familiar to women.
Hundreds of Syrian university degrees are reportedly being forged every day, putting the reputation of Syrian academics at serious risk. But counterfeiters say their only concern is helping their countrymen find a “safe way out.”
Aspiring writers who don’t have an inside track welcome the online publisher’s latest advances, such as awarding independent authors, but defenders of traditional publishing say it’s all a scam to destroy the publishing system and
Representatives and victims in the Congo are pushing back on ancient traditions that render women without rights after the deaths of their husbands, even prohibiting them from eating or drinking when they want.
U.S. SHIP CHALLENGES DISPUTED CHINA SEA A U.S. Navy ship sailed close to artificial islands built by China in the disputed South China Sea waters early today, The Washington Post quoted a U.S. defense official as saying. The move is a direct challenge to China’s territorial claims to this area, which the U.S. considers international […]
Al-Akhbar, Oct. 27, 2015 “His Royal Drugs,” reads Tuesday’s front page of Lebanese Arabic-language daily Al-Akhbar, one day after a Saudi prince and four others were arrested at the Beirut airport after authorities found more than two tons of illegal drugs on a Saudi-bound private jet. Prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz was among […]
Visiting Sarajevo 43 years ago was virtually a feat in itself because the roads leading to what was then part of the socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were mostly unpaved, and there were very few hotels to welcome tourists. But the city was nice and quiet, and kept its distinct Ottoman charm.
Are new technologies making the wage system obsolete, turning employees into independents? No, workers aren’t so much freelancing as moonlighting.
ROME — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has chosen Italy as his first major Western destination since winning elections in 2013, and the first to come in the wake of the Vienna accords on Iran’s nuclear program and the lifting of international sanctions. Italian newspaper La Stampa first reported earlier this month that the president will […]
MUNICH — To be a parent is to be a victim. That’s at least the message some parents convey. Yes, of course children are wonderful and sweet and all that jazz. But let’s be honest, aren’t some of the things children say just annoying? “I don’t liiike it.” “I don’t waaant to.” “Are we theeere […]
TEL AVIV— The recent wave of violence and Mahmoud Abbas’ threats to dismantle the Palestinian Authority could represent not just a security emergency for Israel, but also an economic nightmare. More than 1,000 factories in the West Bank rely solely on the manpower of Palestinian workers. And they’re just a small part of the financial […]
EU, BALKANS NEGOTIATE REFUGEE PLAN Leaders agreed yesterday at a summit of eight EU countries along with Serbia, Macedonia and Albania to create 100,000 places for migrants in the Balkans and Greece as part of German-led efforts to find “a more reasonable way of dealing with the problem,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said. 500,000 Indonesia’s disaster […]
Of the hundreds of frescoes that once decorated the Sigiriya rock“s western surface, only 19 remain. The exquisitely delicate paintings, in vibrant colors, are said to depict ladies of the king’s harem.
“Kaczynski Takes Poland,” writes Polish daily Fakt on Monday’s front page, one day after the Conservative and eurosceptic Law and Justice party (PiS) swept to victory in Poland, ousting the ruling center-left and pro-EU Civic Platform. PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski — the twin brother of Poland’s late President Lech Kaczynski, who died in a plane […]
Tourism feeds a construction and real estate boom in the historical town of Cartagena de Indias. But the shadows of this former slave port hide a huge gap between rich and poor.
One of the most controversial words in the German language is the focus of a conference in Dresden, a city that itself is filled with highly charged meaning, past and present.
An 18-century gallery has been transformed into a “venue of free and creative exchange,” upending the usual relationship between art and the public.
-Essay- CAIRO — Assistant Professor in Islam and Modernity, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies, Professorship of Islamic History, Specialist on Islam and/or Muslim Societies, Cultures, Arts, Politics, and/or Philosophy. These are just a sampling of the positions currently featured in job listings of the Middle East Studies Association. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks […]
Yassine S. presented himself in Brussels as a Harvard-educated psychologist. Business was booming until his “mental manipulations” caught the attention of colleagues.
Bangkok and other urban areas in Thailand are home to some 8,000 refugees who have fled religious persecution in their home countries. But since the deadly shrine bombing in August, the government has been harassing and arresting illegal immigrants.