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Some 14,000 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderón declared war on Mexico's drug cartels three years ago, sparking a brutal conflict that showed no sign of easing in 2009. Battered border cities like Juárez witnessed up to a dozen or more murders a day amid fighting between drug gangs and government forces--and, just as often, among rival cartels. Meanwhile, corruption in the ranks of police, army and government officials is so endemic that some analysts have declared the nation of 110 million a failed state. The U.S. has pledged $1.4 billion over three...
Four years ago, the Parisian suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois was in flames. The town was one of nearly 300 nationwide where housing projects exploded in rioting in October 2005 over dizzying unemployment rates, racial discrimination and a perceived exclusion from wider French society. When the deaths of two minority youths fleeing police in nearby Clichy-sous-Bois sparked violence there, residents of housing projects in Aulnay and beyond followed suit, venting pent-up rage by torching cars, vandalizing property and battling riot police for 20 straight nights. Ever since, most of France has viewed towns like Aulnay as being...
...secondary anyway. Aulnay's blues festival and the Grammy nod have already changed the way the city sees itself. Now, there's a possibility the rest of France will follow suit, transforming Aulnay's image in the public mind from the fiery, chaotic one that was formed four years ago...
When France outlawed smoking in public places three years ago, residents took the news remarkably - almost shockingly - well. Almost overnight, cigarettes vanished from offices, restaurants, cafés and train stations as the French dutifully took their glowing butts outside - the only place where smoking was still permitted. But this being France, a backlash was almost certainly inevitable. According to a report released on Dec. 17 by an anti-smoking group, the initial obeisance of French smokers has now given way to people increasingly flaunting the law by lighting up indoors...
...drowned train in Peraliya, about 60 miles (95 km) south of Colombo, soon became the most sought after camera opportunity for visiting media that followed the catastrophic tsunami five years ago this week. Hundreds came each day to look at the empty carriages, three of which were left standing on the side of the track for months while parts of the train were salvaged. (See pictures of "The Asian Tsunami: Five Years Later...