Loving My Time in Cartagena

“Why are you risking your life for a vacation?” a close friend gasped, aghast when I told her I planned to spend my post-election holiday in Cartagena, Colombia. In fact, few of my friends seemed to think it was a good idea: I couldn’t convince any of them to share my rental house in the city’s walled Old Town. If they had heard of Cartagena at all, it was only as the backdrop of the classic 1980s romantic caper Romancing the Stone, a place of corrupt juntas and bodice-ripper-reading drug dealers — a parody turned deadly serious by four decades of civil war, Pablo Escobar and the cocaine cartels

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Ex-ICC chief: Future bleak for Pakistan cricket

It will be years before international cricket can be played again in Pakistan following the brazen attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore, the former chief of cricket’s world governing body said Wednesday. Ehsan Mani, who was president of the International Cricket Council (ICC) from 2003 to 2006, also said the attack puts plans for the the 2011 World Cup — scheduled to be played in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and two other countries in the South Asia region — in doubt. Pakistani Mani, who served for seven years on his country’s national cricket board before taking over at the ICC, said Tuesday’s attack poses a “huge threat” to the subcontinent’s most favored sport

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TV for Babies: Does It Help or Hurt?

Early parenting choices are never clear-cut, and deciding whether to allow your infant to watch television or DVDs ranks as one of the more perplexing. Thanks to marketing claims for TV shows and DVDs created for babies, many parents believe that watching educational programming will stimulate infants’ brains and actually promote learning. It’s a seductive line of reasoning

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Elie Wiesel says he can’t forgive Bernie Madoff

Elie Wiesel, the Nazi concentration camp survivor who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize, showed little inclination this week to make peace with accused swindler Bernie Madoff, whom he called "one of the greatest scoundrels, thieves, liars, criminals." “Could I forgive him No,” the 80-year-old told a panel assembled Thursday by Conde Nast’s Portfolio Magazine at New York’s 21 Club to discuss Madoff, whose alleged victims included Wiesel and his foundation, The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. “To forgive, first of all, would mean that he would come on his knees and ask for forgiveness,” the Auschwitz survivor said

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Denver paper latest victim of declining readership, ad revenue

After nearly 150 years in business, the Rocky Mountain News published its final edition Friday, the victim of a bad economy and the Internet generation. The final front-page headline simply says: “Goodbye, Colorado.” “It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to you today. Our time chronicling the life of Denver and Colorado, the nation and the world, is over.” The Rocky Mountain News’ owner, E.W

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