Category: blog
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Italy’s Perilous Fault Lines
As mourners gather today at a funeral for at least 200 of the 292 victims of the Aug. 24 quake in central Italy, the initial search for survivors has been replaced by the grim final task of recovering bodies and identifying the dead. As has happened in the wake of natural disasters in the past, […]
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Rhinoceros And Champagne
On the Zambezi, the upper end of which begets the mighty Victoria Falls, I went on a half-day cruise. There was amazing fauna to observe from the deck, and champagne to drink from the boat’s open bar. Hey rhinos, here’s looking at you …
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A New Kind Of Space Race
The quest for the final frontier is still very much on. But rather than the Cold War-era space race between the two governments of the United States and Soviet Union, the competition now has many players, both public and private. The public sector these days includes China, which recently announced plans to send an unmanned […]
O Globo, Aug. 29 Brazil’s suspended president, Dilma Rousseff, will address the Senate today as part of the final moments of her trial before a vote on her impeachment tomorrow. Rousseff studied each and every senator in detail last week “to have something up her sleeve if she gets attacked,” Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported […]
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Floating Business
I bought a nice bedspread from one of these Uru women, sitting in the sun on a islet in Lake Titicaca. They sure get enough practice: The Uru people wove the islets themselves, using dried reeds.
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Italy Quake, Once The Dust Has Settled
Two days after an earthquake tore through central Italy, the dust is settling on the razed buildings, and the hope of finding survivors in the rubble is fading away. The first burials of victims took place this morning, only hours after Prime Minister Matteo Renzi declared a state of emergency for the worst-hit areas and […]
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Making Peace — Video Quote Of The Day
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Fishing Fashion
I’ve already told you about the fishermen’s wives of Nazaré, and the seven petticoats they’d wear traditionally in this Portuguese town. The fishermen“s costumes are just as interesting. Although granted, they do look a little bit like pajamas.
La Repubblica, Aug.25 At least 247 people have died and 368 were injured in the devastating 6.2-magnitude earthquake that struck in the early hours of Wednesday. Small towns and villages were destroyed in the mountainous area where the regions of Umbria, Lazio and Le Marche meet in central Italy. The horror of the quake was […]
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The Edge Of The World
Though definitely not the most impressive watefalls I got to see, the Gullfoss cataract (not far from other popular Icelandic landmarks like Þingvellir or the “father of all geysers“) gives the eerie impression that the water disappears into the earth.
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Hacking, From Submarines To A News Bureau
Although conventional warfare makes headlines, a more insidious conflict also warrants attention. Cyber warfare, in its many forms, is arguably still in its infancy. But the new-age combat is a growing concern — so much so that the latest NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland, chose to focus on cyber defense. The list of government agencies, […]
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Wish Upon A Line
Members of Sri Lanka“s Hindu minority have a religious custom where they tie a piece of colored cloth to a line. Every knot signifies a wish.
LINYI — Dr. Yang Yongxin first garnered attention a decade ago when he opened the “Young People Risk Behavior Intervention Center” in this city in the eastern province of Shandong. The “risk behavior” in question was not drugs or sex, but wasting time online. The Nanfang Daily reports that Yang, who used to work in […]
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Presidential Bids And Baggage
France’s former President Nicolas Sarkozy announced his bid to become the Republican party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election. He did so despite his previous claim that he wouldn’t run again. (See our Extra! feature for more) Sarkozy will focus on tax and budget cuts, stopping economic migrants and “organizing Islam,” according to French newspaper […]
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The Art Of The Cart
Brightly-decorated Sicilian carts don’t just look great. The scenes carved in the wood of the carretti siciliani used to be a good way to teach history, and pass on folklore, to illiterate workers.
Libération, Aug. 23 Former right-wing French President Nicolas Sarkozy, 61, announced he’s running for the 2017 presidential election. “What is worse is that he may win,” leftist newspaper Libération lamented on its front page. The daily has a point: Socialist President François Hollande faces record unpopularity, making re-election an uphill battle if he plans to […]
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Three-Wheeled Solution
To deal with daily traffic jams in the Indian city of Jaipur, locals and tourists alike turn to fast and cheap rickshaws that can weave through clogged city streets.
TEGUCIGALPA — The Central American countries of the “Northern Triangle” (Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala) have long battled gang wars and drug-related crime that have left the region’s cities among the world’s most dangerous. Individual attempts in the past to defuse the crisis, including local gang truces and national crackdowns on drugs, have been largely […]
WARSAW — Even as change spreads from such historically Catholic countries as Ireland and Mexico, same-sex marriage rights still look to be years away in Poland, home to a diehard traditional Catholicism that some say was even too pious for Pope Francis. The 2015 Eurobarometer survery found that just 28% of Poles favored same-sex marriage, […]
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Humanitarian Risks And Recognition
Aug. 19 is World Humanitarian Day, an annual United Nations tribute that often goes by unnoticed. This year is different: It falls on a week when we’ve been acutely reminded of both the world’s humanitarian crises, and the danger aid workers face every day. Yesterday the world was shocked by the photograph and video of […]
Philippine Daily Inquirer, Aug. 19 Philippines’ maverick president Rodrigo Duterte has declared a new war of words against Senator Leila de Lima, whom he accused of being an “immoral” woman with a “very sordid personal and official life” and linked to the illegal drug trade. “If you are bent on destroying me, please have the […]
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Peruvians At Rest
These two Peruvian women in traditional clothes were taking a break from a nearby festival, watching me watching them.
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Another Syrian Boy, Another Photograph
While many of us are immersed in the Olympic drama in Rio or enjoying a summer vacation escape, a photograph from Aleppo has brought a jarring reminder of the horrific war still raging in Syria. The image shows a dazed five-year-old boy, covered in dust and with an open head wound, sitting in an ambulance […]
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Rainy Reputation
Ask anyone in France about Brittany, and there’s a good chance they’ll tell you how bad the weather is in the northwestern region. Looks like blue skies to me!
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Olympic Paradox And Patriotism
The Olympic ideal is free of political conflict. But from Jesse Owens in Berlin to this year’s refugee team, some of the Games’ most striking images have sprung when sports and world affairs collide. So much so that the temptation is always great to think of the Olympics as a jersey-wearing reflection of current events. […]
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First Taste Of Greece
This was the first of about a dozen trips to Greece. From Athens to Epidaurus to Crete … There is something about the country’s history and its people that always made us come back for more.