Worldcrunch
Analysis: As bidding opens to foreign firms to build new nuclear facilities in Turkey, authorities in Ankara see immediate economic advantages to turning the projects over to Chinese firms. But blatant bypassing of more experienced European firms is also
Analysis: Critics who accuse Turkey’s ruling – and largely unchallenged – AKP of trying to gradually implement Sharia law are missing the point. Religious conservatism is indeed gaining ground in Turkey. But so too is secularization of the countr
Analysis: Venezuela could be in for a wild ride between now and October, when voters decide whether to reelect their ailing president, Hugo Chávez, or hand the job to his youthful challenger, 39-year-old Enrique Capriles.
In northern Mexico’s Comarca Lagunera region, rising arsenic levels in the groundwater are leaving many residents sick and disabled. The culprit? Widespread dairy farming, which is sucking the area’s aquifers dry. Those who can’
Analysis: Homicides have soared in Central America as local street gangs are fed by Mexican drug cartels, which have taken over drug trafficking routes once handled by Colombians.
Despite the largest livestock head count on the African continent, a series of nagging problems prevent Ethiopia from realizing its agricultural potential. But now, the government in Addis Abeba has a plan to turn the country from famine poster child to a
Journalist Ursula Gauthier managed to get past Chinese roadblocks to get into Tibet, where she met the families and friends of those who have sacrificed themselves by immolation to protest against Chinese rule.
Analysis: the ouster of Bo Xilai, one of China’s most powerful political leaders, threatens to shake Beijing’s domestic affairs. But the spectacular –and notably public– fall from grace will reverberate around a world ever more influen
As analysts try to gauge the new and largely untested North Korean leader, one Beijing-based Japanese commentator sees similarities between Kim Jong-Un’s situation and what Emperor Hirohito faced when he began his 60-year reign in Japan. It does
One year ago, several young Egyptian army officers made a very public showing alongside democracy protesters in Tahrir Square. They were swiftly arrested, and are currently serving prison time. As their families demand answers, other soldiers are quietly
Too closely tied to its larger neighbor, Lebanon can’t help but worry about the consequences of the war spreading in Syria. The two countries have tight political links and share a porous border. Is Beirut set to be the next Arab Spring hot spot?
Unlike Germany, which is in a major row with Switzerland over Germans stashing away money in Swiss bank accounts, France has kept quiet on the issue. A French investigative journalist suspects France’s current presidential election campaign may o
A decade after first being lumped together, the world’s leading emerging economies show all signs of claiming a growing slice of influence. Yet at their latest summit, plans emerged to pool their resources in a bank to rival the World Bank. It&am
Op Ed: Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a recent battle over education reform by utterly marginalizing the opposition. These tactics indicate a dangerous trend for Turkey toward an ever more authoritarian government.
Following the volatile reign of Silvio Berlusconi, the longtime European “technocrat” and economics professor Mario Monti has achieved surprising consensus both inside and outside of Italy. But can he make it last if he doesn’t stick around?
Five years after a terrorist attack that killed a dozen foreign tourists in Male, could this idyllic archipelago be transforming into a hotbed of Islamic radicalism?
Aung San Suu Kyi’s historic victory overshadowed another piece of equally important news: a new exchange rate came into effect, the first step in transforming Myanmar into a more open, market-based economy. Pretty soon, the whole world will be fi
Following the March 22 coup that ousted President Amadou Toumani Touré, the north of Mali is in the hands of a Tuareg rebellion. It is a rolling series of events that has leaders across the region worrying about similar threats.
Aung San Suu Kyi, icon of the Burmese opposition, will finally head to Parliament following historic elections. But this day came only after President Thein Sein’s surprise commitment to reform. Still, true democracy will need Thein Sein to outfo
Analysis: As Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff prepares to arrive in Washington to meet President Obama, a closer look at the bilateral relations between these Western Hemisphere powerhouses shows vast potential, much of it unfulfilled.
A law introduced in the Russian Parliament this week aims to punish “homosexual propaganda” aimed at children. Critics are worried this is just another way to outlaw homosexuality.
How three African men escaping the civil war in Libya braved the Mediterranean Sea on a small fishing boat to find love in the most unexpected circumstances.
As Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers fight to have his civil suit dismissed in New York, he faces an even more difficult legal fight in the French city of Lille. Stephanie Ausbart, the magistrate who has just charged DSK with “aggravated pimping,
The Turkish government wants to isolate the armed Kurdish rebel group PKK, while opening up to the Kurds themselves. Ankara takes a lesson from Europe’s recent past, with an eye on how Kurds in Iraq and even Syria will affect the outcome.
Pyongyang has announced a satellite launch to honor Kim II Sung. China knows the real object of such a move is to reinforce the power of newly installed Kim Jong-Un. It will also raise the stakes in the region just when Beijing is badly in need of stabili
Exclusive: Alina Fernandez doesn’t expect to ever again see – or even speak with – her famous father, Fidel Castro. As Pope Benedict XVI visits Cuba, Fernandez tells La Stampa that she doubts a late-in-life conversion for her father. “He assumes
Mohammed Melah invoked Islamic jihad in the killings of three French soldiers, and three children and a teacher at a Jewish school in Toulouse. Muslims in France, who comprise some 8% of the country’s population, are worried about a major backlas
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s conservative Fidesz and KDNP parties are using a two-thirds majority in Parliament to govern at will. After new controls over the media, the government wants new regulations over religious gro
International organized crime networks earn billions of dollars every year from illegal logging. A new World Bank report suggests that if authorities really want to save the forests, they should follow the money.
How did French intelligence track down Mohammed Merah, the presumed responsible for last week’s slayings in and around Toulouse? Agency director Bernard Squarcini walks Le Monde through two years of surveillance and shares some of Merah’
In 1998 when Pope John Paul II made a historic trip to Havana, Vatican diplomacy was on full display. Pope Benedict XVI’s arrival in Cuba, after a visit to Mexico, reminds us that the influence of the Catholic Church is based above all on its vas
Analysis: Bashar al-Assad has benefited from Russian and Chinese support to stay in power. But from neighboring Turkey, where many top Syrian exiles are based, one observer says the splintering of the opposition may be the real force to ensure Assad&#
Vladimir Putin rival Prokhorov is keen to launch a new political party. Consolidating support from the recent election, in which he finished an impressive third, the businessman billionaire is first going straight to the people to help him find a name for
Op-Ed: The bloodshed in Toulouse is sure to affect France’s presidential campaign. Predictably, the far-right’s Marine Le Pen is already using the terrorist killings to stir anti-immigrant sentiment. It’s a trap that Sarkozy and the other candida
Former Turin mayoral candidate Alberto Musy was shot multiple times by a man wearing a motorcycle helmet who was waiting for him in the stairwell of his apartment building.
A campaign that was focused on economic struggles and personality comparisons may suddenly shift to the topic of crime and security, which could benefit President Nicolas Sarkozy. There are echoes of the campaign of 2002, marked by a brutal shooting just
Samar Badawi was one of several women just honored at the International Women of Courage Awards. But her personal courage has been displayed in her native Saudi Arabia, potentially the most misogynist country in the world.
The next Copt patriarch will have big shoes to fill: not only will he be succeeding to an immensely popular pope, considered by many as a pacifier and protector, but his political role, in a context of Islamic radicalism, will be closely monitored.
Southwest France has seen its third deadly shooting in the past week, as a killer rides up on a scooter at a Jewish school in Toulouse. Police are investigating possible links with recent killings of French soldiers in the region.
Vladimir Putin’s victory in the presidential elections has not deterred opponents, some of whom have also faced arrests by authorities. And now, as plans begin for the next major rally, on May 5, protest organizers say they will ignore government