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The Maldives’ Struggle to Stay Afloat

On a plane to the Maldives, tourists sigh about the luxury resorts and sun-dappled beaches to which they are bound. From above, the country’s coral-fringed lagoons in the Indian Ocean look computer-generated: arrayed in turquoise pods, they stretch over an azure expanse that would span from Rome to Budapest. Ibn Battuta, the 14th century Arab explorer, hailed the archipelago as “one of the wonders of the world.” Ever since, the Maldives has enchanted shipwrecked sailors, Hollywood celebrities and Russian oligarchs fortunate enough to wash up by its shores.

Disgraced Chambers has Bolt in his sights

Controversial British sprinter Dwain Chambers has set his sights on a world championships showdown against Usain Bolt in Berlin later this summer. Chambers tested positive for the anabolic steroid Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) in 2003 as part of the BALCO scandal in the United States, but has re-launched his track and field career after serving a two-year ban. By winning the European 60 meters indoor title earlier this year in the second fastest time in history, Chambers showed he is in prime form before heading for a warm weather training camp in California

Germany refuses to halt Demjanjuk transfer

A German court Wednesday rejected an effort by suspected Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk to block his expected transfer from the United States to Germany. The ruling came as Demjanjuk’s lawyers formally asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the deportation.

Holder seeks help from Europe to relocate Guantanamo detainees

Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking in Berlin, Germany, on Wednesday night, appealed to European nations to accept some of the detainees held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to help the Obama administration close down the prison facility. “I know that Europe did not open Guantanamo, and that in fact, a great many on this continent opposed it,” Holder said in his address at the American Academy of Berlin

‘Earth’ takes viewers on ‘breathtaking’ global journey

A polar bear falls through thin Arctic ice while searching for food for his family. A humpback whale guides her calf on a perilous 4,000-mile journey. A herd of African elephants in search of water battles a sandstorm in the Kalahari Desert.

Scientists Claim CIA Misused Work on Sleep Deprivation

German and French researchers whose work has been cited by the CIA and the Justice Department to help justify the legality of harsh interrogation techniques, including prolonged sleep deprivation, condemned the Bush Administration on Tuesday for misusing their scientific findings. “It is total nonsense to cite our study in this context,” said Dr.

Berlin Wall: Was the Fall Engineered by the GDR?

Twenty years ago, a question posed by Italian journalist Riccardo Ehrmann prompted an East German official to say the words that triggered the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now new facts have emerged that shed a different light on that fateful press conference.

24 injured after trains collide in Germany

Twenty-four people were injured when a regional express train crashed into a freight train outside Berlin, a spokesman for the German rail authority said Friday.

Polar bear attacks woman at Berlin Zoo

A polar bear attacked a woman at Berlin Zoo Friday afternoon after she climbed a fence and jumped into its habitat during feeding time, police said Saturday.

Recordings: Kennedy saw nuclear test ban as Cold War thaw

Former President John F. Kennedy saw a proposed ban on aboveground nuclear tests as a way to thaw U.S.-Soviet relations after the Cuban Missile Crisis, according to recordings released Thursday. “If it does represent a possibility of avoiding the kind of collision that we had last fall in Cuba, which was quite close, and Berlin in 1961, we should seize the chance,” Kennedy said in a July 1963 meeting with top government scientists.