With the era of cheap Chinese labor over, international manufacturers such as Samsung, Canon and Foxconn have relocated major production plants across the southern border to Vietnam.
Category: Society
When it comes to swimwear this summer, Europe’s fashionistas say covering it up can be super cool.
The market is suddenly booming for getting cameos in blockbuster movies for everything from Chinese computers to clothes to milk. Just make sure the movie isn’t made in China.
Contemporary artists in Indonesia are starting to gain the attention of Western galleries. And like the craze for Chinese art that preceded it, the sudden attention could send prices for Indonesian pieces through the roof.
It’s not just the disgraced former New York Congressman: philandering Chinese politicians are being caught out online too. Exposed in naked chat rooms and saucy blogs, they remind Chinese of…Bill Clinton
Convicted rapist and murderer Jean-Louis B. escaped from his Swiss jail on Monday. “As he talked about his dark past, his eyes lit up”, recalls journalist Fati Mansour from her 1999 encounter with the man considered Switzerland’s most dangerous c
Chinese lawmakers have drafted a law designed to protect people from the so-called “made mad” phenomenon. As several high-profile cases have shown, people in power sometimes manage to force political opponents into mental hospitals.
It’s the second smallest state in the world, stomping ground for millionaires and eccentrics, and host to Prince Albert’s royal wedding this weekend. But there’s more to Monaco, from the snubbing of the nouveaux riches to mingling at the local fruit marke
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Gay Marriage: Meanwhile In France…
Trailing other Western European countries — and several U.S. States — in gay rights laws, France has again opted against legalizing gay marriage. Still, same-sex French couples are increasingly making sure civil union ceremonies walk and talk like a wed
Once in the frontline of Afghanistan’s civil war, the Kabul zoo attracted hungry militiamen, not tourists. But now it is bringing in peaceful crowds again.
Offering instant citizenship and huge salaries to star athletes, maneuvering for major sporting events are a way for small Gulf nations to aim big on world stage.
Mercedes is building a hybrid Popemobile for Benedict XVI’s upcoming visit. That’s a departure from the usual—for every day getting around, His Holiness sticks to Italian makes.
Anglo-French oil and gas giant Perenco accused of using cultural sponsorship to try to whitewash its polluting of the water of a Guatemalan nature reserve.
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When Your Dog Needs A Shrink
Unruly — and unhappy — dogs and cats can be a real nightmare for their human masters. One option? Therapy. Specialized dog and cat psychologists can work wonders with perturbed pets, but only when their owners are willing to open up as well.
The young people on the two shores of the Mediterranean each have demands, but the sense of possibility embodied in North African and Arab quest for freedom is utterly absent in European youth protests.
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Surviving A Night In Zurich’s Worst Hotel
Armed with a healthy dose of courage – and his own sleeping bag – one Swiss reporter sets off on a perilous quest to brave Zurich’s cheapest sleeping establishment: the infamous Krone.
In crime-infested Calabria, the famed Italian national soccer team takes a stand against local mob intimidation by training on a field confiscated from a notorious boss.
Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly carrying out their clinical trials abroad – in developing and emerging nations, including in the so-called BRICS countries. But in their eagerness to save both time and money, are the drug companies also sidestepp
Greece’s deepening economic crisis is prompting some lifelong city-dwellers to return to their ancestral villages, where they are taking up farming, opening B&Bs and rediscovering the quiet charms of rural living.
Essay: First Dominique Strauss-Kahn, now former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner. What is it about power that makes the men at the top behave so badly?
Its picturesque surroundings aside, what’s bringing crowds to the French village of Bugarach are rumors that it will survive world destruction. A craze that is pushing up property prices, annoying inhabitants, and worrying the authorities.
Members of the so-called Generation Y look very differently than their elders at working life and careers. This creates new challenges for traditional French firms, which must find ways to keep young talent in their ranks.
Louise Bourgeois’ monumental public sculpture is a modern art icon. Best encountered up close, this itsy bitsy spider just crawled into Zurich.
Interest in Mark Zuckerberg’s once red-hot Facebook is starting to cool off. In the United States, Canada and the UK, millions actually closed their accounts last year. For some reason, though, Italians are still wild about the website.
Although their numbers have been halved by the recent economic meltdown, Poles – who now number an estimated 10,000 – continue to be Iceland’s largest ethnic minority.
Op-Ed: The new generation of German businessmen is the most female-friendly in history. Yet they are the ones who stand to lose if Germany’s older, chauvinistic business leaders decide to address the problem of workplace inequality with female quota laws.
Style and technology fuel a unique contest among international design schools to see who can conceive of the best futuristic model of the famous Italian sports car. Fuel efficiency counts – so does pure power.
Op-Ed: Germany is abuzz over the exploits of native son Dirk Nowitzki, who led the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA championship. One German sportswriter says Nowitzki is proof that European-style team ball has eclipsed the star-driven approach Michael Jordan
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China’s “Born In The USA” Frenzy
More and more well-off Chinese women are going to the United States to give birth to their children. But while an American passport can certainly be beneficial, it can also be more of a hassle than one might expect.
Essay: our writer spent years combating what Pippa Middleton, seen by millions at the Royal Wedding, has made fashionable: a shapely bum. Inspired by the bridesmaid’s becoming backside, Wiesinger may finally be ready to let her ample bottom be.
Le Monde reveals new medical report that recommends a strengthened guardianship for billionaire Bettencourt, 88, who has been battling with her daugther over the family fortune.
Strongest among the under-30s, the trend of Germans renouncing car ownership has touched all age groups. Autos are increasingly a practical choice rather than status symbol.
The cult of Lenin lives on in modern-day Russia among hardline nostalgics. But new proof revealing Lenin had Jewish roots may not sit well with those who long for a Soviet past that included state-backed anti-Semitism.
According to a recent study, China’s richest dream of one thing: packing up and heading for other countries, especially the West. This Chinese “investment emigration” is in full swing, and can have corrosive economic and social consequences.
An American manufacturer has come up with a device that allows people to “track what’s important.” For some that could mean pets or property. But what happens when the tracker’s target is of the two-legged variety?
According to just released interviews, the famed existentialist and leftist activist was also a foul-mouthed taker of hard drugs who underestimated Hitler, insulted his French colleagues (and lovers) and praised international terrorism.
Big ideas sometimes come in small packages. In both Europe and the United States, home designers are downsizing, offering mini-residences that are mobile, modular and moderately priced.
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Are The Smurfs Crypto-Fascists?
A French academic takes a critical look at the classic blue characters, suggesting there may be more than meets the eye when it comes to “Smurfology.”
Editorial: A German commentator says enough to corruption and gerontocracy at FIFA: we’re in the 21st Century, and this is the beautiful game we’re talking about.
Convicted last month for their involvement in a massacre of civilians during World War II, two former Nazi soldiers lead a peaceful life in Germany. And they don’t want to be disturbed.