“Trapped in the fog: 16 martyred,” reads Tuesday’s front page of Turkish daily Hürriyet, after PKK fighters reportedly ambushed and killed 16 Turkish soldiers in southeastern Turkey Sunday by taking advantage of the bad weather. According to the Turkish news agency Anadolu, two armored vehicles were targeted with roadside bombs between Daglica and Yuksekova in […]
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At Rest In Palermo
Judging by the abundance of flowers on the two horse-drawn funeral hearses, the departed must have been someone very important in Sicily.
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Extra! “What Now” For Austria’s Refugees?
Kurier, Sept. 7, 2015 “They reached safety — what now?,” Vienna-based daily Kurier asks on its front page Monday, as at least 15,000 refugees crossed the border from Hungary over the weekend into Austria. After days of confrontation between refugees — mostly fleeing violence in Syria and Iraq — and authorities in Budapest stopping them […]
THE LATEST ON EUROPE’S REFUGEE CRISIS Photo: Ray Tang/Rex Shutterstock/ZUMA The Austrian government has warned it could close its border to undocumented refugees after some 15,000 crossed the border from Hungary to Austria this weekend alone, Wiener Zeitung reports. But in neighboring Germany, the government has dedicated an extra 6 billion euros ($6.7 billion) to […]
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Decorative Canal
Being only 70 ft-wide (21 meters) at its base, the canal that cuts through the Isthmus of Corinth is far too narrow for today’s large cargo freighters. It’s now mostly used by cruise liners, on the deck of which tourists can admire its high limestone walls.
REFUGEES SQUARE OFF WITH HUNGARIAN POLICE A standoff between refugees, many of them from war-torn Syria, and Hungarian police in the town of Bickse has entered its second day, with Die Welt reporting that some 500 people spent the night in the train station and were refusing to eat or drink until being allowed to […]
Guatemala’s parliament voted to sack President Otto Pérez Molina Thursday, forcing his resignation and immediate arrest for his suspected participation in an extensive corruption ring. Like an ordinary felon, he will have to “answer to justice,” the daily Publinews wrote on its front page. Publinews Guatemala and other Guatemalan dailies also showed the former president […]
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Double Bass
The fishermen of Henningsvær in Norway“s Lofoten islands have either horrible taste in decoration or a good sense of humor … and love of opera!
HEARTBREAKING IMAGES SHOW HORROR OF MIGRANT CRISIS Shocking photographs of the body of a Syrian toddler, whose body had washed up on a Turkish beach after his family’s failed attempt to reach Europe, are sparking global outcry. The first of the images shows a Syrian boy identified as Aylan Kurdi, 3, face down on the […]
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Each To Their Home
It is not only interesting to compare the differences in the architecture of monuments and famous buildings around the world, but also that of more modest lodgings. Take a look for instance at this palheiro thatched house on the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira, and then go back to the little house on the fjord I’ve […]
MIGRANT PROTEST IN BUDAPEST As many as 2,000 migrants are stranded outside Budapest’s Eastern railway station and are protesting against the Hungarian police after the government banned any access to the station to those who are neither Hungarian nor tourists, Die Welt reports. Describing the “squalid” conditions in which these migrants are waiting on the […]
Has Canada entered a recession, or is it “already over,” as Quebec City’s French-language daily Le Soleil asks on the front page of its Wednesday edition? The Canadian economy shrank for a second straight quarter, dragged down by falling energy prices and economic troubles in China, as shown by the latest GDP numbers published Tuesday; […]
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Next-Door Wonder
You don’t always have to travel halfway across the world to see a historical wonder. Here is a shot of the closest UNESCO World Heritage Site to me: the 18th-century Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, just a little more than an hour’s drive away from my hometown.
Hungary suspended all traffic from its main rail terminal in Budapest on Tuesday, and began clearing train stations of hundreds of migrants trying to board trains bound for Austria and Germany. The decision came after thousands of asylum seekers — mostly Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war — started reaching Munich, Germany, and Vienna, Austria, […]
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Europe’s Migrants, Obama Warning, Bad Harry
MIGRANT TRAINS BLOCKED IN BUDAPEST Photo: Sven Hoppe/DPA/ZUMA Thousands of asylum seekers — mostly Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war — have reached Munich, in Germany, and Vienna, in Austria, after leaving the Hungarian capital of Budapest by train Monday in what German daily Die Welt cited as the biggest movement of people in Europe […]
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Poor, Hungry, Holy
For the sadhus (“good men”) of India and Nepal, recognizable by their ash-smeared bodies and saffron-colored clothes, asceticism through hunger and poverty is a way to reach moksha, which in France we call libération.
CHINA STOCKS RESUME SLIDE AMID CRACKDOWN Chinese equities fell again today despite ending higher on Friday, following a devastating week for the country’s stock markets. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.8%, and although the Shenzhen CSI 300 ended up 0.7%, both fell by as much as 4% at one point, Reuters reports. This came […]
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Extra! Bangkok Post On New Bomb Supect
“Thai woman sought for bomb attack,” reads the front page of Bangkok Post‘s Monday edition, following the weekend arrest of a suspect of unknown nationality. In the widening investigation into Bangkok’s deadly bombing two weeks ago, authorities are hunting for a Thai woman who left bomb-making materials in a rented apartment in Min Buri District […]
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Scandinavian Scene
From the park adjacent to Stockholm’s City Hall, we had one of the best views on Riddarholmen, one of the very picturesque islets that surround Gamla stan, the Old Town.
Sea lion and Buenos Aires Zoo trainer — Photo: Laura Gravino/Zoológico de Buenos Aires BUENOS AIRES — Zoo and aquarium shows may make kids smile, but some animal rights activists say it basically amount to slave labor. The debate returns after two sea lions recently died in the Buenos Aires Zoo within three days of […]
MIGRANT BOAT SINKS OFF LIBYA More than 200 people are feared to have drowned off the Libyan coast after two boats sank early Thursday, the BBC reports. The Libyan coast guard said it had rescued some 200 from the two separate boats carrying some 450 people in total . The victims are said to include […]
“Dead refugees in parked truck — Only profit matters to smugglers” reads the front page of Austrian daily Salzburger Nachrichten“s Friday edition, following the discovery of 71 migrants found suffocated to death in a truck along a main highway in the country’s eastern Burgenland province. Chief of police Hans Peter Doskozil revealed at a news […]
A visit to the hill tribes near Chiang Rai, in northern Thailand, usually ends up with tourists buying crafts or taking picture of locals posing in traditional costumes. I did both, bringing back one of these colorful hats — though I tried to snap a more candid shot.
VIRGINIA KILLER A “HUMAN POWDER KEG” A man claiming to be Bryce Williams, the assumed name of the gunman who killed Virginia journalists Alison Parker and Adam Ward during a live broadcast yesterday, sent a fax to ABC News afterward in which he described himself as a “human powder keg.” Williams, whose real name was […]
Wednesday’s killing of TV station WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward by fired station employee Vester Flanagan, left Virginia in a “state of shock,” as described by local daily The Roanoke Times Thursday, alongside a picture of a community vigil for the slain journalists. The live, on-camera shooting, together with its immediate diffusion […]
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Best Buddha
Sri Lanka has hundreds of reclining Buddhas, but the 30-ft-long one at Isurumuni Temple in Anuradhapura, with its vibrant colours, really stands out.
MORE VOLATILITY IN CHINA Chinese stocks continued to fall for a fifth consecutive day, despite the People’s Bank of China cutting its key lending rate in a bid to restore calm to the stock markets. A volatile Shanghai Composite index eventually fell by 1.3%, after rising by as much as 4.3% and dropping 3.9%. After […]
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Post-Soviet Spire
Strange to think that only five years before we toured the Baltic states, the spire of St. Olaf’s church — which ranks among the tallest in the world — was still used as a radio tower and surveillance point by the KGB in the Estonian capital.
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Why Women Are Fleeing Eastern Germany
Auf wiedersehen — Photo: Sascha Kohlmann BERLIN — Where have all the women gone? That is the latest question in some parts of the former East Germany, which a new study shows to have Europe’s lowest ratio of women to men. German demographers and economists have already noted that after the Wall came down in […]
Guangming Daily, Aug. 25, 2015 Even as it dominates headlines around the world, the Chinese stock market crash is getting notably scant coverage at home. After a record drop in share prices at week’s opening, the front page of national state-run newspaper Guangming Daily made no mention at all of the stock exchange and accompanying […]
CHINA MARKETS CONTINUE DIVE The Chinese stock market continued to crumble today, with the Shanghai Composite index closing down 7.6% at 2,964.97 points. Japan also saw more sharp falls with Tokyo’s Nikkei index falling 4%, Reuters reports. TYPHOON GONI HITS JAPAN Photo: Yuan Jing/Xinhua/ZUMA Typhoon Goni has made landfall on Japan’s main island of Kyushu, […]
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Stairway Song
“The stairways up to la Butte / Can make the wretched sigh / While windmill wings of the Moulin / Shelter you and I,” so goes the song. But if you ask me, going up the stairs to Montmartre can make anyone sigh.
BLACK MONDAY IN CHINA Photo: Zhang Yixi/Xinhua/ZUMA Chinese stocks plunged 8.5% today after their worst trading day since the beginning of the 2007 financial crisis. What Xinhua described as “Black Monday” saw the Shanghai Composite index’s entire gains for the year wiped out after weeks of free fall, despite strong government intervention. The crisis intensified […]
Jamaican running legend Usain Bolt defended his 100-meter title Sunday at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, finishing in 9.79 seconds. Bolt crossed the line just 0.01 seconds ahead of American competitor Justin Gatlin, prompting Jamaican daily Jamaica Observer to characterize the winner of the 2008 and 2012 Olympic golds in the 100 as the […]
GENEVA — The specks of green and blue light splashing down from above alter the atmosphere along this riverside walkway completely. The illumination is smooth and complex, with colors that change in rhythm — a sharp contrast to the rigid lamppost light that used to shine along Geneva“s 800-meter long Seujet wharf. The made-to-measure public […]
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The Garden Of Europe
Keukenhof in the western Netherlands is one of the largest flower gardens in the world. I was there some 24 years after the garden first allowed visitors to admire its millions — yes, millions — of tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, orchids, roses, carnations, irises, lilies, etc.
NORTH KOREAN ARMY COMBAT READY North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered full combat readiness for the army after declaring a “quasi-state of war” with South Korea following yesterday’s exchange of fire between the two countries, Yonhap reports. Meanwhile, South Korean President Park Geun-hye has issued orders for the military to retaliate to any provocation […]
Libération, Aug. 21, 2015 “Facing the exodus,” writes French daily Libération on the front page of its Friday edition, which includes a 16-page feature on migrants. As an unprecedented number of refugees risk their lives to reach Europe’s shores, the newspaper analyzes the human and financial cost of policies implemented in France, Germany and the […]
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School’s Out
Once a quiet fishing village in northeast Malta, Sliema became the island’s first tourist resort. And with all the kids running around and playing on the promenade that day, it was easy to forget that Sliema means “peace” in Maltese.
