NEWS An activist group in Syria said on Tuesday that the muddied bodies of scores of people, most of them men in their 20s and 30s, had been found in a suburb of the northern city of Aleppo. Video posted by opponents of President Bashar al-Assad seemed to show that many had been shot in the back of the head while their hands were bound. Hania Mourtada reports from Beirut and Alan Cowell from London.
A woman’s death sentence has caused an outcry among Chinese legal experts and feminists, who say it shows the severe sentences often imposed on women who fight back against abusive husbands. Didi Kirsten Tatlow reports from Beijing.
At least four people have ded and thousands more have been displaced across Australia’s east coast as punishing winds, torrential rains and powerful ocean swells inundated large swaths of the country’s two most
populous states. Matt Siegel reports from Sydney.
Seizing an opening to rewrite the nation’s immigration laws, President Obama challenged Congress on Tuesday to act swiftly to put 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States on a clear path to citizenship. Mark Landler reports from Las Vegas.
Even before battery issues led to the grounding of all Boeing 787 jets, there were problems that raised questions about reliability. Christopher Drew, Hiroko Tabuchi and Jad Mouawad report.
With less than one month left in office, President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea on Tuesday granted special pardons to a longtime friend, political allies and dozens of others convicted of corruption and other crimes, igniting a rare quarrel with the country’s president-elect. Choe Sang-Hun reports from Seoul.
Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand’s most famous fugitive and a former prime minister, has harnessed the Internet and mobile technology to create an unusual way of governing. For the past year and a half, by the party’s own admission, the most important political decisions in this country of 65 million people have been mae from abroad. Thomas Fuller reports from Bangkok.
Vehicles sales in France last year sank to their lowest level in 15 years, and the economic downturn doesn’t bode well for the industry. David Jolly reports from Paris.
ARTS Because of budget cuts and financial reorganization of the Netherlands’ cultural sector, about 40 of the 120 arts organizations in the country became ineligible for federal grants this year. Some of them have been able to secure financing from other sources, but at least two dozen had to fold at the beginning of the year. Nina Siegal reports from Amsterdam.
Mozart Week festivities occur every year, but by offering ‘Lucio Silla’ as a single staged production, the festival meets expectations for novelty. George Loomis reviews from Salzburg.
SPORTS Didier Drogba is the second major signing the Istanbul soccer club Galatasaray has made in a week, and will follow the Dutchman Wesley Sneijder to the Bosphorus. Christopher Clarey reports from London.
