NEWS Hezb-i-Islami, a powerful and feared player in the fight against the Soviets and later in Afghanistan's civil war, is now widely seen as a spent insurgent force that poses little military threat. Instead, on the eve of the American troop withdrawal, Hezb-i-Islami's real strength now lies with its political party. Matthew Rosenberg reports from Kabul.
Despite growing public opposition to the practice, the Chinese government is not prepared to end the lucrative trade in ursodeoxycholic acid, the active ingredient found in bear gallbladders. Although scientists have engineered a synthetic alternative, traditionalists claim it lacks the therapeutic punch of raw bile. Andrew Jacobs reports from Chengdu, China.
In a case of alleged forgeries that roiled the New York art market and led to a host of civil lawsuits, the U.S. authorities on Tuesday declared a series of works sold as Modernist masterpieces to be fake and charged a little-known Long Island dealer at the center of the scandal with tax fraud. Graham Bowley, Wiliam K. Rashbaum and Patricia Cohen report.
President Barack Obama embraced drone strikes in his first term, and the targeted killing of terrorism suspects has come to define his presidency. But lost in the contentious debate over the legality, morality and effectiveness of a novel weapon is the fact that the number of strikes has actually been in decline. Scott Shane reports.
BUSINESS Ireland came under sharp criticism Tuesday for its attractiveness as a pied-Ã -terre for American companies doing business in Europe. At the eye of that storm is a special corporate tax rate of only 2 percent that U.S. Senate investigators say Apple worked out with the Irish tax authorities. Landon Thomas Jr. and Eric Pfanner report.Â
David Karp neither finished high school nor enrolled in college. Instead, he played a significant role in several technology start-ups before founding Tumblr, the popular blogging service that agreed to be sold to Yahoo for $1.1 billion this week. He joins a tiny circle of hoodie-wearing characters like Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, who have struck it rich before turning 30. Jenna Wortham and Nick Bilton report.
ARTSÂ Ai Weiwei plans to release his first heavy-metal music video, one with detailed re-creations of scenes from his 81 days of detention by paramilitary guards in 2011. He also portrays fantasies he imagines flitting through the guards' minds. Edward Wong reports from Beijing.Â
The Cannes festival celebrated 100 years of Indian cinema last weekend with a digitally restored screening of Satyajit Ray's 1964 film “Charulata,†and many new films from India were on the schedule. Joan Dupont reports from Cannes.
Cecilia Bartoldi lights up the Salzburg Whitsun Festival with the power of Bellini's “Norma,†writes George Loomis.
SPORTS After years of poor play, management changes and bankruptcy, Bradford City A.F.C. finally shines, writes Rob Hughes.Â
