Greece: refusing to quit | Helena Smith

Man smoking a cigarette. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty Images
One year and two months ago to this day, I walked into a bar in Athens where, in a haze of smoke and much to my surprise, I was allowed to break the law. A ban on smoking in public places, imposed by the then conservative government, had just come into force.

Kosovo offers to bury differences with Serbia

Hashim Thaci, the prime minister of Kosovo, right, at a meeting in Pristina with (from left) foreign minister Skender Hyseni, German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle and the president of Kosovo, Fatmir Sejdiu. Photograph: Hannibal Hanschke/EPA
The prime minister of Kosovo, which seceded from Serbia and declared independence two years ago, has offered...

Binyamin Netanyahu opens Middle East talks with two 'pillars to peace'

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, right, at the opening session of peace talks hosted by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP
Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, opened peace talks with the Palestinians today by saying that two issues – recognition of his country as a Jewish ...

Britain and France will not share aircraft carriers, officials say

Officials have denied reports that Britain and France are to share aircraft carriers. Photograph: Sipa Press / Rex Features
British and French officials engaged in high-level defence talks have denied reports the two countries are considering sharing aircraft carriers, but are paving the way for unprecedented military co-operation, according to sources on both sides of the Channel....

Tibetan nomads struggle as grasslands disappear from the roof of the world

Tibetan nomad Phuntsok Dorje outside his tent. The green prairie that used to surround it has become a brown desert. Photograph: Jonathan Watts for the Guardian
Like generations of Tibetan nomads before him, Phuntsok Dorje makes a living raising yaks and other livestock on the vast alpine grasslands that provide a thatch on the roof of the world.

Jewish director Julian Schnabel brings Palestine to Venice

 

Yasmine Al Masri attends the Miral photocall during the Venice Film Festival. Photograph: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
The American artist and film-maker Julian Schnabel said he felt a "responsibility" as a Jew to tell the story of Palestine when he opened his new movie at the Venice film festival.
Schnabel's film Miral, competing with 22 others for the Golden Lion award, ....

Burger King sold for £2.6bn

Burger King has been sold for the second time in its 55-year history. Photograph: Alex Segre/Alamy
Burger King has been sold to 3G Capital, a private equity firm backed by three of Brazil's best-known businessmen, in a deal worth $4bn (£2.6bn).
The $24-a-share agreement is 46% more than Burger King shares closed at on 31 August, the day before rumours of ......

British man piloted Congo death crash plane

The aftermath of a plane crash in the Congolese city of Goma which killed more than 40 people in 2008. The country has one of the world's worst air safety records. Photograph: Karel Prinsloo/AP
The pilot of a plane that crashed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo killing 20 people has been named as a Briton who had worked as an air steward but loved flying so much he trained as a pilot.

Chief rabbi challenges Stephen Hawking in row over origins of universe

Lord Sacks warns that the hostility between religion and science is equally damaging to both. Photograph: David Sillitoe.
The chief rabbi, Lord Sacks, hit back at Stephen Hawking after the astrophysicist said God did not create the universe.In his new book, The Grand Design, published next week, Hawking concludes that science excludes the possibility of a deity and that it is unnecessary to "invoke...

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