Andreas Lubitz, who apparently suffered from depression, hid his condition before he deliberately crashed a plane with 150 people on board. A closer look at mental health controls at Lufthansa, which operated the low-cost Germanwings flight.
Category: Society
A 12-year-old from Goma, DRC, recounts how the international NGO persuaded her to keep her baby.
Hundreds of thousands have left Spain, until recently a land of plenty with a booming real estate sector, to seek work abroad. American countries are favored destinations, even if recession is now raising its ugly head there.
The anonymous author has penned a new book, but lives in fear of reprisal for her writings that celebrate female sexual pleasure and castigate “Arab arrogance” and subjugation of women.
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Egyptian Dwarfs Fight For Their Rights
It’s a different kind of Arab Spring in Egypt that you may have missed.
In just a few minutes, two technologies can print a sold-out or out-of-print book (or one that a reader simply wants to personalize) that looks exactly like the standard issue. Is this a game-changer for the publishing industry?
As it faces an aging population, China has announced plans to raise its retirement age. But the better solution, and a clearly more urgent issue, is to encourage couples to have more children.
BEIJING — A military-style boot camp in Beijing’s suburbs is at the front line of China’s battle against Internet addiction, a disorder that the government claims is afflicting millions of its children. The camp run by an army colonel is where desperate parents are sending their children in the hopes of weaning them off online games, cybersex and chats. The China Young Mental Development Base in Daxing district uses a blend of therapy and military drills to treat children such as 18-year-old Wang Dewei, the son of middle-class officials in the Hebei province. He says they forced him to come […]
Details emerge of poisonous links between local politicians and organized crime networks in Sicily working together to siphon public funds and exploit migrants arriving via Lampedusa.
The architecture and interior design of a residential care home serving autistic people were specially designed to make the patients more comfortable. A look inside the award-winning facility.
BEIJING — At a Chinese New Year family celebration, one of Liang Bing’s aunts pulled her aside and cautioned her to be careful not to get pregnant before April. In fact, she continued telling her niece, it would be even better to put off a pregnancy until after May or June. “Giving birth to a […]
FORT MACKAY — Figuring out which way the winds are blowing is a piece of cake in the hamlet of Fort MacKay, Canada. Just follow the direction of the fumes. On this cold February morning, with temperatures below -20 °C (-4 ºF) in the northern part of Alberta, the columns rising from the chimneys of […]
Leonardo Boff, a Catholic theologian and key figure of Liberation theology, was condemned for decades by the Vatican. Now, he says, the pope himself is going beyond Liberation teachings.
A brother and sister have set Lausanne alight for the past two years with a celebration of “positive sex” and “alternative porn.” The Swiss city has been surprisingly submissive. Austin, Texas might call it the XXX answer to their SXSW
Chinese consumers still don’t trust goods made in their own country. The latest buy-abroad craze? Japanese toilet seats. Why the country must pull up its pants and stand proud.
Both born with the incurable disease of cystic fibrosis, 35-year-old Nicolas and Damien Delmer are desperately sick. With the life they have left, they’re working for the right to die the way they want.
Why do so many Filipinos own and carry weapons? One theory points to the influence of former American colonial rulers.
Buildings, tarmac and air conditioning are turning some cities into fetid, airless saunas. Experts urge more trees and grass to mitigate the heat of increasingly hot cement jungles.
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CAIRO — Amid shifting copyright and publishing norms, adaptation and translation of existing works is as contentious an issue today as ever in the literary world. The questions are particularly relevant for the Arabic novel, both for its recent and not-so-recent history. Many have accused Ahmad Mourad of reproducing characters from Naguib Mahfouz in his […]
CHAMBÉRY — Seen from afar they might be mistaken for a father and son. Dominique is 56. Mohammed is 23. But talking to them and seeing how they interact, it’s clear they’re a couple in love. They agreed to meet early in the morning, in a fast food restaurant in the Landiers industrial zone in Chambéry, southeastern France. It’s an impersonal place, where people come and go without paying much attention to others around them. Dominique and Mohammed prefer it that way. The couple shows up late, which somehow makes sense. It’s their privilege. They’re in love. The rest of […]
It’s the consultants …
Categories
David Guetta, The Happy, Genre-Busting DJ
The second highest-paid DJ in the world, a celebrity with 17 million Twitter followers, is currently touring the world. The hedonist sits down with Le Monde after a concert in Brazil.
GORNJA MAOCA — In Sarajevo, you come to realize that all the essential things in the world have been affected by war, or rather, by the circumstances of war. You realize the economy’s upheaval, the general misery and, above all, the turmoil in each individual life: embarrassment, uncertainty, anxiety. “It’s like being in a prison […]
As electricity costs climb in the face of energy shortages and a steep reduction in government subsidies, a new website helps consumers track their consumption and calculate costs.
NAIROBI — The sun feels even more scorching under the cap of pollution. Through her binoculars, Patricia Heather-Hayes, nicknamed “Trish,” is scrutinizing a lioness sleeping under an acacia in Kenya“s Nairobi National Park. The energetic 60-something, who works in a legal office when she’s not out here observing wildlife, knows the name of every feline. […]
In China, a lawmaker has proposed making group sex for gays illegal. It already is for heterosexuals. Thoughts the government’s role in the bedroom (even if it’s crowded).
MOSCOW — I’m going to share my own observations about myself, yes, but also about my neighbors in the countryside. I spent last summer in a 100-year-old house outside of Moscow. In between writing articles, I maintained two beehives and pruned old apple, cherry and currant trees. I harvested. I made jam and extracted honey. […]
In a middle-class home in southern France live a survivor of World War II, her daughter and granddaughters. All three generations are Jewish, but both past and recent history dictate a certain reticence of their identity.
MUNICH — Dirk Rateike values ecologically friendly living and runs an organic hotel in the north of Hesse. But he’s facing anonymous threats from his own neighbors in the village of Gilserberg, between Marburg and Kassel in central Germany. The intimidation has included warnings that he shouldn’t go out at night lest he should face […]
You may know torch songs from Rihanna, but what about Enheduanna? In ancient Mesopotamia, she wrote the very first love songs, holding back very little. Watch her burn …
SALVADOR — There’s nothing quite like a barbecue with friends and beer, lots of it, to go down cool and easy with the sizzling steaks — and of course the photos to brag about the good time. The scene would be nothing remarkable if it wasn’t for its location: Lemos Brito Penitentiary, in Salvador, one […]
China’s ambitious judicial reform must include such basic principles as ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ and equality before the law. But it must also happen one small detail at a time.
Lilou, 32, lives a double life as a married mother of an infant and libertine blogger. Her endless string of lovers are shared on Twitter, with pictures as evidence. And her husband?
Pope Francis has been surprisingly progressive on such issues as gay rights. But so far he’s taken the hard line on denouncing drugs. That could change if he sees that legalization is the best chance for reducing violence.
BERLIN — Frank Underwood is a cult figure to those besotted by politics. The House of Cards protagonist is willing to walk over dead bodies to achieve absolute power. As the third season begins, we are obliged to ask ourselves why Germans have such a deep love for this American villain played by Kevin Spacey. […]
Globalization downsized? Taking lessons from Chinese immigrant-owned shops, foreign chains Carrefour and Walmart are opening smaller markets to make shopping faster and cheaper.
Growing old doesn’t necessarily have to mean leaving a beloved home. A growing market of technology-related services for senior citizens is helping them to keep their beloved independence.
CAIRO — Antique dealers, second-hand markets, auction showrooms, music lovers and historians are the cornerstones of the wondrous world of vintage vinyl records in Egypt, just as they are in similar dusty corners around the world. Egypt’s phonographic history is particularly rich in oriental music, with record labels running from the end of the 19th […]
Almost 2,000 pages, 5,000 commentaries, a huge introduction: The Institute of Contemporary History has finally released details on its new edition of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” planned for 2016.