Iran crude storage at sea falls on strong Asia demand
SINGAPORE: The volume of Iranian crude stored at sea has fallen by as much as 4 million barrels because of a spike in Asian demand this month, traders and shipping…
Russian film wins top prize at Abu Dhabi Film Festival
Aleksei Fedorchenko’s beguiling second feature “Silent Souls” from Russia won the Abu Dhabi Film Festival’s Golden Pearl award for best narrative film and a monetary prize of $100,000, concluding the…
Ja, Panik: A slice of Berlin
Ja, Panik’s lead singer Andreas Spechtl writhes against his guitar, agonizing before belting out a verse from the group’s newest album: “Nothing’s about me or you, honey/It’s all about the…
In US debut, Icelandic filmmaker exposes grim organ trade
For his first movie outside his native Iceland, filmmaker Baltasar Kormakur plunged into "the most horrific world I've ever been in" — that of the grim business of organ trafficking.…
Jane Austen had helping hand from editor
She's renowned for her precise, exquisite prose, but new research shows Jane Austen was a poor speller and erratic grammarian who got a big helping hand from her editor. Oxford…
25 finalists in Guggenheim-YouTube creative video biennial
Twenty-five clips from around the world were selected for the first creative video biennial run by the Guggenheim Museum and the YouTube video sharing site, highlighting online video as a…
Health care’s frequent flyers
NEW YORK: For those of you who have seen the (American) movie “Up in the Air,” think of the scene where George Clooney meets Vera Farmiga. He’s an outsourced human-resources…
High expectations for Indonesian religious leaders
YOGYAKARTA: Indonesians place high expectations on religious leaders to respond with real positive action when it comes to current interfaith issues and the relationship between religious communities and the state.…
Talking to the Taliban
WASHINGTON, DC: The Obama administration has affirmed that, while it will not participate directly, it supports the idea of peace negotiations between the Afghan Taliban and the Afghan government. This…
Tourism, one practical advantage of an Israeli-Palestinian settlement
WASHINGTON, DC: Recent sputtering of a peace process between Israel and Palestine, the termination of Israel's settlement building freeze causing a demise of said peace process — again — has…