UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to impose a travel ban on and freeze the assets of people suspected of war crimes in Central African Republic, as the European Union prepared to send a battalion to protect civilians from an unrelenting sectarian war there. The resolution approved by the Security Council did not name perpetrators of violence who are to face sanctions; that will be taken up later. Last week, Secretary of State John Kerry raised the threat of American sanctions as well. United Nations officials described a spiraling conflict, with the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels disarmed and rival Christian gunmen going on retaliatory rampages. “Muslim civilians are now extremely vulnerable,” the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, warned this week. Christians and Muslims have lived peaceably in Central African Republic for generations, but political struggles between former President François Bozizé … [Read more...] about U.N. Takes New Steps in Central African Republic
New doha intl airport
Maryland Mobile ID Launches On Google Wallet: Moore
0 Politics & Government Maryland is the first state to offer digital licenses and IDs in Google Wallet, which can help speed airport security screening. Deb Belt , Patch Staff Posted Reply ANNAPOLIS, MD — Maryland on Thursday became the first state to offer digital licenses and IDs in Google Wallet, which allows users to verify their identity easily for airport security screening, the governor's office said. Gov. Wes Moore announced that the Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration launched Maryland Mobile ID in Google Wallet. “Maryland is leading the way in creating a more competitive and innovative digital environment while prioritizing accessibility and customer service,” Moore said in a statement . “Maryland Mobile ID advances our administration’s work to deliver safe and secure services that benefit all Marylanders.” In May 2022, Maryland became only the second state to offer … [Read more...] about Maryland Mobile ID Launches On Google Wallet: Moore
‘A Place Where Everybody Can Shop’ Is Closing Its Doors
PARIS — Tati is a ghost of what it once was, and soon it won’t even be that. Shelves that were crammed with dish-scrubbers and brassieres for $1.50 and plaster figurines of smiling bunnies are now bare. Exits are still numbered — how else to find your way out through the crowds — but the aisles are empty. There are no crowds. It’s as though the discount department store, a once-thronged wonder of Paris more visited than the Eiffel Tower, is willing itself out of existence, fading like a Cheshire cat’s smile back into the hinterlands on both sides of the Mediterranean where many of its famous pink gingham shopping bags ended up. The official end, in any case, is not far-off for Tati, which revolutionized postwar shopping in France and stamped its identity on the entire vibrant neighborhood of Barbès, on the edge of Montmartre. Tati is a victim of Covid-19, its latest owners say, and sharply declining sales. But the trends that have killed it go back much further. The great … [Read more...] about ‘A Place Where Everybody Can Shop’ Is Closing Its Doors
Past Into Present: 4 Journeys That Changed Us
An African-American resort town in Michigan, circa 1970; a raucous family road trip from Kansas City, Mo., to New York state; a bittersweet return to Hyderabad, India; and a college student’s self-discovery in Australia: Four New York Times Travel contributors share their memories of trips that still impart a sense of wonder and hope. Lost in Time on the Shores of Lake Idlewild By Ron Stodghill At some point, even as I began racking up frequent-flier miles, I came to accept a simple truth: I’d find no sleep as peaceful as I found on Lake Idlewild. My slumbers in Michigan’s densely wooded, all-black resort started as a kid. Belly full of fried catfish, Jones Homemade Ice Cream and ZotZ penny candy from Lee-John’s Novelty and Soda Bar, I would curl up on a lounge chair by the lake and snooze for hours to the sound of waves gurgling along the shore, the purring of fishing boats motoring by, the crackling of the Detroit Tigers radio broadcast wafting … [Read more...] about Past Into Present: 4 Journeys That Changed Us
When the Neighbors Don’t Share Your Vision (and That Vision Involves ‘Transformers’ Statues)
The thing about putting a pair of 10-foot statues of metal-hewn Transformers outside your townhouse in the most picturesque district of the nation’s capital is that the neighbors are going to have opinions. And on Prospect Street in Georgetown, they were not pleased. The statues — Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, two of the good guys from the long-running “Transformers” movie franchise — appeared in January 2021 outside the white-brick home of Newton Howard, a cognitive scientist and machine-learning expert with ties to the intelligence community. He had ordered them from a factory in Taiwan to the tune of more than $25,000 each. Where large brick planters had once blended in with the local aesthetic, there was now something akin to outsider art by way of an anonymous welder and Hollywood’s reinterpretation of 1980s toys. Plenty of people love the statues, which resemble invaders from the future, in a neighborhood that does its best to hang on to its cobblestone past. Students at … [Read more...] about When the Neighbors Don’t Share Your Vision (and That Vision Involves ‘Transformers’ Statues)
