Pakistan's floods herald a potential regional catastrophe; coffers are empty, rampant violence continues. Burma's first girl group imports western influences; junta demands song about electricity failures be changed. Parents in Johannesburg renting children to beggars for $3/day. We have a system of tax brackets well
What this year's candidates learned from the stimulus: be vague about job numbers. Even the worst apartment kitchen can be improved by buying some decent knives. 35 good lessons. Updated for those on house arrest: How to cook the Riker's Island carrot cake at home. Don&
Obama declares victory, sort of, depending on how you look at it, in Iraq. Anyone who is going to Afghanistan is not some tourist who is going hiking. Afghan airline magazine tells the ugly truth. Discussion of Filipino basketball from introduction by the military to use as a political strategy.
A city in the southern Netherlands seeks to end drug tourism by keeping it legal only for the Dutch. How "three cups of tea" has become shorthand in the U.S. military for winning trust in Afghanistan. U.S. watermelon farmers focus on small, seedless "personal melons&
Australia's prime minister calls for a republic as soon as Queen Elizabeth dies. God save the queen: Jonathan Bell explains the distinction between English and British. Scavengers pull up Gaza Airport's runways to recover and sell gravel underneath. Nature sells on television--pet shows struggle outside
In Westhampton Beach, N.Y., a new bookstore comes to town and a war begins. From the attic: Pitchaya Sudbanthad's 2005 profile of Brooklyn's Freebird Books. Park Slope residents are unsure whether the white-painted stroller is a memorial or a warning. Mailer waxes on graffiti:
New Jersey's Christie warns G.O.P. from going too far with mosque story; Gingrich goes Nazi. Wives and children of Catholic priests push to end celibacy ban. For the non-celibate: Erik Bryan explains whom you can date (flowchart included). How human psychology ensures the strictest religions
The week ahead in news: natural disasters in Russia, Pakistan, and China. Gaza doctor writes anti-hate book after three daughters were killed by an Israeli shell. Why it's hard to return looted art: centuries of wartime theft mean few can identify the original owner. I'm
Violence spreads across Iraq as attacks escalate during Ramadan; U.S. military says it's an attempt to shake confidence in the police. "As a person I was paralyzed." Haiti's president tells how the quake shook him. South Korean president suggests a tax to fund
Bulgaria hopes its John the Baptist bones will attract tourists and their money. Post-Sept. 11 funding expanded the Coast Guard's duties to include oil spills; Deepwater revealed gaps in oversight. Behind the Economist's advertising, which "tugs at the insecurities and ambitions of the status-
