Tag Archives: pictures

In Lebanon’s Election, a More Pragmatic Hizballah

The young men in gold-collared gowns collecting their certificates as beaming parents looked on could have been at any graduation ceremony in the U.S., except perhaps for the fact that the commencement speaker appeared via a video link from an undisclosed location, so as to avoid assassination. That, and the fact that the graduates’ job prospects are probably far better than those of their Western peers right now, by virtue of the fact that most are trained guerrilla fighters

Another Night at the Museum: More Monkey Business

“People love what’s next,” says Ricky Gervais’ fussy museum manager, explaining why many of the beloved old-fashioned exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History are being shipped off to storage at the Smithsonian Institute, to be replaced by holograms. Even Ben Stiller’s Larry Daley, the former night guard at the museum, seems to have moved on. He’s now the infomercial king, hawking such wares as the Glow in the Dark Torch in excruciatingly stilted exchanges with George Foreman

Is There a Cure for Miami’s Soaring Health-Care Costs?

Hurricanes and housing busts have already battered South Florida’s image as an earthly paradise. But Miami’s reputation for dysfunction is on display again this spring as the Obama Administration shifts health-care reform into high gear — and a spate of studies slams the Magic City as the poster child for exorbitant medical costs. This week the Milliman Medical Cost Index listed the 2008 average private-provider costs for a Miami family of four — $20,282 — as the highest among the 14 major U.S.

Abu Ghraib photos provoked shock, then anger, for Arabs

There is hardly anything in U.S.-Arab relations that screams scandal louder than the torture pictures of Abu Ghraib: Naked hooded male bodies in the fetal position, piled up on top of each other in a pyramid shape, next to them U.S. soldiers in uniform smiling and giving two thumbs up

The Republicans Weigh in with a Health-Care Plan

The last time this country undertook a serious debate over health-care reform, back when Hillary Clinton put together her proposal in 1993, the Republican strategy could have been summed up in three words: Just say no. This time around, however, the clamor for fundamental change of a system that covers too few and costs too much has grown to the point where the minority party knows that simple obstructionism is a dangerous route to take

Maybe You Shouldn’t Buy That, Dummy

Not many people get away with calling the Central Intelligence Agency a bald-faced liar, at least not when they’re speaking to a room packed with dozens of national media outlets. And yet that is exactly what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did on Thursday. “Madam Speaker, just to be clear,” stuttered a reporter at a Capitol Hill press conference, “you’re accusing the CIA of lying to you in September of 2002?” “Yes,” Pelosi declared definitively, “misleading the Congress of the United States