Dragged from the temple of justice yet again

Dragged from the temple of justice yet again
THE outcome was not quite so definitive as Roy Moore’s critics had demanded or as, in his secret heart, the man himself may have expected. In a ruling issued today by Alabama’s Court of the Judiciary (COJ), following a...

Housing market bouncing back after Brexit vote

Housing market bouncing back after Brexit vote
THE housing market is showing signs of a post-referendum pick-up heading into autumn as it recovers from “paralysis” in the immediate aftermath of Britain’s decision to quit the European Union. Source: Daily Express ::...

City News: Alton Towers, Argos, Heathrow

City News: Alton Towers, Argos, Heathrow
ALTON TOWERS owner Merlin Entertainments said it had “learned every lesson” from last year’s Smiler rollercoaster crash as it revealed that visitor numbers were still being affected. Source: Daily Express :: Finance Feed...

A close, crucial race in North Carolina

A close, crucial race in North Carolina
ON SEPTEMBER 28th, the day after her first presidential debate with Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton held a rally in Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina, where she ripped into Mr Trump’s “dangerously incoherent,” performance....

Boundary issues

Boundary issues
HUNGARY will hold a referendum on October 2nd. (Such things have become a fad in Europe.) The question is: “Do you want the European Union to be entitled to prescribe the mandatory resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens...

Cocoa by candlelight

Cocoa by candlelight
Topping the cosiness index HOW big is the world’s appetite for things Danish? Foreign audiences have already binge-watched the country’s noir TV series (such as “The Killing” and “The Bridge”) and raved over the new Nordic...

Immune to reason

Immune to reason
The HIV rate is shooting up THE front line in the fight against Europe’s fastest-growing HIV epidemic runs through a dark blue bus parked on the outskirts of St Petersburg. Two friends enter late one September evening to...

Brought to BUK

Brought to BUK
THERE was never much doubt about what brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine on July 17th 2014, killing all 298 people on board: a Russian missile, fired from territory controlled by Russian-backed...

A tale of two ethics

A tale of two ethics
THE phrases “ethic of conviction” and “ethic of responsibility” mean little to most English-speakers. In Germany the equivalent terms—Gesinnungsethik and Verantwortungsethik—are household words. Pundits drop them casually...

Chains of command

Chains of command
Treading lightly LIEUTENANT Mehmet Ali Celebi has not sat in a gunship cockpit for years, but will jump back in at a moment’s notice if the Turkish army comes calling. A promising helicopter pilot, Mr Celebi was sentenced...

Rich province, poor province

Rich province, poor province
EARLY in the summer Xi Jinping, China’s president, toured one of the country’s poorest provinces, Ningxia in the west. “No region or ethnic group can be left behind,” he insisted, echoing an egalitarian view to which the...

The agony of Aleppo

The agony of Aleppo
IN THE past week eastern Aleppo, a rebelheld area that is home to more than 250,000 people, has endured a typhoon of shrapnel. Rebel groups say the regime of Bashar al-Assad is pursuing “a scorched earth policy to destroy...

The home guard     

The home guard     
MOHAMMED JAAFAR, a commander of Nigeria’s Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), recalls his first arrest with relish. It was in 2013, shortly after the vigilante group had been formed to fight the Islamist rebels of Boko Haram....

To sell or not to sell?

To sell or not to sell?
AT THE biggest-ever global wildlife conference, khaki-clad hunters rub shoulders with animal-rights activists, nerdy scientists and blustering politicians. All have one thing in common: a desire to save endangered species...

A burnt-out case

A burnt-out case
Kabila’s not going anywhere FROM the outside, the offices of FONUS, a political party in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, look relatively unchanged. The gate is still in the blue and yellow colours of the national flag; the party...

Crushed flowers

Crushed flowers
ALEPPO’S location was always a blessing and a curse. It lay at the fork on the Silk Road where goods went south to Africa and the Middle East or north into Eurasia. Merchants milked the proceeds, helped by carrier pigeons...

A “weird and strange” campaign

A “weird and strange” campaign
The forces of Justice and Development SINCE making gains in municipal elections last year, things have gone downhill for Morocco’s ruling Justice and Development Party (PJD). First, a former candidate was accused of sexual...

The dangers of farsightedness

The dangers of farsightedness
IN PLANNING for the future, democratic politicians dare not look far beyond the next election, lest they lose power before the future arrives. Thailand’s military rulers have no such qualms. They have rewritten the constitution...

Going into battle

Going into battle
IN HER first two months on the job Yuriko Koike, Tokyo’s governor, has ruffled many feathers. She began before she was even elected, by running without the endorsement of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), of which she...

Death by water cannon

Death by water cannon
“ANOTHER has been killed like this, again,” lamented the mother of Lee Han-yeol, who was fatally injured by a tear-gas canister in 1987 during a demonstration against the military regime of Chun Doo-hwan. She was among...

The velvet glove frays

The velvet glove frays
An opposition politician’s lot LIKE many old people new to social media, Hun Sen, Cambodia’s longtime strongman, has swiftly gone from sceptic to oversharer. Visitors to his Facebook page see him not only praying at temples...