Egypt's Amazing Start-Ups Keep Going, Despite The Outcome Of The Recent Election
It's hard to come to Cairo as an American businessman, especially one interested in and writing about high tech internet start-ups here, and not by shuttled from bubble to bubble of well educated,...
View ArticleParis Hotel Staff Say A Saudi Princess Tried To Skip Out On A $7.7 Million Tab
A Saudi princess was stopped trying to leave a Paris hotel, along with her 60-person entourage, without settling a six million euro ($7.7 million) bill, French media reported. According to the French...
View ArticleHow I Landed In The Middle Of China's Crazy New Rumor
A combination of happenstance and a quick finger with my camera phone recently landed me at the surreal nexus of celebrity tabloid and political crisis in China. The incident also gave me a front-row...
View ArticleZara May Be The Only Company In Spain Not Failing
It may not be a favorite of those with wide waistlines, but Inditex, owner of the Zara fashion chain, now comes in extra large. This week the La Coruña-based fashion retailer overtook telecoms company...
View ArticleJapanese Manufacturers Are Reversing Everything That Made The Country An...
In a darkened industrial hangar in eastern Osaka, Yoshihiro Yamanaka is tearing up the rule book that once made Japanese manufacturing the feared global standard of efficiency. At Fuji Spring, a...
View ArticleVillage Elders In India Have Ordered That A Young Women Be Ostracized For 60...
Village elders in south-east India have ordered a young woman to be ostracised for 60 years because she took a menial job as a sweeper despite belonging to a higher caste. Pinki Rajak, a 22-year-old...
View ArticleUnemployed Brits Were Bussed In For Unpaid Work On The Jubilee Celebrations...
A group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river...
View ArticleABRAMOVICH DOES IT AGAIN: Takes $69 Million In Public Shareholder Value For...
What an enterprising lad! While Highland Gold, a London-listed public stockholding company, was looking in a forward direction, last Friday Roman Abramovich sold it a gold and silver prospect called...
View ArticleIn Europe, It’s 2008 All Over Again
Investors clamored last week to lend money to the German government for two years at no interest. Some investors accepted negative yields – meaning they gave Berlin a cut of their assets merely in...
View ArticleThe World's Newest Country Is Hunting For $4 Billion In Stolen Cash
NAIROBI, Kenya — South Sudan's president has written to dozens of government officials asking them to return $4 billion in stolen cash. The letter, seen by GlobalPost, is dated May 3, 2012, and signed...
View ArticleBarbara Walters Tried To Get The Aide Of Syrian Dictator Assad A Job With...
Barbara Walters, the grande dame of American television news, has been forced to apologise after it emerged that she had tried to use her influence to further the career of a former leading aide of...
View ArticleThis Is What A Country On The Brink Of Collapse Looks Like
Tourism, Greece’s second largest industry after the shipping industry, and already in a downdraft, is taking another hit as tour bus drivers will go on strike for four days next week; wage...
View ArticleThe World's Largest Vodka Maker Has Been Setting Off Red Flags For Years
Central European Distribution Corp.’s management announced that they expect to restate their financial results since January 1, 2010, in the latest chapter of an ongoing effort to correct the Polish...
View ArticleWhy Russia And China Do Not Act On Syria
In a recent interview with the Business Insider, I said that "problems in Iran and Syria are 'wonderful for the Russian economy.'" I meant it. Adam Taylor's article, "For all the bluster, these three...
View ArticleChina's Latest Stimulus Is Artificial Weather Modification
The China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) a.k.a. central planner has just approved a brilliant project (H/T: Victor Shih) which is going to do the following thing: May 2012, the...
View ArticleIf You Think US Fracking Is Dangerous, Wait Until You See Chinese Fracking
China has ambitious targets to boost natural-gas consumption. It also sits on extensive deposits of shale gas that may be among the world’s largest. Put those two facts together and you might...
View ArticleWhy China Is Likely To Get More Involved In Afghanistan
As the United States and other Western nations prepare to withdraw their military forces from Afghanistan, China is growing nervous about the prospect of chaos after they have left. So, after years of...
View ArticleChina And Russia Are Holding Joint Military Exercises In Tajikistan
Senior Russian and Chinese generals have flown into Tajikistan ahead of joint military exercises, an alliance which analysts suggest could one day rival Nato. Of the five former Soviet Central Asian...
View ArticleThe Chinese Government Knows Exactly How To Handle The Demographic Crisis
China is mulling over a rise in the retirement age, and while that news itself is significant given PRC demographic trends, I find the nature of the debate itself quite a contrast to the U.S. I’ve...
View ArticleHuh? The Syrian Government Is The Main Supplier Of Weapons To The Rebels
JABAL AL-ZAWIYA, Syria — At the Free Syrian Army base here, a group of men led a nervous prisoner from his cell to a car waiting outside. A few hours later, the rebels returned alone, with a trunkload...
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