The Sochi Olympics are to Putin what Saint Petersburg was to Peter The Great. Freeing rivals, such as Khodorkovsky and Pussy Riot, are one more step toward sealing his place in history.
Category: Society
Odd and cruel episodes from police blotters around the world…
BRASILIA — The Brazilian government doesn’t like to talk about it publicly, but top officials are worried about the impact that Uruguay’s decision to legalize the production and sale of marijuana — the first nation to do so — will have on its larger neighbor to the north. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff talked about it […]
What would Niccolo Machiavelli, the author of “The Prince” (published exactly 500 years ago), have thought about modern China? What would he have done with the Internet?
BAKU — Amid the crashing and banging of dumpster trucks loaded with ballast, Fazil Gazi is a prime witness to one of the most famous oil hills in the world as it enters a new era. In all the books dedicated to the black gold of the Caspian sea, this maze of small streets with […]
TEL AVIV — Three months after my friend Tamy’s husband died from melonoma at age 45, she donated her long hair so that a young cancer patient could wear it in a new wig. I decided to do the same. The Zichron Menachem foundation, a cancer charity for children and their families, agreed to my […]
BEIJING — After months of public debate, China’s Education Ministry has finally decided that the college entrance exam will no longer include the subject of English. Instead, students will take several English tests spread over the course of the school year. This recurring topic is once again heated, bitterly dividing those with starkly divergent viewpoints. […]
CAIRO — After being unemployed for three years, 26-year-old Emad Hassan was offered a job at a local bank on the condition that he take a blood test. It was then that he discovered he had been infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), which can cause liver disease and eventually hepatocellular carcinoma — better […]
One of the heartbreaking side-effects of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
BUTEMBO — On the eve of the 2013-2014 academic year, the city of Butembo saw 22 new universities opening here, more than doubling the number of higher education institutions in a city of only 600,000 people. But they’re only universities by (pompous) name: “Superior Institute of Trade and Business,” “Doctoral School of Petrochemistry,” “Faculty of […]
MEXICO CITY — Roberto Servitje, co-founder and former president of the Mexican bread and pastry giant Bimbo, is upright and elegant at 85 years old. He has plenty to stand tall about, having started a company with his brother 68 years ago that remains successful and in the family. At a time when Mexican producers […]
In a rare sit-down with a reporter, Argentine pontiff responds to a wide range of questions from La Stampa’s Vatican correspondent about Marxism, divorce and the meaning of suffering.
GENEVA — Have you heard the story of the white supremacist who found out on live television that he’s part-Sub-Saharan African? It happened on NBC last month when Craig Cobbs, who wanted to turn a small North Dakota town into an all-white enclave, agreed to take a DNA test. Broadcaster Trisha Goddard, a British woman […]
Cover Photo: Kainet Here are some of the songs topping the charts from music hot spots around the world. Worldcrunch Pick: Belgian singer-songriter Martijn Teerlinck, a.k.a. Cole Williams, a.k.a. The Child of Lov died on Tuesday at the age of 26, following complications after undergoing surgery. He had worked with Damon Albarn on his self-titled […]
‘Filial Piety,’ in which children were responsible for caring for the aged, was China’s ancient and efficient retirement system. Modern forces have slowly dismantled it over the past half-century.
Because of outdated tradition and economics, 14% of Yemeni girls are married off before their 15th birthday. But since the Arab spring, a movement is growing to stop this.
Your weekly shot of what the Arab world is saying, hearing and sharing.
The coldest recorded temperature, a long test for Fukushima rice and other ways to measure the news that counted.
The ‘Big Smoke’ was about as fogged in this morning as it ever gets. Here are some breathtaking views of ‘ol London town in an ominous light.
A visit to the tiny village in the Dolomite Mountains where the notorious U.S. politician and former Ku Klux Klan grandmaster was residing under a false name. He was deported last week.
Organic fever has been taking over the world over the past few years, appealing to some but shunned by others. Sustainability is a word often linked with organic, as well as all things environmentally-friendly, that surely must benefit all of us. Here’s a short profile of five places embracing both concepts with the aim of […]
Two farewells for a pair of towering figures in world history: the 2005 funeral of Pope John Paul II and Tuesday’s mass public ceremony to mark the death of Nelson Mandela. Not since the global public outpouring in Rome more than eight years ago to pay respects to the Polish pontiff has the world come […]
A poor education ranking in the latest international PISA report failed to humble the country’s top education official, who instead hailed the outcome as a “great triumph.”
In this opium-rich nation, addiction is on the rise as other cocktails are invented including a mix of pure heroin and methamphetamine.
The recession of 2008 created a new population of poor in the U.S., concentrated in the outskirts of once thriving urban areas. In Atlanta, poverty has risen by 122%.
Marriage in Tajikistan, a Central Asian country of 8 million, is celebrated over days and far over budget. A new law tries to change ancient ways for the sake of modern economics.
The central urban areas of Israel are a proven Silicon Valley success in the Middle East. But the country must find ways to bring the high-tech industry to the north and south.
Odd and cruel episodes from police blotters around the world…
STUTTGART — Banbo is the first one to get the idea. The 11-year-old female chimpanzee presses her thumb firmly on the button and changes the channel on the TV set up in her enclosed living space. Fifteen-year-old Liboso is less certain and still sometimes presses her feet against the screen. The rest of the group […]
Here are some musical tributes to Nelson Mandela, whose lifetime work for peace and equality inspired artists around the world and across musical genres.
When Nelson Mandela’s death was announced Thursday night, in the rush to publish something about him several Italian newspapers made the unfortunate mistake of describing him as “the father of apartheid,” reports Il Post. Il Giornale, owned by the Berlusconi family, Il Messaggero and Il Mattino all featured stories with similar headlines. “South Africa, the […]
BANGKOK — The situation that has taken over Thailand’s capital this past week has been, among other things, surreal. The government has been paralyzed after demonstrators occupied several ministerial buildings, and even entered, on Dec. 3, the complex where Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s offices are located. But below the surface, the upheaval is a political […]
Colombia marks 20 years since police killed Pablo Escobar, who helped define the nation as the global mecca of violence and drug trafficking. It’s a lot to absorb for one man in particular.
It’s been on the way out in certain sartorially laid-back countries. Now the eternally elegant Italians may be ready to kill the *cravatta* too.
Did you know ‘The Hunger Games’ was written by a woman? Do you care? Examples of sexism continue to plague the male-dominated world of science fiction.
On Sunday night a fire broke out in a garment factory in the Tuscan city of Prato, killing seven workers and injuring three in their makeshift on-site dormitories. The tragedy has prompted questions about the factory’s conditions and legality — as well as in other workshops operating in this manufacturing city north of Florence that […]
The recent dual suicide of Bernard and Georgette Cazes at Paris’ landmark Lutetia Hotel is a symbolic nod to the right-to-die movement, but also a melancholic reminder of eternal love.
Chickens can be pretty bird-brained, but keeping laying hens in their backyard has taught these Portland city folk a lot.
PARIS – The results are in, and half a million 15-year-olds from 65 countries have spoken. This collective voice is the results of high-school students from around the world who were measured in a series of math, science and reading tests for the much-anticipated PISA rankings that were announced Tuesday. PISA, which stands for Program […]
Older people in San Basilio de Palenque know 64 edible plants native to the region. Their grandchildren, about half. How can the agriculture past of this region not become history?