Comment on Pope heading to Panama Jan. 23-27 for World Youth Day

The fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation 14 years ago inspired Tunisians to topple their longtime dictator and kicked off the 2011 Arab Spring. Of all the countries in the region that caught the revolutionary bug, Tunisia was the only one that managed to build a multiparty democracy with separation of powers and freedom of expression, for a while becoming the poster child of successful democratization. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Then came President Kais Saied, an uncharismatic constitutional lawyer, who was elected in 2019 on a populist anti-corruption platform that played to Tunisians’ post-revolutionary disillusion with political gridlock and economic stagnation.

CHONBURI, Thailand — Only a month after Thailand’s adorable baby hippo Moo Deng was unveiled on Facebook, her fame became unstoppable both domestically and internationally. Zookeeper Atthapon Nundee has been posting cute moments of the animals in his care for about five years. He never imagined Khao Kheow Open Zoo’s newborn pygmy hippo would become an internet megastar within weeks. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Read More: She’s an Icon, She’s a Legend, and She Is the Moment.

Japan’s Icom Inc., whose brand appears on walkie-talkies that exploded in Lebanon, said it halted production a decade ago of the model allegedly used in the attacks and is still investigating the situation. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Icom exported its IC-V82 two-way radio to regions including the Middle East until October 2014, when it stopped making and selling the devices, the Osaka-based company said in a statement Thursday.

A lot has changed since my last conversation with Anwar Ibrahim 10 years ago, when he jumped on a crackly phone call between court hearings to reveal his chances of beating a trumped-up sodomy charge “didn’t look good.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Things looked considerably brighter for Malaysia’s Prime Minister when we caught up last month at the opening of German semiconductor giant Infineon’s new Malaysia plant.

Central Europe has been plagued by intense flooding this week, killing at least 23 people, according to Reuters. While it’s difficult to draw a conclusive link between this event and climate change, experts say the most severe floods to hit the region in at least two decades fit into a broader pattern of extreme weather events.

BEIRUT — Explosions went off in Beirut and multiple parts of Lebanon in an apparent second wave of detonations of electronic devices, Hezbollah officials and state media said Wednesday, reporting walkie-talkies and even solar equipment detonating a day after hundreds of pagers blew up. At least one person was killed and more than 100 people wounded, the Health Ministry said. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Several blasts were heard at the funeral in Beirut for three Hezbollah members and a child killed by exploding pagers the day before, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene.