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...South Korea relies on atomic energy for 40% of its electricity, which translates into a vast industry of power plants, government-run research labs?and a whole lot of hot fuel rods. But it is also a major player in the six-nation talks that are trying to arm-twist North Korea into shuttering its own uranium- and plutonium-based nuclear-weapon programs. After hearing the South's explanations, Pyongyang quickly trumpeted a "double standard." Then came news that the South had noticed an enormous explosion in North Korea last week, though the source was unclear...
...conversation that ripples through Java, Indonesia's most populous island, where chaotic cities jostle for space with serene rice paddies and dwindling enclaves of rainforest. And it's not yet clear whose telling of Islam will prevail. Will it be the moderation extolled by vast Islamic organizations like Muhammadiyah? The wildly popular entrepreneurship of Aa Gym, whose immaculately clad staff hand out glossy brochures in the gardens of his pesantren-cum-business headquarters while visitors sip on the celebrity preacher's own brand of soft drink? Will it be the dogma of Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia - set up by accused terrorist...
...odds with the beliefs and practices of the roughly 200 million Muslims in Indonesia. Since Arabic traders began to spread Islam across the archipelago about 700 years ago, the religion has assumed many forms. Indonesia has fiery Wahhabi evangelists and Jakarta sophisticates who drink cocktails during Ramadan. The vast majority of Indonesian Muslims fall somewhere in between, practicing a form of the religion distinguished by its "peacefulness and tolerance," says Masdar Mas'udi, an influential progressive cleric based in Jakarta. That tolerance includes an acceptance of widely differing interpretations of what it means to be a good Muslim. Islam...
...poverty to a respectable position in a society--Georgian England--more rigidly stratified than any we know. In that delicately poised world, speaking the wrong word, using the wrong fork, could mean disaster, and the suspense in Vanity Fair derives largely from our anxious observation of Becky navigating a vast sea of swells...
...worse than the thought of a canvas as important as The Scream, Edvard Munch's indelible image of a man howling against the backdrop of a blood-red sky, disappearing into a criminal underworld that doesn't care much about the niceties of art conservation. Art theft is a vast problem around the world. As many as 10,000 precious items of all kinds disappear each year. And for smaller museums in particular, it may not be a problem they can afford to solve...