Killer Quake — A massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit Japan Thursday. Lucy Birmingham reports from Tokyo, Eben Harrell explains why people are worried about Japan’s nuclear plants and Emily Rauhala details how Japan is a pioneer in disaster preparation.
The Gaddafis Strike Back: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi speaks exclusively with TIME’s …
Perched on the Ring of Fire, an arc of seismic activity that encircles the Pacific Basin, Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world — but it’s also one of the best equipped to handle them.
Having survived the ‘Great Kanto Earthquake’ of 1923, the utter the devastation of World War II and the 1995 …
The golf clubs are primed, the clubs studded with nails. As a group of anti-government protestors makes its way from downtown Manama towards the Royal Court in Riffa, hundreds of government supporters are standing in wait, armed and spoiling for a fight. Bahrain is readying for a conflagration that could transform a weeks-old peaceful …
As her popularity and credibility as a presidential candidate has grown among a rising number of French voters, National Front (FN) party honcho Marine Le Pen has seen detractors draw negative comparisons between her and extreme-right figures elsewhere in Europe—a notorious crowd including Dutch politician Geert Wilders, British …
A week ago, Western capitals were debating whether to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to help rebel forces give Colonel Gaddafi the final heave-ho. Today’s conversation is more likely to be over how to save the rebellion’s gains, broker a cease-fire and secure some form of political solution to the conflict.
U.S. Director of National …
What happens when the Dalai Lama steps down as political leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile? As far as India is concerned, he will always be welcome, according to statements today by the external affairs ministry.
“His holiness the Dalai Lama is an honoured guest in India. And he is a spiritual and religious leader,” an MEA
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TIME’s remarkable Photo department offers up one more treat: this weekend, hundreds of Egyptians ransacked the offices of the country’s reviled state security organization, an institution run out of the Interior Ministry that monitored, detained, intimidated and tortured countless Egyptians over the years. Now, the tables have …
When NATO forces accidently killed nine Afghan boys gathering firewood to heat their family homes last Wednesday, it marked a low point in a war that has already had its share of horrific mistakes. From wedding parties to religious school compounds, civilian casualties have been as much a part of the war as IEDs and donkey-borne …
I’m going to have to humbly disagree with my good friend Bruce Crumley who hails France’s recognition of the Benghazi-based Transitional National Council as the legitimate government of all of Libya. Recognizing the legitimacy of the rebellion does not require recognizing a hastily cobbled together leadership structure, the extent of …
Props to French President Nicolas Sarkozy for becoming the first international leader to recognize the opposition battling Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi as the rightful representatives of their country. But should it have taken this long for someone to make such a no-brainer decision? And what’s taking Sarkozy’s peers so long in …
A soccer game was held yesterday in the West Bank. That may not be quite out of the ordinary in this soccer-mad part of the world, but the teams competing were: on one side, you had Thailand, and the other, Palestine. A qualifying tournament for the 2012 Olympics, this was the first ever internationally-sanctioned game in the Occupied …
Tibetan Transition — The Dalai Lama announced today that he will relinquish his political role. TIME’s Hannah Beech explains what’s next for the leader and his people.
Libya’s Long Haul — As Gaddafi settles in, rebel forces realize they need help from overseas, writes Andrew Lee Butters in a dispatch from Benghazi; in Tripoli, …
Just how quickly can a politician be reincarnated? Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans—both within the troubled mountainous territory and in exile all around the world—must be pondering this metaphysical conundrum as their beloved spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, asked the Tibetan exile community today to allow him to retire from …
