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Month: April 2016
ARE DILMA’S DAYS NUMBERED? Photo: Agencia Estado/Xinhua/ZUMA Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will face what promises to be a dramatic impeachment after a committee in Brazil’s lower house voted in favor of removing her from office last night. Folha de S.Paulo reports that the committee panel vote came after an investigation into accusations that Rousseff had […]
Skype founder Jaan Tallinn wants to program machines to keep them from becoming a threat to the human race. Yes, he believes, the threat is real.
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Paella Epicenter
If you’re eating paella in a restaurant in Valencia, there’s a good chance you’re eating the real deal: The authentic paella valenciana was born there.
Near the western coast of Turkey, a humble imam recites too many lonely prayers in a cemetery that is filling with nameless victims of the perilous migrant route to Europe.
Thousands of Peruvian migrants in Argentina have brought their tasty, affordable cooking with them. One dish in particular, the fish-based ceviche, is the “new sushi” of the foodie middle classes.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has pledged to crack down on terrorism after the Easter Sunday attack that killed 72 people. But the tragedy has raised serious questions about the country’s strategy and the political factors at play.
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The Mother Of All Parks
Mountains, bison herds, petrified forests, geysers, waterfalls … Yellowstone is one the world’s great national parks. Founded in 1872, it is also widely considered to be the first.
CAMERON RELEASES TAX INFO British Prime Minister David Cameron released information from his 2009-2015 tax returns yesterday in an attempt to defuse controversy about how he profited from his late father’s offshore fund, The Independent reports. The details about the family’s investment company were leaked last week in the so-called Panama Papers. CIA WILL NOT […]
A Polish commentator notes that despite Clinton’s fitness for the job, many see her presidential ambitions through a bigoted lens. She’s not just a woman, but one who doesn’t know her place.
Those people in your life who are always late have a predisposition that puts off decision-making. Question of freedom or lack of respect? A question even in Switzerland.
At the futuristic Enosis wine lab, the Genesis robot brings wine into the 21st century.
Many refugee families after World War II took generations to get on their feet. A new German study finds today’s influx of refugees face the same risk, and new ones too.
Though the Earth is covered with water, 95% of it is undrinkable, and water scarcity threatens millions of people. But researchers in Egypt have found an inexpensive way to turn salt water into drinkable water, and its implications could be enormous.
A French economist specialized in tax havens says only tough new international standards can eliminate the many gray areas that allow the wealthy to pay by their own rules.
More than 70 years after the end of World War II, Uwe Steinz wants to bring the Nazis’ “lower clergy” to justice.
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Tattoo Words — Video Quote Of The Day
BEIJING — China has some 10 million children suffering from dyslexia, with most left to fend for themselves without help from the country’s educational or social aid structures. Chinese magazine Caixin reports this week on a new survey based on 2014 national data that found 11% of Chinese suffer from the disorder, which is caused […]
WORLD LEADERS SWEAT IN PANAMA SPOTLIGHT The global fallout continues, four days after the massive leak of documents linked to a Panama firm specialized in offshore financial operations. So far, there has been just one clear high-profile political casualty: Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, who stepped aside on Tuesday — but the heat is […]
Global coverage of the U.S. presidential race has zeroed in recently on the gender issue, from the only woman in the race, Trump’s wife and the influence of female voters.
El Tiempo, April 8, 2016 “Court says “yes’ to gay marriage in historic decision” reads the Friday front page of Bogota-based daily El Tiempo, a day after Colombia’s highest court ruled to legalize same-sex marriage. Members of the Colombian LGBT community, pictured on the daily’s front page, gathered outside the court in Bogota’s historic center […]
There may be only one thing super-rich men fear more than the tax authorities, and it’s a wife gearing up for divorce. Panama has havens for that too.
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Algerian Perspective
Constantine, in northern Algeria, was French for about a century, from the middle of the 19th century until 1962 — just seven years before I drove down there with my family. My wife Claudine and daughter Cécile were gazing into the impressive ravine that surrounds the city, with the viaduct over the Rhumel river in […]
A few decades ago, researchers dreamed of creating a machine capable of thinking as well as, or better than, humans. As the world becomes increasingly specialized, artificial intelligence can undermine the art of perspective.
After gains by regime troops, with Russian air support, calm and nightlife have returned to the capital. And locals are back to betting on Assad’s survival.
HARBIN — Fang Binxing, the architect of China’s internet censorship system, known as the Great Firewall, has run head-on into his own freedom-curbing creation. On a visit to his alma mater, the Harbin Institute of Technology, Fang gave a speech this week entitled “Defining Internet Sphere Security.” But as he began to lay out his […]
PANAMA PAPERS, THE CHINESE CONNECTION The latest revelations to emerge from the Panama Papers focus on the family members of top China Communist Party members, including the brother-in-law of President Xi Jinping, Bo Xilai’s wife and a distant relative of Mao Zedong. According to The Guardian, these relatives are part of China’s “red nobility,” “whose […]
Ignored during the 20th century, mudbrick is reappearing in modern Swiss construction. Not only is it environmentally friendly, it takes less energy to produce and saves on heating and cooling costs.
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Ukrainian Magazine Smiles For Longevity
Kiev-based weekly news magazine Krayina asks its readers, “Are you ready to live until you’re 120?” In this week’s edition, the Ukrainian-language publication writes that longevity means additional opportunities — but also new problems: What to make of a couple extra decades? How to live in a family where four or five generations coexist? At […]
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Northern Mailbox
No matter where we went or how long, my wife and I would always take the time to write a couple of postcards to family and friends. And as far as I can tell, there’s no fixed rule for how many days it’d take for them to arrive.
Barack Obama’s recent trip to Cuba and Argentina are the crowning achievement on his administration’s efforts to consolidate peaceful ties with and among Latin American countries.
-Analysis- TOKYO — High-tech toilet seats, diapers, cold medicine, rice cookers: These are some of the hottest items for a Chinese tourist on a shopping spree in Japan. The Japanese call this Bakugai or “explosive buying,” and associate it with the Chinese travelers’ impressive purchasing power. Bakugai even became 2015’s Japanese Word of the Year. […]
While most attention has been devoted to the VIPs and politicians cited in the leaked documents of the Panama shell-company firm, most of the people turning to tax havens look much more like you and me.
In L’Aquila, the new houses were supposed to withstand earthquakes, but “they didn’t even withstand the rain.” The grim reality from this central Italian city is laid out by La Stampa on Wednesday, the 7-year anniversary of the earthquake that killed more than 300 people and left nearly 40,000 without homes. The news now is […]