Police in Munich are scratching their heads over a bizarre rash of dog poop attacks involving the city’s mailboxes. So far they have no idea who is dumping excrement into the mail, nor what the malodorous attacks are supposed to mean.
Category: Society
Op-Ed: Scandals and sex in China are becoming part of the scenery, but what if the public’s eagerness to shame law-breaking officials is in itself undermining the rule of law?
Jailed Russian oil baron Mikhail Khodorkovsky isn’t going to be released anytime soon. In Russia, a new documentary about his life is struggling to see the light of day as well. “Khodorkovsky” is set for release Dec. 1 — but virtually no cinemas
It’s not surprising that women don’t play as large a role as men in the telling of history. But a new study in France shows just how small: less than four percent of the figures given their own biographies in French history books are wom
Among the most influential living thinkers, Jürgen Habermas has a timely new treatise on Europe. He sees beyond the “crisis” a Europe leading the way for a coming world based on supranational institutions.
U.S. bedroom scandals have long culminated in sex addiction revelations. But now the French are starting to face this bona fide medical diagnoses since Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s super active sex life has been dissected following his encounter with
Iraq, tourist destination? The central city of Najaf will be declared cultural capital of the Islamic world in 2012, which is expected to help jump-start tourism in Iraq nearly a decade after the beginning of the American-led war to oust Saddam Hussein.
Germany has registered a rise in pet owners shelling out big bucks for complicated procedures like organ replacement or chemotherapy. Not surprisingly, dog and cat life expectancy is on the rise.
Famous for its traffic and pollution, Mexico City is joining the green revolution, urging residents to swap their cars for bicycles and walking shoes. On Sundays, pedestrians have preference downtown. The city also boasts a European-style bike system call
Besim Kabashi, the Kosovo-born, Munich-based world heavyweight kickboxing champion, is alleged to have let loose a flurry of punches and kicks on a waiter who’d told him to leave a table under an Oktoberfest tent. Kabashi says he was too drunk to
It’s been a year since Google Street View became available in Germany – and very little of the negative stir that greeted its initial arrival has survived. The service has come to be seen as a useful tool, and some former opponents even want their homes i
Chinese-American mother Amy Chua’s bestseller “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” opened debate about severe parenting techniques. Now, a Chinese businessman has written about even harsher treatment of his kids — and of course,
For a while, tiny Algeria had a world-class soccer team. But years later, players are asking if performance-enhancing drugs administered by Soviet trainers played a role in the success. Why the suspicion? Seven of the players have since fathered handicapp
The prestigious Grand Palais museum in Paris is hosting an exhibition on the history of video games, marking an unofficial christening into the realm of high brow for a craft that has long been associated with mass (and mindless) entertainment.
Italian retailer Benetton is again pushing the boundaries of advertising with a provocative campaign. The ads portray global figures, including President Obama, shown kissing their nemeses. But the prickliest of the pics has the Pope smooching an Egyptian
The architect of Cologne’s not-quite-completed new mosque has been fired, accused among other things of having hidden Christian symbolism in various places in the new structure. At the very least, we have the first Da Vinci Code conspiracy plot with a mod
The Bejing Olympics was an occasion for China to show off its new architectural gems. One of the most original was the China TV building, a curious rectangular vertical loop designed by the German architect, Ole Scheeren, who has chosen to plant roots in
Categories
Now Mineral Water Can Be “Organic” Too
A German court has ruled in favor of a mineral water company hocking their H2O as “bio,” or organic. Next to come: organic air?
Russian developers run by local politicians have spent the last decade replacing historic buildings with luxury apartments and shopping malls. Preservationists have long cried foul, but say there’s still time to save some of the city’s endangered landmark
Categories
China’s Slow-Burning Sexual Revolution
Fueled by income inequality, gender imbalances and repressive laws, China is experiencing a barely-hidden sexual crisis. The government criminalizes Internet porn and sex toys, but offers no better solution for the urban lonely and millions of men unable
Essay: Channeling her “citizen yogi,” Swiss columnist Anna Lietti takes a couple of deep breaths before launching into a passionate defense of why yoga matters more than ever.
Feeding pigeons is forbidden by the French law, and can lead to fines of up to 450 euros. But that doesn’t stop the army of feeders in Paris from risking it all with their bags of illicit bread crumbs. Now the mess has arrived on the Internet.
Researchers at Germany’s Max Planck Institute have calculated the average CO2 emissions per capita by age and have found that the most emissions are produced by people in their early to mid-60s.
A magazine in France is pushing a new campaign for office benevolence, and even a “Kindness Day” next week. It may sound to some like empty chatter (and not typically French), but it’s part of a larger trend toward finding solut
A new study on forced marriages in Germany has some disturbing findings: 30,000 such cases may exist and 30% of the girls were younger than 18. The youngest victim was nine years old.
A new German television series takes a look at some of Adolf Hitler’s lesser transgressions, which included charging royalties to the state for using his image on postage stamps. Before his rise to power, the future Führer racked up more than 400
A veteran of Israel’s 1948 war, Yoram Kaniuk is a well-known and outspoken critic of the Israeli government. But the 81-year-old Jewish writer has sparked a wider debate by fighting for his right to be “religionless.” It is a personal cause that could hav
Local officials in western Belgium are demanding that France return an 18th century work by Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens stolen by French troops. It may be just the beginning of efforts to recoup art works that were booty for imperialist French armies
In China, a group of professors at Yangtze University knelt down in front of the local municipality building to plead for the closure of a polluting steel mill. Some say it was a shameful sign of the times. But you know what? It worked.
An orthodontist in Munich has given her clinic an extreme and rather unusual makeover, turning a normal medical office into something akin to a Bavarian beer hall – minus the beer. Staff wear tight-fitting dirndls and lederhosen rather than white smocks t
About 130 of Dutch Rail’s new trains don’t have toilets. So what are passengers to do when nature calls? Call the company’s proposed solution what you wish — Travel John, Pee-in-a-bag, Urinal-in-a-box — not all are convinced that this is a mark
Weißwurst, yodeling, glockenspiel: Berliners are suckers for all things Bavarian. And now they can drink and sway to their hearts delight in what is being dubbed the biggest beer hall in Europe. The 6,000 square-foot Hofbräu Berlin may be the biggest such
Essay: China’s state-run Red Cross has recently been a regular source of controversy. Now, some accuse it of forcing Chinese students to join – and pay. But assuming it fulfills its mission, the Chinese Red Cross is an organization well worth preserving.
During his life and work, the painter Paul Klee was surrounded by music and musicians. It follows that the unique rhythms and expressions in the artist’s work — and his intellectual musings — would eventually influence generations of composers
Rugby is nowhere close to unseating soccer as Brazil’s national sport. But marketers say there’s potential for growth. In neighboring Argentina, soccer is also king. But fans support their beloved Pumas, the national rugby team.
Marking its 15th anniversary, Al Jazeera is basking in recent praise for its pivotal coverage of the Arab Spring protests. But the still relatively young history of the Qatar-based satellite network is filled with contradiction, as well as innovation
Essay: More urgent than carbon footprint consciousness is one group’s online test to make us aware how many de facto enslaved workers are behind the electronics, food, clothing — and even medicines — that keep the rest of us fat and happy. You
In a new German government report on families, experts suggest a greater public role in helping families better manage their time. The Minister of Families wants “family-friendly” regulations. Will this lead to more flexible working hour
Paraguay was infamous as a favorite hiding destination of Nazi fugitives after World War II. But the links to Nazism actually go much farther back — and live on: Hotel Del Lago, which was frequented by severable notable Nazi supporters before the war, is
The first gastarbeiter (guest workers) from Turkey came to Munich from Istanbul in 1961. Some of them took part in the recent 50th anniversary trip celebrating the bilateral recruitment agreement—and looked back to often painful memories.