Varied Views of a Border

In some spots along the Mexican-American border, a well-fortified fence extends as far as the eye can see, while in others a wall ends abruptly in the ocean. Beyond these images of the United States’ southern border, we are interested in your photos. An aerial view of the border fence in Tijuana, Mexico, where it meets the Pacific Ocean.Kirsten...

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IHT Rendezvous: Muslims Seek Dialogue With Next Pope

LONDON — As the Catholic Church’s cardinal electors gather at the Vatican to choose a new pope, Muslim leaders are urging a revival of the often troubled dialogue between the two faiths.During the papacy of Benedict XVI, relations between the world’s two largest religions were overshadowed by remarks he made in 2006 that were widely condemned as an attack on Islam.In a speech at Regensburg University...

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Malaysia Said to Open Fire on Armed Filipinos

MANILA — Shots have been fired in a tense standoff between a group of armed Filipinos and Malaysian police officer who have them surrounded in a remote northeast area of Malaysia, a Philippine presidential spokesman said Friday. The group, which is occupying an isolated village in attempt to revive a historical claim to the area, tried early Friday morning to breach the perimeter established...

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India Ink: India’s Slowing Economy Forces Budget Decisions

NEW DELHI — Not too long ago, when India’s economy was roaring amid predictions of high growth rates for years to come, the finance minister could be forgiven for strutting during budget week. He got to march into India’s Parliament with the ceremonial briefcase bearing a budget stuffed with goodies. But on Thursday, when the current finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, arrives in Parliament,...

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India Ink: 2 Countries, 2 Struggles for Justice

BEIJING — China and India are regularly compared — as Asian giants with well over a billion people each, as fast-developing countries with high economic growth. What about in terms of rape? In both countries recently, highly publicized gang rapes have dramatically raised public awareness of a hidden problem. Of course, rape is to some extent a hidden issue everywhere, even in societies with...

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India Ink: Universities UK Welcomes Indian Partnerships

British-Indian partnerships formed on Cameron’s visit Universities UK, an advocacy group that represents the interests of British academic institutions, has backed the education partnerships announced by Prime Minister David Cameron during a British trade mission to India last week, when representatives from both countries’ education sectors met. “We are delighted that the prime minister...

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India Ink: Forces of Creation Moving in Unison

Presenting non-Western dances to Western audiences can be a difficult business. If an artist adjusts too much, a deep tradition can flatten into pandering tourist fare. If an artist adjusts too little, fidelity can get in the way of communication; a living art form can come across as a relic. Andrea Mohin/The New York TimesBijayini Satpathy, left, and Pavithra Reddy of the Nrityagram...

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2 Palestinians Shot in Clashes With Israeli Settlers

JERUSALEM (AP) — Clashes erupted Saturday in the West Bank, with Jewish settlers shooting two Palestinian demonstrators in the northern village of Kusra, an Israeli military official and Palestinian residents said. The unrest reflected mounting friction in the West Bank, where Palestinians have faced off against Israeli troops in recent weeks in a series of large demonstrations protesting...

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IHT Rendezvous: IHT Quick Read: Feb. 23

NEWS Since the days of the Medici family in Florence, the banking house of Monte dei Paschi has rained wealth on the people of Siena, Italy. For 541 years, it has endured war, plague and panic, and it stands today as the world’s oldest operating bank. But inside the stately offices of Monte dei Paschi di Siena, a thoroughly modern fiasco has done what the centuries could not. Monte dei Paschi, founded...

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The Lede: Syrian Television's Most Outraged Bystander

Last Update, 4:47 p.m. In the aftermath of a deadly bombing in Damascus on Thursday, a man emerged from a small knot of bystanders crowded around a camera crew from Syrian state television to vent his anger at the foreign Islamist fighters he held responsible. “We the Syrian people,” he said, “place the blame on the Nusra Front, the Takfiri oppressors and armed Wahhabi terrorists from Saudi Arabia...

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India Ink: Quel Brouhaha! A Diatribe on Unions Irks the French

PARIS — “How stupid do you think we are?” With those choice words, and several more similar in tone, the chief executive of an American tire company touched off a furor in France on Wednesday as he responded to a government plea to take over a Goodyear factory slated for closing in northern France. “I have visited the factory a couple of times,” Maurice Taylor Jr., the head of Titan...

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IHT Rendezvous: Concerns Grow About 'Severely Polluted' Water in China's Cities

HONG KONG — The recent headlines about China’s pollution problems — many are now calling it a crisis — have focused on the worsening air pollution in Beijing and other major Chinese cities, drawing worldwide attention to the issue.But another peril, potentially just as dangerous, lurks — one that is also drawing increasing notice: the poor condition of China’s water supplies. On Tuesday, a report...

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India Ink: Kalyan Anand, the Sadhu From Madhya Pradesh

Why do millions of Indians, sometimes entire villages, brave the crowds to attend the Kumbh Mela? India Ink interviewed some of the estimated 100 million pilgrims who traveled to this year’s Kumbh Mela at Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, a 55-day pilgrimage during which Hindus take a holy dip in the Ganges River to wash away their sins.Kalyan Anand, 46, a sadhu from Chitrakoot town of Madhya Pradesh was...

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India Ink: Modern in Mumbai

Cecilia Morelli Parikh is still a woman on a mission. Nearly two years ago, with Julie Leymarie and Aurélie de Limelette, she opened Le Mill, a multibrand fashion and home store, in a converted warehouse in a gritty section of Mumbai, India, which brought a contemporary Western aesthetic to an affluent Indian shopper. Last November, Morelli Parikh and her co-founders (Leymarie is a former L’Oréal...

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Dismissed as Doomsayers, Advocates for Meteor Detection Feel Vindicated

For decades, scientists have been on the lookout for killer objects from outer space that could devastate the planet. But warnings that they lacked the tools to detect the most serious threats were largely ignored, even as skeptics mocked the worriers as Chicken Littles. Jim Watson/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDr. Edward Lu, a former NASA astronaut and Google executive, has warned...

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U.S. Embassy Denies Intervening in Mexico Cabinet Choice

The United States Embassy in Mexico on Friday issued a statement denying an article in The New York Times that reported that Ambassador Anthony Wayne had met with senior Mexican officials to discuss American concerns about the possible appointment of Gen. Moisés García Ochoa of Mexico as that country’s defense secretary. “Despite significant reporting in the Mexican press during the presidential...

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India Ink: Powering an Enclave With Dosas

Brian Harkin for The New York TimesKrish Doshi, left, with his brother Karan Doshi, both 8, at Usha Foods in Floral Park, Queens. More Photos »After much debate, it was decided: masala dosas all around. The retirees clustered in front of the counter at Usha Foods, then got down to business: Who was paying? Seven credit cards appeared and seven hands waved them at the cashier, until one gray-haired...

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India Ink: Falling Far Short of the Whole Truth

She had been called to the bar in a formal ceremony at Middle Temple Hall, a grand room where little has changed since 1602, when the first known performance of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” was staged there. With her dark hair covered by a barrister’s foppish white wig, she signed the registry of barristers who had stood in the same spot across the centuries, including John Rutledge, a signer of...

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Thai Soldiers Repel Attack in Major Blow to Insurgents

BANGKOK — Thai soldiers repelled an attack on a military outpost early Wednesday, killing at least 16 gunmen in what appeared to be a significant setback for ethnic insurgent groups leading a bloody uprising now in its ninth year. Col. Pramote Promin, the spokesman of the army’s southern command, said the army had been expecting the attack after being tipped off by villagers and “former insurgents...

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North Korea Is Suspected of Conducting 3rd Nuclear Test

Lee Jin-Man/Associated PressA South Korean watched news reporting about a possible nuclear test conducted by North Korea on a TV screen in Seoul on Tuesday. WASHINGTON — North Korea appeared to conduct its third, and probably largest, nuclear test on Tuesday, according to American and Asian officials, posing a new challenge for the Obama administration in its effort to keep the country from becoming...

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