IHT Rendezvous: Environmental Warning Fatigue Sets in

Record levels of industrial smog? A dwindling number of fish in the world’s oceans? A 4° Celsius warming in global temperatures by the end of the century?How about environmental warning fatigue?Global concern for major environmental issues is at an all time low, according to the results of a global poll of more than 22,000 people in 22 countries, released earlier this week.“Scientists report that...

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Japanese Court Convicts 2 U.S. Sailors in Okinawa Rape

TOKYO -- A Japanese court on Friday convicted two United States Navy sailors in the rape of a woman on Okinawa last year that provoked so much local anger that the American military was forced to impose a curfew. The court in Naha, the capital of the southwestern Japanese island, sentenced Christopher Browning, a 24-year-old seaman, to 10 years in prison, and Skyler Dozierwalker, 23, a petty...

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Islamic Leader Sentenced to Death in Bangladesh

NEW DELHI – A top leader of a fundamentalist Islamic political party in Bangladesh was sentenced to death on Thursday by a special war crimes tribunal that convicted him of committing crimes against humanity during the country’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. The death sentence against Delawar Hossain Sayedee, a leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, sparked joyous celebration among thousands...

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Pope Benedict Evokes Difficult Moments in Final General Audience

VATICAN CITY — In the waning hours of his troubled papacy, Pope Benedict XVI held his final general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, telling tens of thousands of believers in an unusually personal public farewell that his nearly eight years in office had known “moments of joy and light but also moments that were not easy” when it seemed “the Lord was sleeping.” The audience came...

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India Ink: Narmada Devi, the Housewife from Uttar Pradesh

Why do millions of people, from entire Indian villages to urbane middle managers to foreign tourists, brave the crowds at the Kumbh Mela? During this year’s 55-day pilgrimage, to Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, an estimated 100 million Hindus and others are expected to take a holy dip in the Ganges River to wash away their sins. India Ink interviewed some of them.Narmada Devi, 45, a housewife from Varanasi,...

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India Ink: A Conversation With: Author and Mathematician Manil Suri

The Indian-American author Manil Suri made a splashy entry into the world of writing in 2001 with “The Death of Vishnu,” which became a best seller and was a finalist for the prestigious PEN/Faulkner award. “The Age of Shiva” followed seven years later. This month, the 53-year-old mathematics professor, who teaches at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, released “The City of Devi,” the...

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Insurgents Launch 4 Attacks in Afghanistan

KABUL — Afghan intelligence agents on Sunday shot and killed a man in a sport utility vehicle that officials said had been packed with explosives, foiling what they described as an attempt to set off a massive explosion in a neighborhood of narrow streets lined with foreign embassies. At about the same time, Taliban suicide attackers set off three separate car bombs in two provinces near...

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India Ink: In Hyderabad, Anger and Frustration

Srinivas Mahesh, 28, was snacking outside his hostel near the Konark Theater in Dishknagar, his usual hangout in Hyderabad, when he heard a loud explosion Thursday evening. Not long after, he saw smoke filling up the air. Once he realized it was a bomb blast, instead of rushing back to his hostel he resolved to helping the injured.“I saw disfigured bodies for the first time in my life,” he said. He...

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India Ink: Bala Panditji, a Priest from Delhi

Why do millions of people, from entire Indian villages to urbane middle managers to foreign tourists, brave the crowds at the Kumbh Mela?During this year’s 55-day pilgrimage, to Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, an estimated 100 million Hindus and others are expected to take a holy dip in the Ganges River to wash away their sins. India Ink interviewed some of them.Bala Panditji, 32, a priest from the Rajarajeshwari...

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Bulgarian Parliament Accepts Government’s Resignation

SOFIA, Bulgaria — The Bulgarian Parliament voted on Thursday to accept the government’s resignation after a week of mass protests and bloody clashes with police. With deputies voting 209-5, with one abstention, the government of Prime Minster Boiko Borisov and his ministers will remain in their posts until an interim government is appointed by President Rosen Plevneliev. New elections are...

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India Ink: Should British Politicians Apologize for Colonialism?

On Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain appeared in Amritsar, in the Indian state of Punjab, where he laid a commemorative wreath at Jallianwala Bagh, the site of a 1919 massacre of Indian protesters by British forces that killed about 1,000, according to the Indian government.The incident was a “deeply shameful” event in British history, Mr. Cameron wrote in a visitor’s book at the...

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IHT Rendezvous: Q and A: Nina Hoss, at Home at the Berlinale

BERLIN — The German actress Nina Hoss has been a fixture at the Berlinale in recent years. She won the best actress prize in 2007 for Christian Petzold’s “Yella,” served on the jury in 2011 and starred in one of the most acclaimed titles in last year’s competition, “Barbara,” also directed by Mr. Petzold (with whom she has made five movies in the past dozen years).This year Ms. Hoss returned to the...

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South African Leader Launches New Political Party

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Respected anti-apartheid activist Mamphela Ramphele launched a new political party on Monday to challenge South Africa's ruling ANC, saying self-interested and corrupt leaders were threatening the continent's biggest economy. Invoking the spirit of Nelson Mandela and the optimism that prevailed at South Africa's first all-race elections in 1994, Ramphele said the...

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IHT Rendezvous: In Singapore's Immigration Debate, Sign of Asia's Slipping Middle Class?

BEIJING — Immigration is a hot-button issue nearly everywhere in the world, though the contours of the debate vary from place to place. In the United States, sweeping changes to the law may offer legal residency for millions of people who have entered the country illegally, my colleague Ashley Parker reports.Here in Asia, in the nation of Singapore, the debate looks somewhat different: The government...

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U.S. Embassy Denies Intervening in Mexico Cabinet Choice

The United States Embassy in Mexico on Friday issued a statement denying an article in The New York Times that reported that Ambassador Anthony Wayne had met with senior Mexican officials to discuss American concerns about the possible appointment of Gen. Moisés García Ochoa of Mexico as that country’s defense secretary. “Despite significant reporting in the Mexican press during the presidential...

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Oscar Pistorius, Facing Murder Charge, Breaks Down

Track Star Charged in Killing: Michael Sokolove, a writer who profiled Oscar Pistorius, discusses the dark turn for the South African runner.JOHANNESBURG — Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee track star accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend, appeared in tears at a courtroom in the South African capital Pretoria on Friday facing a single charge of murder. Antoine De Ras/INLSA, via...

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IHT Rendezvous: Hanging of Militant Raises Questions in India

In my latest column in the International Herald Tribune, I argue that the Indian justice system, which includes shoddy police investigations and the powerful influence of political calculations, is not competent nor fair enough to grant India the moral right to hang a man, assuming that any society can have such a right in the first place.Page TwoPosts written by the IHT’s Page Two columnists.On...

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India Ink: Tibetans' Self Immolation Nears 100

A Tibetan man doused himself with gasoline and set his body alight on Wednesday in Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, Jim Yardley wrote in The New York Times.This incident takes the number of self immolations by Tibetan exiles protesting China’s rule in their home country just one shy of 100. “The flames of fire raging in Tibet have consumed the lives of 98 Tibetans,” a white paper published last month...

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India Ink: Lost and Found at the Kumbh Mela

ALLAHABAD, Uttar Pradesh— Most people know the heart-sinking feeling of losing someone in a crowded place. Imagine the feeling of being lost at the largest gathering of humanity in the world, the Kumbh Mela.It’s a scene so dramatic, and so common, that it’s a theme in many Bollywood movies — families who attend the Kumbh are separated and then reunited decades later.Pranmati Pandey, a middle-aged...

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Pope Benedict XVI Says He Will Resign, Cites Ill Health

Samantha Zucchi Insidefoto/European Pressphoto AgencyPope Benedict XVI blessing members of the Order of the Knights of Malta at the Vatican on Saturday. ROME — Pope Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who took office in 2005 following the death of his predecessor, said on Monday that he will resign on Feb. 28, the first pope to do so in six centuries. Regarded as a doctrinal...

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