Austrian daily Die Presse went for an ominous-looking front page Wednesday, asking “What if Donald Trump …,” as it imagines what a Trump presidency would entail. Building a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border; a more hostile relationship with China; abolishing Obamacare; using torture methods to help defeat ISIS: The Austrian daily analyses four of Donald […]
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Military Parade — Video Quote Of The Day
Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s most powerful Catholic Church official, is facing growing scrutiny amidst a national inquiry into priest sex abuse. Pell, featured on the front page of Tuesday’s edition of Sydney-based The Daily Telegraph, is being forced to testify over several days in the Royal Commission probe into decades of alleged abuse of children […]
SUPER TUESDAY IS HERE Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are heading into the most important day of the campaign to date hoping to consolidate their leads as respective party favorites. It’s primary day in 12 different states, most of them southern, where Clinton is expected to benefit from support among minorities, CNN notes. SYRIAN TRUCE […]
Utrinski Vesnik, March 1, 2016 “Tear gas and stones at the border near Gevgelija,” writes Skopje-based daily Utrinski Vesnik on its Tuesday front page, a day after refugees clashed with police at the Greek-Macedonian border. On Monday, Macedonian police fired tear gas at a crowd of migrants, some of whom were reportedly throwing stones at […]
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So Long, Aleppo Souks
When we drove from France to Syria in 1972, Hafez al-Assad — Bashar’s father, who ran the country until 2000 — had been in power for two years. You can see his portrait hanging behind this old pots and pans seller in one of the Old City of Aleppo’s covered souks. I imagine all of […]
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Men Wrestling — Video Quote Of The Day
DESPITE VIOLATIONS, SYRIA TRUCE STANDS Saudi Arabia accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and its ally Russia of “ceasefire violations” yesterday, Al Arabiya reports. “We are discussing this with (the 17-nation) Syria Support Group,” co-chaired by Russia and the United States, said Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. Despite the accusations of 15 ceasefire breaches of […]
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First New UK Print Daily In 30 Years
Defying doomsday predictions about traditional journalism, the UK on Monday welcomed its first standalone national print newspaper in 30 years. The newspaper will trial at 25p ($0.35) for two weeks before the price is raised to 50p ($0.70). Its publishing company Trinity Mirror, whose flagship paper is the tabloid Daily Mirror, hopes the new title […]
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High Power
I like the juxtaposition between this minaret and the improbable electrical entanglement in the foreground: Clearly, you needed to have faith to believe the whole thing was going to hold up.
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February 29
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February 28
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February 27
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Elderly Couple — Video Quote Of The Day
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Report: The Discos Of Europe Are Dying
Italian daily La Repubblica charts the decline of European discoteques and nightclubs.
While You Slept IRAN VOTES Polls have opened throughout Iran as the country votes for two assemblies in the most important election since the 2013 presidential campaign that ushered in the reformist Hassan Rouhani. Voters will cast ballots for the unicameral “Islamic” parliament (Majles) and the Assembly of Experts (Majles-e khobregan), a body of clerics […]
The Finnish vigilante group Soldiers of Odin has been successfully spreading its anti-migrant, anti-Islam across northern Europe over the past few months. But now, Islamists in neighboring Norway have begun mobilizing their own organization to counter the movement. Soldiers of Odin was formed in Finland in November following an influx of Syrian refugees. Members of […]
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Southern Terminus
This is the “world famous conch train,” as it was — and still is — advertised, at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys.
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February 26
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People Walking — Video Quote Of The Day
MEXICO CITY — Will the mask come off? A Mexican judge has ruled that sedition and terrorism charges have expired against 13 rebels of the Zapatista Liberation Army (EZLN), including those filed against the group’s masked enigmatic former leader, Subcomandante Marcos, La Jornada and other media reported. The EZLN rose in revolt in 1994 to […]
U.S., CHINA AGREE ON N. KOREA RESOLUTION The United States and China agreed yesterday on a United Nations draft resolution containing “very tough measures” against North Korea over its nuclear “provocations,” AFP reports. Both countries have bristled at the hubris of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. The draft resolution will now be presented to the […]
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Troublesome Visitors
The Alhambra palace, in southern Spain’s Andalusia region, is a jewel of Islamic architecture, a testament to Moorish culture in the country. There would have been even more beauty to admire had my fellow Frenchmen from Napoleon’s armies not destroyed several towers 150 years before we arrived.
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February 25
BERLIN — Forty percent of economics professors surveyed in Germany say they expect severe drawbacks to the country’s open-door refugee policy, and only 23% see immigration as a source of opportunities, a new survey shows. The joint research by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Munich-based Ifo Institute for Economic Research of 220 economists professors also […]
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Simply Fashion — Video Quote Of The Day
TRUMP WINS NEVADA CAUCUS Donald Trump has won the Nevada caucus with a comfortable margin (45.9% of the votes) over his nearest Republican rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, according to results reported this morning by The Washington Post. This third consecutive win by the American billionaire, after victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina, […]
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Bolivia Referendum Blocks Morales
Wednesday’s front page of Bolivian daily El Deber shows festivities in Santa Cruz after a constitutional reform was defeated, the first ever national setback for popular President Evo Morales. “The “No” wins and blocks Evo’s quest to govern until 2025,” reads the headline. The vote took place Sunday, with final results tallied on Tuesday showing […]
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Dragon Art
Traveling in group tours as my wife and I usually did, you’re bound to visit some local craft workshops along the way. It’s always been a great opportunity to snap some nice pictures — here’s one I took in a pottery shop near Shanghai.
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February 24
BEIJING — It may be facing a major economic slowdown, a demographic crisis and widespread government corruption, but China has nevertheless found time to launch what we might call a “toilet revolution.” “Toilet civilization has a long way to go in China,” Li Shihong, deputy chief of the China National Tourism Administration (NTA), tells state […]
A SYRIAN TRUCE, ISIS EXCLUDED The Syrian government and the umbrella group for the main opposition agreed this morning to the terms of a ceasefire that was negotiated yesterday between the United States and Russia, the BBC reports. But the truce, set to begin midday Saturday, excludes ISIS, al-Qaeda and affiliated groups, Al Jazeera reports. […]
Libération, Feb. 23, 2016 “Calais: An Endless Jungle,” writes French daily Libération on the front page of its Tuesday edition, as hundreds of migrants living in the so-called “Calais jungle” in northern France are facing an 8 p.m. deadline to move out. The left-wing Paris daily describes the evacuation and scheduled dismantling of the southern […]
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The President’s City
When we went to eastern Tunisia in the 1970s, Monastir-born Habib Bourguiba was then serving as the country’s first president, having replaced King Muhammad VIII when the monarchy was abolished in 1957.
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February 23
BUENOS AIRES — Every crisis is an opportunity, they say. In several neighborhoods in the Argentine capital, moves to curb the spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus or dengue fever in several South American countries, have provided a perfect ruse for thieves to enter properties posing as municipal fumigators, Clarín reports. Authorities have warned residents […]
ROME — Italian soldiers and antiquity experts alike will help lead a new dedicated UN peacekeeping force designed to protect and restore the world’s cultural monuments exposed to war and other conflicts. Italian daily Corriere della Sera reports that the taskforce, the first of its kind, will be composed of 30 Italian paramilitary troops and […]
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