IHT Quick Read: Jan. 26

NEWS Ordinary investors are falling in love again with the stock market after nearly five years of bitter separation. More money has poured into stocks worldwide in the first three weeks of January through mutual funds than in any comparable period since 2001. Nathaniel Popper reports from New York.

Cyril Ramaphosa, the man who was once Nelson Mandela’s chosen successor, is returning to government in South Africa, this time as a business tycoon. Bill Keller reports from Johannesburg.

In an unusual display of direct diplomacy, the U.S. Commerce Department is lobbying in Brussels on behalf of the Obama administration against sweeping new privacy controls that could hurt the U.S. technology industry in Europe. Kevin J. O’Brien reports from New York.

Although women in the United States armed forces have routinely shown bravery under fire, the question that is now facing the Pentagon is whether female soldiers can perform ground combat tasks day in and day out now that they are allowed to take part in combat duty. James Dao reports from New York.

As Brazil and Argentina lose some of their luster, are sub-Saharan African nations on the rise Billionaire dealmakers who have gathered in Davos, Switzerland, want to know. Liz Alderman reports from Davos.

ARTS Portraits by the artist Jusepe de Ribera, hidden up high and in the darkness of a church i! n Naples, Italy, are, like the city, expressions of the spiritual embedded in the profane. Michael Kimmelman reports from Naples, Italy.

SPORTS At the Australian Open, Andy Murray finally outdueled Roger Federer in a major event and heads to men’s final. Christopher Clarey reports from Melbourne.

Gallery Stroll: Istanbul

ISTANBULâ€"Unpredictable weather means winter isn’t the most popular season for visiting Istanbul, but it is a great time for gallery-hopping: Many of the best museums and art spaces in the Beyoglu district have just opened compelling new exhibitions.

At Arter, the curator Emre Baykal has gathered mostly new works by Turkish artists to create the second installment of “Envy, Enmity, Embarrassment.” Here, the artist known as Canan presents the installation, “I beg you please do not speak to me of love,” a room plastered with erotic movie posters from the heyday of the Yesilcam porn industry of the 1970s. In a transparent case in one corner of the room is a seemingly innocent white bathrobe. Embroidered on its back is a suicide note.

Other interesting works include “Twin Goddess: The Sketch of an Encounter,” an embroidered collage by Nilbar Gures using ancient symbols from Anatolian archaeology, and “The Island†by Hera Buyuktasciyan, a look at taboos.

The most powerful piece in this show is Hale Tenger’s “I Know People Like This III.” Visitors who enter the gallery from Istiklal Caddesi walk through this chronological maze of x-ray prints, a sort of light-box labyrinth, that lays out traumatic images from Turkish political history, including public protests, the killing of journalists and scenes of violence that followed the 1980 military coup.

On the parallel street, Mesrutiyet Caddesi, the Pera Museum has just opened a double-barreled program. A retrospective of the works of the Hungarian-American photographer Nickolas Muray covers the dashing man-about-town’s early black-and-white art nudes as well as his color-saturated portraits of beauties like Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and a woman he adored, Frida Kahlo. On another floor, “Between Desert and Sea” presents a selection of 52 works from the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, pieces that speak to topical issues like religion, the rights of women, and the impact of the Arab Spring revolutions.

At the Salt Galata, a 10-minute stroll away on Bankalar Caddesi, “1 + 8″ is an installation of large-screen videos by Cynthia Madansky and Angelika Brudniak, who traveled to the borders between Turkey and its eight neighbors: Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Nakchivan, Iran, Iraq and Syria to tape local residents talking about their daily lives and hopes. In the case of Iran, just a black screen is shown: The artists were refused permission to film in Iran, but they managed to record audio of Iranians who had crossed into Turkey for personal or business reasons. None felt safe having their faces shown.

Latin America Seeks to Redraw European Ties

LONDON â€" There was a time when Europe regarded Latin America as a stagnant economic backwater, dependent on selling its natural resources to pay its debts and ruled over by a variety of disagreeable despots.

These days, it is the Latin economies that are moving ahead while their European counterparts are struggling to dig themselves out of debt and recession.

Leaders from Latin America and Europe are meeting in Santiago, Chile this weekend to discuss updating a close and longstanding relationship to better reflect the new global economic realities.

At a summit of the Community of Latin America and the Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union, government leaders from Europe will face calls for a more equal partnership in what has in the past been seen as a one-sided relatonship.

Sebastián Piñera Echenique, the Chilean president and summit host, told parliamentarians from the two blocs this week: “What we are seeking is a new strategic alliance, a new era in the relations between the two continents.”

The Europeans have traditionally been big investors in Latin economies, with the European Union accounting for 40 percent of the total in the past decade, or around $30 billion a year.

However, faced with a harsh economic climate, countries such as Spain are now the ones looking for investment from Latin America, while European jobseekers are seeking a brighter future in places like Brazil.

Luis Alberto Moreno, the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, told my colleague Raphael Minder last N! ovember: “For years you had capital going from north to south and immigration going from south to north and what we are increasingly going to see is a reverse of the flows.”

Despite signs of a slowdown in Brazil, Latin American economies are forecast to grow by 3.6 percent this year compared with a 0.2 percent contraction in the 17-member euro zone.

Alicia Bárcena Ibarra of Mexico, the executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, warned ahead of the Santiago summit that Europe could be facing the kind of “lost decade” that Latin American countries confronted 30 years ago.

In those days, countries in the region foundthemselves in massive debt after taking on loans from Western banks that were eager to recycle petrodollars from oil producers whose coffers were overflowing in the wake of the 1970s oil price explosion.

“The South is no longer the same,” Ms. Bárcena said. “Europe is going to find a different and a changed Latin America. That means taking on new global challenges with responsibility and dealing with issues such as climate change and financial security.”

Outlining Latin America’s agenda, for a more balanced relationship with Europe, she said: “We want foreign investment that helps us modernize our production structure, that contributes to employment, that helps us care for the environment and that respects social rights.”

Europe also has an interest in boosting the relationship. Although the E.U. ranks as the region’s second largest tradi! ng partne! r after the United States, China is expected to overtake it in the coming years.

“Europe needs new markets, and Latin America needs European-style small and medium-sized enterprises,” The Guardian said in an editorial last month.

Despite recent economic advances in Latin America, parts of the region continue to suffer from extremes of poverty and underdevelopment.

Álvaro Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian commentator who asked this week what was the purpose of the summit, pointed out that the region’s growth rate hid some huge differences among states, as did their separate development models.

“What Cuba and Venezuela understand by democracy has nothing to do with how it is understood by Mexico or Colombia,€ he wrote. “What Argentina understands as the market economy is almost the opposite of how Colombia understands it.”

France Is Sweet on \'Sugar Man\'

A love story is developing between the French and Rodriguez, the Detroit-born musician who flopped in the 1970s, was a star without knowing it in apartheid South Africa and was rediscovered last summer in the United States when the documentary “Searching for Sugar Man” was released.

The film tells the extraordinary story of a talented and philosophical musician who spent his life working in construction while struggling to bring up his three daughters, and the mind-boggling mutual discoveries in 1997: for him, that he was more famous than the Rolling Stones in South Africa, and for South African fans (who believed him to be dead), that he was alive.

The Swedish-U.K. film by Malik Bendjelloul which has made more than $3 million t the box office in the United States, and has been nominated for an Academy Award in the documentary category. In France the now-70-year-old Rodriguez has created something of a frenzy: the soundtrack album is among Sony France’s top sales on iTunes. Sony had planned on putting fewer than 3,000 CDs in stores, but after calls from vendors who sensed something was up, made 15,000 copies available.

“It is an honor and a pleasure,” said Rodriguez in an email message last week from Detroit about his popularity in France. “I’ve been to France a couple of times now. It feels like I’m on top of the world.”

The French public has had a tradition of adopting American artists that it considers underappreciated in the United States, from Josephine Baker to Woody Allen, from Paul Auster to Ben Harper. Le Figaro newspaper rece! ntly dubbed Rodriguez the “unloved” singer.

David Nivesse, from ARP Selection, the film’s French distributor, and Christophe Servel Molvaer, project manager for Sony Music Legacy, France, say that it all started last November when Rodriguez came to Paris for a private concert following a preview of the documentary.

“He played for half an hour and you could hear a pin drop. There were 600 people in the room and he got a standing ovation,” Mr. Servel Molvaer recalled. “I had never heard of him before. But from the beginning I was captivated by this soul-funk. It’s something magical, and people love his music from the moment they hear it.”

“Music is a language all it’s own,” wrote Rodriguez. “I’ve been playing ‘La Vie En Rose’ a lot lately when I’m looking for sounds. It’s the notes and the rhythmsâ€" that is what speaks to me. I’m a music lover. I do vocal against guitar. Sometimes it’s like any words will work. A lot of songs out there have fewer words han guttural sounds like oohs and ahhs and grunts. That works for some people too. I’m glad the French like my stuff. It’s had a long life and I feel lucky for that.”

“Searching for Sugar Man” was released Dec. 26 in just two Paris cinemas. It has beaten all records at the Left Bank Saint Germain movie theater where it is playing. It’s now playing in other cities in France including Bordeaux, Rennes and Nancy.

“We thought the film would do well but this is exceptional,” Mr. Nivesse said.

Rodriguez is playing concerts around the world now. One gig was scheduled for this June at La Cigale, a major Paris venue. It sold out within 72 hours. Another concert was added at the Zenith (capacity 6,500). He is also expected to play at the major French summer music festivals.

“I’ve been working 25 years in the business and never met anyone like this, with so much charisma, even though he doesn’t say much,” said Mr! . Servel ! Molvaer.