'Frack off': U.K. energy debate erupts

| Oct 2, 2013

'Frack off': U.K. energy debate erupts

by Karla Adam

This might seem a bizarre place for a battle over energy policy in Britain. A quaint village with a single pub, a well-attended tea room and a population of about 2,000, Balcombe has become the focal point of a heated debate over hydraulic fracturing, ...

China courts embrace social media

| Oct 1, 2013

China courts embrace social media

China’s notoriously opaque courts have suddenly embraced social media to provide a window into their proceedings, to boost a skeptical public’s confidence in the country’s Communist Party-controlled legal system. Nearly 1,000 Chinese courts have set up microblog accounts. One in central China released a ...

| Sep 30, 2013

Law may lead to disparities

by Zachary A. Goldfarb

Half a century ago, the creation of Medicare and Medicaid was a triumph of American egalitarianism. Within a decade, the United States went from a country where 1 in 3 people lacked health insurance to a nation where just 1 in 10 went without ...

Iran tries to shift scrutiny to Israeli nuclear weapons

| Sep 26, 2013

Iran tries to shift scrutiny to Israeli nuclear weapons

With a few words in a largely conciliatory speech to the United Nations, Iran’s new president took aim at an Israeli fear: that international pressure on Tehran’s nuclear program could lead to scrutiny of Israel’s own secretive nuclear facilities. Israel is widely believed to ...

Can ambitious Chinese effort rival Hollywood's movie clout?

| Sep 25, 2013

Can ambitious Chinese effort rival Hollywood's movie clout?

An ambitious studio complex built by China’s richest man will be a major boost for the country’s film industry, but experts say it needs more than sprawling grounds to rival Hollywood. Global A-listers Nicole Kidman, Leonardo DiCaprio and Catherine Zeta-Jones showed up for the ...

| Sep 25, 2013

Nairobi mall visit becomes a trip to hell

“You’re a very bad man,” a brave 4-year-old British boy told one of the Islamist gunmen in the bloody siege of a Nairobi mall, one of the many poignant tales emerging from the attacks that have horrified the world. It was a Saturday and ...

| Sep 24, 2013

Terrorism — a tie binding Israel, Kenya

by Josef Federman

Scarred by memories of a pair of attacks on Israeli targets in Africa a decade ago, Israel has dispatched a team of experts to its close ally Kenya to advise authorities on the bloody standoff at a Nairobi shopping mall. While officials refuse to ...