* State Dept. "will have billions to spend" in Iraq over the next few years. * And now we get to prematurely place behind us another quite troubling incident in our recent history. * This year was the first in over three decades that fewer than 100 people were sent to
The link between Occupy Wall Street, the environmental doom of Czech villages, and the noise of a wailing child on a freezing, black morning in Sweden is not obvious—but it does count for everything.
* Ad of Mitt Romney speaking French, with fake English subtitles, declined by Fox News for being misleading. * Chirac given two-year suspended sentence for corrupt behavior while mayor of Paris. * German social scientist says society is poisoned, consumed with status-minding and discrimination. * Massive face atop German lighthouse changes depending
* Gawker dumps files documenting every time a Blackwater guard shot at an Iraqi between 2005 and 2007. * Author of "Observations From 20 Years in Iowa" cites "raging bonfire" of backlash that has him scared. * Podcasts on how to negotiate with kids, jerks, and the opposite sex.
Most of what is truly historic in New York has been pushed to the margins of the city. As the city grew outward from Manhattan, the modern world (of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries) covered or dismantled the foundations laid by New York’s earliest European inhabitants. My trips
* Hong Kong is the world's most developed financial market, U.S. is no. 2, says report. * Forbes ranks America's banks. * The democratic market for ideas is not a truth machine. * African democracies will gain more legitimacy when elections oust incumbents—in South Africa, that may not
Twitter is the contemporary postcard—social updates that are limited by size, but not imagination. For a month, with a billion stamps, our correspondent moved his tweets from the laptop to the post office, and rediscovered the joy of mail.
* Obama hails end of war in Iraq; Iran cheers its victory. * Red Cross considers whether violent video games should be subject to international humanitarian law. * Chart plots which countries spend the most at Christmas. * Receivers don't care how much gifts cost; people prefer cash to surprises. * Cambridge puts
Running for president is stressful and allows little time for exercise. But a special set of yoga positions, from the Downward-Facing Spiral to a Soaring Newt, can offer just the break from routine that a candidate needs.
* Pressing China and Russia for action, UN says more than 5,000 people have died in the nine-month-long Syrian uprising. * United Russia's rally in Moscow sparsely attended; many people forced to be there. * List of the worst sounds in the world, with YouTube links. * Reddit meets
