By Volker Weidermann Charlotte Schmitz/ DER SPIEGEL Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel-prize winning author, talks about the success of his latest book, “A Strangeness in My Mind,” the “crippled” state of Turkish politics and the January terrorist attack in Istanbul, which he could hear from his apartment. “This is where I sat,” […]
The need for information about possible internal threats creates some predictably twisted incentives. Scott Shackford|Jan. 29, 2016 11:50 am Those who have followed the frustrating stories about the secretive operations of the federally controlled “no-fly” lists may have read about the accusations that some individuals who were on the list […]
The Road to Germany: $2400 Each of the millions of Syrian refugees who have fled their brutalized, unrecognizable homeland did so for uniquely personal reasons — the regime bombarding cities, the Islamic State threatening a return to the dark ages, the loss of jobs in a crumbling economy. Yet their […]
Source: BBC The US economy grew at an annualised rate of 0.7% in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared with the same quarter a year ago, official figures show. The […]
Source: BBC Four Chinese miners who had been trapped underground for 36 days have been rescued, Chinese state media say. The men were trapped by a cave-in at a gypsum […]
Source: Crux With just days left before Iowa casts the first votes in the presidential nominating contests, Republican candidates have been crisscrossing the state touting their Christian bona fides, appealing to […]
Source: RNS (RNS) A lawsuit brought by American Atheists seeking the erection of an “atheist monument” near a Ten Commandments monument at a Florida county courthouse has gotten the go-ahead from a federal court judge. American Atheists, a national advocacy organization based in Cranford, N.J., has tried to put a […]
Source: RNS ROME (RNS) Controversy over Italy’s decision to cover nude statues during the visit of Iran’s president continued to spark debate as the leader of the Syrian Catholic Church […]
Source: The Guardian It may be the world’s newest Islamic state, but on the Gambia’s beaches it was business as usual. Dreadlocked, muscular young men offered their company to middle-aged female tourists, the sweet scent of marijuana hung on the ocean breeze, bars advertised happy hour cocktails, and bared breasts […]
Source: Yahoo News San Cristóbal de las Casas (Mexico) (AFP) – The domed mosque with a minaret rises above small homes in a seemingly unlikely place: A southern Mexican indigenous […]
Reuters International JAN 29, 2016 – 18:02 AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Move over FBI: Europe now has its own “most wanted” list, with suspects in Islamist militant attacks on Paris looming large. European police agencies on Friday introduced the list on a website hosted by Europol, as part of a push […]
Iranian officials asked that a lunch between the two countries’ presidents be Halal and alcohol-free Caroline Mortimer @cjmortimer Thursday 28 January 2016 156 comments Hollande and Rouhani were supposed to meet for lunch at an upmarket restaurant in Paris Getty Images A lunch between the French and Iranian presidents in […]
JAN 24, 2016 – 13:45 Those involved worked as baggage handlers (Keystone) More than 30 Muslim employees at Geneva airport had their runway access passes withdrawn in December. After an initial lack of information on the move, the head of Geneva’s security ministry, Pierre Maudet, has now spoken out about […]
BEATRICE STÖCKLI By Veronica DeVore JAN 28, 2016 – 17:13 Stöckli, right, with expedition leader Andrea Vogel and local children in 2008 (Andrea Vogel) Beatrice Stöckli will not be deterred. The Basel native settled in Mali some 15 years ago, was kidnapped in 2012 – and then returned to the […]
Jan 28,2016 -JORDAN TIMES – RAMI G. KHOURI How should we view and respond to the growing flow of refugees and migrants from, within and beyond the Middle East? Is this mainly a temporary humanitarian challenge? An occasional security threat? A cultural and political concern for mostly white and Christian […]
Jan 28,2016 – JORDAN TIMES – Ahmad Y. Majdoubeh By “lost generation” I am not referring to Gertrude Stein’s famous description of the generation that grew up during and after World War I in America and Europe. I am borrowing the term to describe the current, sad, state of our young […]
Jan 28,2016 – JORDAN TIMES – George S. Hishmeh The unbending nature of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose extremist policies have crippled any peace negotiations with the Palestinians, has once again emerged this week when he revealed his intention to return Israeli settlers to Hebron, a prominent Palestinian town in […]
Saudi Arabia has British military advisers and continues to bomb Yemeni civilians with British weapons. Yet our government is strangely quiet about it Britain is arming and aiding a fundamentalist dictatorship that’s bombing and killing civilians. This is an incontestable fact. The Saudi tyranny – gay-hating women-oppressors who kicked off […]
Epigraph: And We have enjoined on man concerning his parents — his mother bears him in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning takes two years — ‘Give thanks to Me […]
Source: Washington Post By Ishaan Tharoor, who writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He previously was a senior editor at TIME, based first in Hong Kong and later in […]