Month: May 2016
PARIS — The former head of France’s anti-drug trafficking agency has been accused of playing a central role in the smuggling of tons of cannabis into France, the Paris-based Libération daily is reporting. François Thierry, who until recently headed the main agency charged with combating drug trafficking OCRTIS (Central Office for the Suppression of Illicit […]
Kim Gee-yang is taking on the beauty industry in a country leading the world in cosmetic surgery. “When I was in LA, I was too skinny to do plus size modeling, but in Korea, I am just a fat woman, yeah,” she said.
SPOTLIGHT: AUSTRIAN LESSONS European leaders are wiping sweat from their collective brow. Once the final votes were counted late yesterday, Austria’s ecologically-minded independent Alexander Van der Bellen had edged far-right Freedom party candidate Norbert Hofer in the country’s presidential election. Had he won, Hofer would have been the first far-right European head of state since […]
Will the Turkish President’s discarded former allies ever dare to form a new party to challenge him?
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Weight Of Words — Video Quote Of The Day
Kazakhstan-born computer engineer Alexandra Elbakyan is now an international copyright outlaw. Her Sci-Hub website offers free access to millions of academic publications, a direct challenge to the entire publishing and academic establishment.
TURIN — Refugees have come to Italy from all across war-torn Iraq and Syria, from the monasteries of Mosul to the Assyrian villages of the Khabur valley and the Christian churches of the Nineveh plains. Among the millions now languishing in refugee camps are people from all walks of life, including government bureaucrats, university professors, […]
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Austria Presidential Razor Close
VIENNA — The front page of the Kleine Zeitung daily on Monday puts into stark colors the hard split down the center of Austria, as the presidential elections remain deadlocked, pending the counting of write-in ballots. By midday Monday far-right presidential candidate Hobert Hofer, from the populist Freedom Party (FPÖ), hhad obtained 51.9% of the […]
SPOTLIGHT: OBAMA VIETNAM PIVOT Following last year’s diplomatic breakthrough on Cuba and ahead of an unprecedented trip to Hiroshima, Japan, U.S. President Barack Obama’s announcement this morning of an end to the longstanding weapons embargo on Vietnam can be quickly dropped into the “historic” file of his presidency. The presence of U.S. Secretary of State […]
Latin Americans work better with people they know. This dynamic is at the heart of Brazilian samba schools that compete in annual Carnival parades, and may provide solid input for office dynamics and productivity in private companies.
From ancient religions to contemporary ecology, dire warnings that the end of the world is upon us are not only false — they bring a damage of their own.
Bogotá’s Central Military Hospital has seen the worst of decades of civil war in Colombia — from severed limbs to longstanding traumas, Amid prospects of peace with the FARC guerrillas, its work begins a slight, and welcome decline.
-Analysis- RIYADH — The Panama Papers may be the largest data leak regarding offshore companies, but it is not the first. Offshore Leaks and Swiss Leaks were the first in this case. The nature of these revelations was, of course, different. Yet they all have had one common denominator: namely that numerous members of Middle […]
In the western state of Rajasthan, a group of about 70 village girls, some of them already married, are receiving a full education, a break from their families, and a chance at independence.
Ennahda’s founder Rached Ghannouchi calls for an end to ‘political Islam,’ a groundbreaking shift for a key Tunisian leader and intellectual long identified as Islamist.
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Baby Loves Books — Video Quote Of The Day
Amid more and more incidents of bullying in China, schools and the legal system appear to be doing very little to stop it.
SPOTLIGHT: SPRINGTIME ANGST IN PARIS It’s spring in Paris: the trees are bursting with foliage, café terraces look inviting, the French Open is about to kick off. Shall we indulge in that apéro? Mais, non! The mood in the City of Light feels anything but spring-like right now. There is the fate of EgyptAir Flight […]
Changing your diet is not easy, but the power of messaging service WhatsApp keeps you connected to help keep you on track.
Donald Trump’s ancestors left Germany for the U.S. with dreams of a better life. They faced longstanding fears about the “Germanization” of America.
One of Mao’s most grandiose ideas — an aqueduct stretching 3,500 kilometers — is becoming reality decades after his death. The project promises relief for China’s thirsty north, but has already displaced thousands of people in its path
SPOTLIGHT: PARIS-TO-CAIRO FLIGHT CRASHES An EgyptAir passenger jet has disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea during an overnight flight from Paris to Cairo. Greek aviation authorities believe the plane crashed off the Greek island of Karpathos in Egyptian airspace. Search and rescue operations are ongoing to try and find the wreckage and potential survivors. There are […]
BOGOTA — During the difficult months of the rainy season, when daily downpours put a damper on hunting and fishing, the Tatuyo indigenous people of Vaupés, in Colombia’s Amazonian region, spend entire days in the jungle collecting fruit. The purpose of the forest harvest? To make yapurá. A black paste with a pungent odor that […]
Vanguard, May 19, 2016 Newspapers in Nigeria on Thursday reported the bittersweet good news of the rescue of one of the 276 schoolgirls abducted by Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram two years ago. Amina Ali, now 19, was found wandering in the Sambisa Forest near the Nigeria-Cameroon border Wednesday with a baby girl she gave […]
An upstart from Savoy has challenged the royal authority of Marcello I, prince of the unofficially unrecognized so-called Principality of Seborga.
“The city is a complex form for which there exists no equivalent in nature…”
As much as freedom of expression, the Atfal al-Shawrea (Street Children) troupe challenged the Sisi regime’s control over freedom of assembly.
TEHRAN — The humble water pipe — that traditional contraption often found in the Middle East, designed to ensure a cool and smooth smoke — has been having a tough time in Iran. Whether that’s due to its association with traditional tea shops, which Iran’s Islamic authorities frown upon for encouraging idle socializing, or to […]
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Russian Doping, Tunisian Women, Free Coding
SPOTLIGHT: DOPING, FROM SOCHI TO RIO The terminology itself is telling: “State-sponsored doping” is the accusation that the The New York Times reports the U.S. Department of Justice is now pursuing against Russian athletes and officials, linked to the use of banned substances at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, and other competitions. “The inquiry […]
La Prensa, May 18, 2016 MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has announced a proposal to Congress to legalize same-sex marriage across the country. Tuesday’s announcement, which took place during an event in celebration of the National Day of the Fight Against Homophobia, dominated Mexico’s front pages on Wednesday. “Gay Wedding, OK!” was […]
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Maduro Pushes Venezuela To The Brink
With his recent “state of emergency” declaration and decision to put the army on high alert against the threat of hostile “interventions,” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro continues to show that he has no intention of being either pushed or voted out of power. Since opposition parties won a parliamentary majority in December, Maduro and his […]
Though a massive attack with a full-fledged nuclear weapon is highly unlikely, a so-called “dirty bomb” scenario is not out of the question.