In the interests of thorough reporting, fairness to French President Nicolas Sarkozy—and adding new information without messing up the date of yesterday’s post with updating after the calendar has turned—herewith an amendment to Wednesday’s item on France’s epic Bettencourt scandal.
By the end of Wednesday, the Elysée was …
As far as scandals go, it’s the gift that keeps giving—and now it’s starting to give French President Nicolas Sarkozy the same pain in the derrière that it previously inflicted on his fellow conservatives. “It” is the now notorious “affaire Bettencourt”—a tangle of allegations involving manipulation, influence …
It’s easy to see how Libya offers a “new model” for American intervention abroad when comparing it with the ill-conceived invasion of Iraq in 2003, but the mission to overthrow the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has too much in common with the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan to mark it, at this stage, as the herald of a new era of …
For centuries Romany gypsies and a nomadic group traditionally called the Irish Travelers have roamed the British Isles, branded by demagogues as thieves, child snatchers and thugs. Their numbers have dwindled as U.K. authorities have blocked their roaming ways. Forced into trailer parks, or to the nomads’ horror, permanent homes, the
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Less than a month after riots tore across London, British authorities were understandably nervous to host Europe’s biggest street fair, the Notting Hill Carnival, which draws an estimated 1 million people annually.
The carnival celebrates Caribbean culture, featuring steel bands, floats, and a Mardi Gras atmosphere. It’s also …
Mahmud Nacua, 74, never expected to be an ambassador. Nor did he ever expect to step foot in Libya’s embassy in London, let alone run it. But that’s exactly where the former journalist for Arabic language papers Asharq Al-awsat and Alhayat, who spent two years in prison in Libya for his writings in the 1970s, finds himself – …
It’s a small, real-time world, and it’s now evident no niche is too elite or removed from it to withstand a fad that has gone viral. Take France’s rich folk, who have turned billionaire businessman Warren Buffet into the hottest trend-setter among the globe’s super-wealthy by echoing his attention-grabbing New York Times …
Maria del Carmen Diaz was just 15 years old when terrorists in Tel Aviv’s Lod airport lobbed grenades at her Puerto Rican tour group on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, killing her aunt and severely wounding her. Six surgeries and 39 years of intense therapy later, she still gets nervous talking about the attack. “I couldn’t …
Senussi el-Bijou and Muftah Abdelsamad spent the last 34 years protesting outside the Libyan embassy in London. Today, they can come and go as they please, honored guests of the building’s new management: the National Transitional Council. “It is thanks to these men, our elders, that we are here,” says Emad Elgaziwe, one of …
As polls have persistently shown both leading candidates in France’s Socialist Party presidential primary beating conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in mock elections over the months, Elysée advisers have confidently predicted voters will again swing behind their champion en masse once he starts campaigning on his bilan—or, …
After a certain point, it was probably fated to be so. But less than 24 hours after a New York judge dismissed the criminal case against former International Monetary fund chief for sexual assault, it’s clear the outcome of the drama that mesmerized much of the world leaves everyone a loser. In the end, virtually everybody will …
No one thought Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his hard-core supporters would go away easily, and more than 48 hours after rebel forces stormed the capital of Tripoli, that determination to dig in was still evident. But if few observers believe Gaddafi’s renewed efforts to prove his regime remains a force to reckon with can turn …
If the dramatic advances in recent days that have taken opponents of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi toward — then into — Tripoli have thus far elicited only the most careful responses from tight-lipped Western leaders, there’s a good chance those officials are showing more emotion over the conflict, which is apparently nearing …
