September 9, 2013 - 6:49am
When it comes to Syria's rebels, the conventional wisdom in Washington has been that there are countless factions with a range of agendas and it's difficult, if not impossible, to know exactly who they are. But ask researchers who've spent two years digging into social media and YouTube videos and...
September 9, 2013 - 6:48am
Two large investors — Ares Management LLC and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board — have reached a deal to purchase Neiman Marcus for $6 billion, the companies said Monday. The two buyers will hold equal shares of Neiman, which is based in Dallas, Texas. "This investment fits with our...
September 9, 2013 - 6:20am
Saying he hopes to "receive [a] fast and positive answer," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that Russia believes a U.S. military strike on Syria can be averted if President Bashar Assad hands over control of his regime's chemical weapons to international monitors. Lavrov said he made just such a...
September 9, 2013 - 6:15am
A fire aboard a cargo ship in the Mediterranean Sea was set in order to get rid of 30 tons of hashish, according to officials in Italy and Malta. Authorities had approached the Gold Star, a Tanzania-registered ship, for an inspection Friday afternoon. But members of the crew reportedly set...
September 9, 2013 - 6:11am
While reading this story on the customization of everything, YOU would discover that it's even possible these days to make yourself the subject of an NPR news story on customization. In other words, you are reading the story that you are co-writing – about yourself. At five syllables , customization...
September 9, 2013 - 6:00am
People who don't believe in God but have an almost religious belief in causes are at the center of Jonathan Lethem's new novel, Dissident Gardens . The novel opens in 1955 Queens, N.Y., when Rose Zimmer, a secular Jew and Communist, is expelled from the party, ostensibly because the local...
September 9, 2013 - 6:00am
In 1958, at an arts festival in Yorkshire, Duke Ellington was presented to Queen Elizabeth II. They tied up the reception line for a few minutes, exchanging royal pleasantries; our Duke politely flirted with Her Majesty. Soon afterward, maybe that very night, Ellington outlined the movements of The Queen's Suite...
September 9, 2013 - 5:58am
A few years ago, over dinner, a friend and fellow academic "came out" to me as a theist. The conversation later struck me as quite funny. Only in my exotic academic enclave, I thought to myself, would two Americans have a conversation in which the Christian theist "came out" to...
September 9, 2013 - 5:46am
Monday Night Football kicks off this evening with the Washington Redskins facing off against the Philadelphia Eagles at FedEx Field. As the Redskins start a new season, they are once again in the center of a national debate about their name. On Thursday, the Oneida Indian Nation in upstate New...
September 9, 2013 - 5:00am
Since he's already got a reputation for absent-mindedness because last year he left his 8-year-old daughter behind at a pub , it's easy to see why Britain's Mirror is jumping on a claim that a "dozy" British Prime Minister David Cameron left the "red box" in which he carries official...
