The InterContinental Vienna was the first hotel by an international hotel group to be established in the Austrian capital as well as the largest in the entire country. Built between 1961...

The Sacher is an institution in Vienna. The luxury hotel is better than ever since, in 2005, it has been enlarged by a spa as well as two additional floors on top with 43 new rooms and...

According to the Central Election Commission, with all the votes tallied, the Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou (*1950) of the ruling Kuomintang Party (KMT) has won a second mandate with...

Ollanta Humala Tasso, a not so reassuring president Peruvian voters regularly manage to chose leaders that others would describe...

Far too often when Americans meet a guy fluent in English, they think he is trustful and one of them. People as different as the Afghan President Karzai and the Israeli Prime Minister...

The Italian debt stands at some 120% of GDP. In a rare sign of political consensus and responsibility, both the Berlusconi government and a part of the opposition decided to push through an...

Added on November 1, 2011: Beijing’s tax authorities have ordered Ai Weiwei to pay 15 million Yuan (€1.8 million) for “tax evasion”. Added on June 22. 2011: According to the...

The Israeli prime minister’s speech to the United States Congress has been awaited with high expectations. Binyamin Netanyahu has been involved in a long public battle with the Obama...

Added on May 15, 2011: The possible Socialist presidential candidate Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been arrested in New York “on...

At the end of February 2015, I stayed again at Reids. A year ago, it has changed its name to Belmond Reid’s Palace Madeira. After 30 years, the French railway company SNCF, who owns...

Biography of the Chris King, the head chef at the restaurant Roux at the Landau at the Langham London Hotel Chris King is the...

Photos, history and review the Pestana Palace, Lisbon. The city of Lisbon offers several hotels in historic palaces. Probably the most exiting of them is the Pestana Palace, a five-star...

Update added on October 19, 2010: In the evening of October 18, 2010 Netanyahu came to the conclusion that the loyalty oath...

The biography of Yves Klein, largely based on With the Void, Full Powers Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de Yves Klein was born in Nice (France) on April 28, 1928. His father...

Together with the Latvian Elīna Garanča, the Italian Cecilia Bartoli is one of the world’s leading mezzo-sopranos. Cecilia was born in Rome on June 6, 1966. Both her parents,...

A history of Aromatherapy Aromatherapy dates at least back to Ancient Egypt. Embalming, mummification, fragrances for daily life,...

Jezebel is a 1938-movie that made Bette Davis a star (DVD: Amazon.com, Amazon.de). The title gets explained when the film character Julie Marsden (Bette Davis) emotionally asks her aunt...

The city of Basel currently holds two outstanding exhibitions: one about Van Gogh’s landscapes, the other about Alberto Giacometti. Both are highly recommendable. Here some...

In the Shia tradition, it is the custom to hold a memorial service 40 days after a person’s death. That’s what...

You cannot judge politicians by their words. As long as bold statements have not translated into actions which have delivered results, it is impossible to judge them. Barack Obama is still...