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.
Author: Worldcrunch
A Chinese analysis of why Kim Jong II has provoked a new impasse with his southern neighbor. The North Korean leader has a special knack for provoking crises as a means to obtain concessions.
The French Ministry of Defense plans to follow the example of the United States and house all of its various departments and offices under a single roof. The winning design for the French “Pentagon” – which will actually be a hexagon – was made public thi
Editorial: Brazil, China and the other so-called BRICS countries are demanding a political role proportional to their economic importance. Is a global power shift forthcoming? Not necessarily says Le Monde’s Alain Frachon, who says the BRICS bloc is still
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.
Lobsang Sangay will soon replace the Dalai Lama as the head of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. In an exclusive interview with Le Temps, the Harvard-educated legal scholar talks about China, Tibet, the Internet and the power of trust.
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.
Following the Spanish “Indignados,” a Portuguese protest movement wants civil society to be at the center of politics. But the country’s financial solvency may have last say in Sunday’s vote.
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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.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا YEMENI ATTACK*As Yemeni state television aired a photo montage of President Ali Abdullah Saleh accompanied by background music, the crawl beneath reads: “President Saleh, may God protect him, is in good health and reports of his death are untrue.” Al Arabiya and other news outlets reported that […]
A veteran Turkish reporter travels to a Kurd stronghold to gauge reaction to Erdogan’s recent anti-Kurdish rhetoric ahead of the Prime Minister’s expected victory for a third term on June 12.
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.
Editorial: Without offering any hard details, Ex-Education Minister Luc Ferry went on television to say that a former cabinet minister took part in an orgy with young boys. Le Monde says Ferry is the one who’s guilty here – either of not reportin
It’s anyone’s guess who will come out victorious when Peruvians go to the polls Sunday to elect their 94th president. Each of the two closely matched candidates – Keiko Fujimori and Ollanta Humala – brings some baggage from the past.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا A CHILD IN SYRIA*With more than 70,000 members, the facebook group “We are all the hero-martyr Hamza Ali al-Khatib,” named for the 13-year-old boy who participated in a protest on April 29th outside Daraa. His tortured, mutilated body was returned to his family by Syrian intelligence last […]
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.
Changes are afoot along the Champs-Elysées, where big-name clothing brands like Abercrombie & Fitch and Marks & Spencer are occupying more and more commercial space. Critics say soaring rents and new business regulations threaten to turn t
The Shouwang Church and other Protestant Christian groups have a potentially powerful mix of Calvinist ideology, social activism and influence among China’s educated elite — even members of the ruling Communist party.
Algerian journalist Khaled Sid Mohand spent 25 days last month locked up in one of Syrian President Bachar Al-Assad’s prisons. Questioned, threatened and beaten, here is his story.
Nepal’s major parties have hammered out a last-minute deal to save the Constituent Assembly. But six years after the end of a bitter civil war, the country’s divisions still remain raw.
Editorial: As concerns about the economy deepen, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has blocked publication of the IMF’s latest report on Turkey. It’s the latest sign of a lack of professionalism.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا THE BLOGGER & THE ARMY*A new Google forum tweeted out by Wael Ghonim asks Egyptians to take part in a dialogue with the country’s ruling military council, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The discussion forum “is a democratic way to raise questions about the council, […]
Editorial: In the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan, the phase-out of nuclear energy in Germany has been decided so quickly, and with so little thought, that it skirts the edges of democratic legitimacy.
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Silvio Berlusconi: The Magic Is Gone
Editorial: The drubbing suffered in local elections shows Silvio Berlusconi increasingly obsessed with his own personal and judicial woes — and losing touch with the sentiments of everyday Italians. La Stampa editor Mario Calabresi weighs in.
Editorial: There’s nothing that the Chinese people hate more than a corrupted official. But the government should do more to root out corruption than play to the public’s basest instincts for revenge. Still, don’t expect China&a
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.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا DRIVING DEBAUCHERY*The campaign against women driving in Saudi Arabia continues to grow, as a “Saudi religious figure named Mohammed al-Manjad said he considers a woman driving a car sexually immoral because if she gets behind the wheel of a car, she is surely practicing other forms of […]
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
Human rights violations committed during Uruguay’s 1970s and 1980s-era military regimes have come back to haunt the South American country, where the legislature’s recent failure to revoke a stubborn amnesty law has sparked a major political crisis.
The deadline for evacuation zones will interrupt centuries of farming in the region near the damaged nuclear plant. Some livestock will be sold, others will be slaughtered, adding to the animal death toll in the wake of the March earthquake and tsunami.
An overview of the Libyan sovereign wealth fund’s bad moves, including investments in some of Italy’s top firms such as energy giant ENI and industrialist Finmeccanica
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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.
French authorities recently launched a campaign aimed not at the causes of cancer, but at one of its more debilitating effects: the social stigma that still persists.
Europe has been clamoring for one of their own to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and keep the continent’s lock on the key post. For the sake of democracy and development, that’s a bad idea, says Xu Guoping of South Centre agency.
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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.
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Meet Claude Monet’s Master Gardener
Gilbert Vahé has devoted much of his life to the picturesque Claude Monet gardens in Giverny, a living legacy he not only preserved, but helped recreate.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا TRUTH AND/OR BETRAYAL*Omar Suleiman, the man who headed Egypt’s feared intelligence services for 20 years, and who announced President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation on live television in February, testified in front of a criminal court that the former president had “full knowledge of every bullet fired into Tahrir […]
In recent years, authorities in Thailand have increasingly applied an antiquated lèse-majesté law to silence critics of authorities. On Friday, a dual U.S./Thai citizen became the latest person arrested for allegedly insulting the country’s ailing king.
The arrest of war criminal Ratko Mladic demonstrates how the EU can be a force for stability, especially when it holds out the possibility of membership.
Three months after Mubarak’s ouster, foreign investors and tourists have deserted the country, while the Arab spring has raised people’s expectations higher than ever.