A Swiss writer takes (Switzerland-based) Nestle’ to town for inventing a machine — and marketing campaign — that she says turns the simple preparation of baby formula into a status symbol. And sign of our wasteful times.
Category: Society
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In France, Barbers Are Back
Once a dying institution, barbershops are staging a comeback in France, where men are turning to the classic coiffeurs for everything from oh-so perfect stubble to some much needed guy time.
An astronomical price for a work by Chinese painter Qi Baishi offers clues to where China’s art market – and other sectors of the economy – may be heading.
The desperate search to find the source of what is a particularly virulent new strain of the bacteria has begun again from square one, and a sense of panic is beginning to spread.
A controversial Turkish-born preacher, who never appears live in public, is spreading a Koran-inspired defense of creationism. For some young French Muslims, this frontal attack on Darwin rings true.
Switzerland’s largest city is hoping to get a better handle on its growing sex worker population. Under proposed regulations, prostitution would remain legal, but only in designated areas — including one equipped with new stalls for taking care
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Are Immigrants Bad For The Environment?
A controversial new initiative launched by a Swiss population control organization suggests that immigration – already blamed for the country’s crime, unemployment and even traffic – is also damaging for the environment.
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Was The Spanish Civil War A Holocaust?
In an ambitious new book called The Spanish Holocaust, British historian Paul Preston shines a light onto the darkest chapters of Spain’s Civil War, uncovering macabre details of cold-blooded cruelties – on both sides.
Top French brands L’Oréal and Christian Dior are leading the hunt for fashion “ambassadors” who have a story, and substance, behind the pretty face.
With Internet piracy taking a major bite out of their bottom line, adult film producers are going three dimensional in an effort to lure new, paying customers.
In the small Greek village of Kalapodi, German archaeologists have excavated one of the primary Greek sanctuaries of the ancient world: the Oracle of Abai.
The revolt in the Arab world is featured in several participants at this year’s film festival in France, as newfound freedom is celebrated in celluloid, if not yet incomplete in practice.
In a country that has banned the building of Muslim minarets, Mormons have set up a new community center with its own, unmarked tower. The locals don’t seem to mind.
Just as the Dominique Strauss-Kahn storm hits, a well-timed book by an American reporter in Paris tries to make sense of the French codes of power, sex and gender. A review by Le Monde’s New York correspondent.
Swiss policy of neutrality has always made foreign affairs everyone’s business. Which is exactly why think tanks can play such a key role in refining the policy, says Former Secretary of State Franz Blankart.
The author of a controversial French book about politics and seduction, which cited Strauss-Kahn’s approach to women and power, says the French media must reexamine its relationship with the ruling elite and the pursuit of the truth.
The question of selling his holdings continues to follow the Italian-born Parisian designer, who was always as much a businessman as a master craftsman.
New York’s Modern Art and Met museums are both featuring exhibits dedicated to the guitar. Viewed together, the Moma’s “Picasso Guitars” and the Met’s “Guitar Heros” say a lot about diverging trends in modern art history.
A miraculous discovery in Buenos Aires has brought the classic German silent film Metropolis close to the way its producers originally intended before decades of brutal editing.
Newly released Communist-era files show a complicated relationship between the Polish regime and the Wunderkind French-Polish filmmaker, from his first success to his escape from Hollywood after having sex with a minor.
As they develop a passion for pop gatherings, Chinese music enthusiasts are creating new market opportunities for organizers and sponsors. Authorities are allowing the shows to go on, but with a discrete presence of state police. And state censors.
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Rembrandt And Faces Of The Living Christ
A new exhibition at the Louvre features a rare collection of religion-themed paintings, drawings and prints by the Dutch painter who changed the way art depicted the Savior.
Transported secretly from Tehran to Paris, the films directed by Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof will be screened at Cannes, shining a spotlight on Iran’s repression of artistic and political expression.
Once the emblem of a harmonious and multicultural France, the French national soccer team is currently engulfed in a scandal that mirrors wider racism inside (and outside) the sport.
In northwestern China, traditional water supplies can’t quench the massive thirst for development. Government desertification cures don’t include saving an ancient canal system that had sustained locals for centuries.
Editorial: The population may be aging even worse than authorities admit in the latest 10-year census. Why China urgently needs to change its birth control policy.
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Chinese Lessons For First Graders
In France, demand for lessons in Chinese and Japanese now rivals traditional options Spanish and German. English is still tops.
A new trend in retirement housing offers American-style amenities with classic French flavor in converted convents and restored countryside heritage sites.
She was the 17-year-old who lured the Jewish victim of a high-profile hate crime. He ran the Versailles prison where she was serving time. Their scandalous romance exposed, Florent Goncalves tells how he fell for Emma Arbabzadeh, girl of the Gang of Barba
A Chinese film critic looks at how his country is portrayed in Mao’s Last Dancer, an Australian movie, and Last Train Home, a recent Canadian documentary.
With eminent artist-activist Ai Weiwei whisked away by an increasingly repressive regime in Beijing, star performance artist Zhang Huan shows how to be careful with his words, but fearless in his work.
The Lyon Museum of Fine Arts connects Islamic arts and modern Europe.
While Sir Mick Jagger rocks the world with the Rolling Stones, his younger brother Chris croons country music in English village halls. The beast of burden being Mick’s kid brother.
“This is Baccarat, not Ikea,” famed French designer Philippe Starck says of the Marie-Coquine, a whimsical new chandelier that made its debut in this year’s Milan furniture fair.
The Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in the French port of Saint Nazaire on the Atlantic Coast has opened its doors to the public. It is just one of a growing number of French industrial sites catering to a new kind of tourism.
Red-hot contemporary sculptor Jeff Koons among 19 artists featured in Italian museum’s latest exhibition, which runs through Dec. 31, 2012.
The Quai Branly Museum in Paris is exhibiting one of the biggest collections of Dogon art from Eastern Mali ever to be pulled together in one place.
As British singer Adele breaks chart records on both sides of the Atlantic, the music school that launched her, Amy Winehouse and other top stars celebrates its 20th anniversary.
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Is It A Sin To Be Elite?
Protestants of power and wealth in Germany struggle to balance faith and money, while Church leadership seeks a new way of addressing the modern quest for personal achievement with the greater good – and the Christian gospel.
Working hard doesn’t always work. Mental health experts say “burnout” is a real – and potentially dangerous – possibility for today’s highly driven professionals.