A recently inaugurated mega-mosque near Washington D.C. is one of many the Turkish government has built in an effort to extend its influence and tout a moderate model of Islam.
Month: April 2016
BOGOTÁ — Colombians can add pollution caused by millions of cigarette butts to an already varied list of environmental calamities that include deforestation, forest fires and the pesticides and mercury dumped into their rivers. It’s the huge number of discarded cigarette butts that add gravity to what might seem an insignificant problem. In Bogotá alone, […]
MOSCOW — Alexey Navalny is one of most prominent opponents of the Russian government of Vladimir Putin. The 39-year old lawyer and head of the Moscow-based NGO Anti-Corruption Foundation first came to prominence through a blog that takes direct aim at alleged malfeasance by Putin and his associates. We spoke with him in his Moscow […]
DILMA LOSES IMPEACHMENT VOTE More than the necessary two-thirds of the Brazilian lower house of Congress voted in favor of starting impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff. O Globo reports on yesterday’s momentous proceedings, as Brazil’s first woman president faces accusations that she manipulated budget figures to secure her reelection in late 2014. A total […]
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Impeachment! On Brazilian Front Page
Folha de S. Paulo, April 18, 2016 “Impeachment!” reads the front page of leading Brazilian daily Folha de S. Paulo on Monday, a day after Brazil’s lower house of Parliament voted in favor of starting impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff. The embattled president faces accusations that she manipulated budget figures to secure her reelection […]
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Achilles’ Wheel
Larissa in eastern Greece is traditionally held to be the birthplace of Achilles. This would-be motorcycle hero was also destined to fall, caught by the heel by a local traffic cop.
GRASSE — They call it “the Provençal permit,” a local custom of sorts that involves building first and asking questions later. The logic is that once a construction is in place, authorities will feel more or less obliged to approve it retroactively. It is surprising how often that actually happens. Recently, though, one land owner […]
GENEVA — Think you know everything there is to know about the person you’ve long shared your life with? Try sexting. You might have a few surprises — along with a few flashes of pure heat. The act of sending cheeky texts to one’s partner is, admittedly, nothing new. Sexting has been around as long […]
Ahmad Derwish, an ISIS soldier imprisoned in Syria, offers a rare glimpse into the realities on the ground for the jihadist organization.
A tall, heavy beast with long, forward-curving horns faced down a smaller bull. Its head was held high as if in challenge. The smaller animal seemed to recoil in submission. Even the cave lion, the largest of predators, looked unlikely to challenge the dominant bull. Behind them a herd of giant deer ran from unseen danger. This scene was depicted in a painting on a cavern wall at Lascaux, France, 17,000 years ago. Megaloceros, the giant deer in the background, are extinct. The cave lion is extinct. The bulls – a species called aurochs (pronounced “aur-ox”) – have disappeared. Their […]
The sixth-century Saint Catherine’s Monastery is a treasured Christian pilgrimage site in a region increasingly controlled by ISIS.
Like military counterparts around the world, the German armed forces must urgently compete with the private sector to attract the Internet’s best and brightest.
Emma Tobin decided to take a gap year in Africa to work on women’s empowerment issues. Little did she know she was about to join all those women across the world who are little more than objects in the face of a male-dominated culture.
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Japan Quake, UK Terror Arrests, 360 Videos
CLINTON-SANDERS DEBATE GETS FEISTY The gloves came off Thursday night in Brooklyn as Democratic presidential rivals Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders faced off in the last debate before New York’s crucial primary on Tuesday. Dan Balz of The Washington Post notes that the nature of the Democratic campaign now poses risks to whomever wins the […]
Regardless of when or how she exits the political stage, the Brazilian president will leave chaos in her wake.
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LOL In Translation
I could tell you about the state of traffic in Indonesia, about the refined paintings adorning Bali’s rickshaws, or pretend I took this shot to show the hardships of precarious workers in Southeast Asia. But really, it boils down to the fact that I thought “Muncul” sounds like “my a**” in French.
We have a tendency to extol our late loved ones for having “fought” against the illnesses that struck them. But those who peacefully succumb to terminal disease are no less brave.
Keiko Fujimori has overcome, at least paritally, her imprisoned father’s past to become the frontrunner to be Peru’s next president. But the runoff will measure fears of a return to the authoritarian right?
TEHRAN — Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s diplomatic visit to Tehran this week, the first by a Western leader since the Iranian nuclear deal, is seen back in Italy mostly as a smart business trip. The focus of the two-day trip, which concludes Wednesday, has been in opening up trade between the two countries, after the […]
A heat map from French tourism professionals, forced to rethink where to send eager would-be globetrotters in the face of new and old security threats.
As Russia looks ahead to next autumn’s key parliamentary elections, a national economic body has been resurrected in an attempt to kickstart sluggish growth, Moscow daily Vedomosti reports Thursday. After two years of stasis, Russia’s Economic Council Presidium has been revived in order to promote the countrys’ economic growth, as well as to look for […]
VIDEO SHOWS KIDNAPPED NIGERIAN GIRLS Terrorist group Boko Haram released a video that allegedly shows some of the schoolgirls abducted two years ago today in the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok. The footage, which was apparently filmed in December, shows 15 of the 276 girls alive. Their kidnappings sparked an international online campaign, #BringBackOurGirls. But […]
BEIJING — In his book on Confucianism, Taiwanese academic Kung Peng-Cheng explored how Chinese people have historically had among the fewest cultural restraints related to the food and drink they consume. “They eat almost anything,” Kung remarked. Even alcohol, strictly prohibited in many societies for religious reasons, has only occasionally been banned in Chinese history, […]
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Pricing Pawns
On Moscow’s Sparrow Hill, tourists can buy nestling dolls or wooden chess boards while enjoying the view over the Russian capital.
-Analysis- YANGON — Good luck Aung San Suu Kyi! The hardest part still lies ahead. Such a message might sound exaggerated, even inappropriate, when you think that this woman spent 15 years under house arrest, having always shown tremendous determination against the junta’s generals. Her fight has indeed paid off at last, as she has […]
On This Day – April 14, A Shot of History par Worldcrunch
Who is behind the smuggling of refugees from Turkey to the Greek islands? How are these potentially deadly trips planned and organized? Syria Deeply speaks with a human smuggler in Izmir, himself a Syrian refugee.
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Laboratory Tests — Video Quote Of The Day
MOSCOW — The last state execution carried out in Russia was on Aug. 2, 1996, as the young democracy led by then President Boris Yeltsin was imposing a moratorium on capital punishment. But a recent bill submitted at the Duma national parliament proposes to bring the death penalty back in force, specifically for crimes of […]
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Syria Vote, Panama Raid, Bye-Bye Kobe
SYRIAN TALKS, ELECTIONS, CEASEFIRE BREACHES Voting is underway in 12 of Syria’s 14 provinces where government institutions are still functioning, with voters required to choose 250 members of parliament among 3,500 candidates, AP reports. Supporters of President Bashar al-Assad are expected to win the vote, which has been dismissed by Western leaders as a sham. […]
Top German security officials say criminals and violent Islamists are using the asylum crisis to recruit refugees. They especially target minors traveling alone.
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It Takes Two To Paraty
When my grandson went on his honeymoon in Brazil two years ago, I advised him to go to Paraty, a highly picturesque colonial village south of Rio, with its very colorful harbor and cobblestone streets. He had better weather than I did.
The former capital of letterbox companies has reinvented itself, minus the tax evasion. Liechtensteiners are discretely delighted by Panama’s troubles.
It sounds like the makings of a bad sitcom. In China’s northern Shanxi province, twin sisters married twin brothers, but uncomfortable mix-ups have led them to seek minor surgery to avoid confusing their respective partners, China News reports. According to the newspaper, a matchmaker fixed up the two Zhao brothers with the Yuan sisters over […]
Researchers say they would like to learn more about the full contribution these women make, and what the rise of women farmers means for the future of farming and ranching in the United States.