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Brian Brennan: a Brief Encounter with Sophia Loren

  Arts columnist Brian Brennan was told he couldn’t ask Sophia Loren about the sentence she served in a Naples prison for tax evasion. But he went ahead and asked anyhow, and received a surprising answer. An excerpt of Brennan’s Brief Encounters column, Absolutely Fabulous: Sophia Loren:   Sophia Loren hardly ever talked to reporters, and hadn’t planned to do so when she came to Canada in 1987 to promote some beauty products. But after I talked to her publicity people, I was told I could interview her as long as I didn’t ask her about two things: 1. How was

Is the secret safe on an arms deal, murders, bribery and torture?

At least nine people have died under mysterious or unexplained circumstances in what  International Affairs columnist Jonathan Manthorpe calls “one of the most sordid arms dealing, murder and bribery scandals in modern French and Taiwanese history.” An excerpt of his new column, Truth of Franco-Taiwanese bribery scandal dies with fugitive arms-broker: The reported death in Britain of Andrew Wang at age 86 draws a line under one of the most sordid arms dealing, murder and bribery scandals in modern French and Taiwanese history. But the death of Wang, one of Taiwan’s 10 most wanted fugitives and the chief suspect in the murder

Calgary’s Naheed Nenshi first in World Mayor prize

Naheed Nenshi, mayor of Calgary, Alberta, was awarded  first place Tuesday in the 2014 World Mayor Prize, by the City Mayor Foundation, an international think tank. Said the World Mayor organization in its announcement:  Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, the winner of the 2014 World Mayor Prize, is the most admired mayor of any large Canadian city. His vision how a city should plan for its future has attracted the attention of urban thinkers from across North America. Since taking office in 2010, he has become the most admired mayor of any large Canadian city. He is an urban visionary who doesn’t

A football reveals the circus of American politics

Americans have, as a society, become obsessed with trivial pursuits, writes columnist Tom Regan. That’s not necessarily new — but the advent of the Internet and social media has kicked this cultural trait into hyper-drive. An excerpt of his new Seeking Orenda column, Bread,circuses and a deflated football This is where we have come to. In the past week, the government of Yemen collapsed, which has serious ramifications in any one of a number of areas: the growth of al-Qaeda, Shia versus Sunni relations, the interrupted rebuilding of a fractured society. The president gave a state of the union address that highlighted

Have Somalia’s lessons, hard-learned, have finally taken?

  The only war in which Jonathan Manthorpe felt compelled to hire bodyguards was in Somalia. Lessons were learned the hard way in Somalia’s last quarter century, but as a glimmer of light now illuminates the country, at last. An excerpt of his latest  International Affairs column,  After almost 25 years, a glimmer of light in the Somali tunnel: The burned-out palace of ousted dictator Siad Barre was still smouldering when I got to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, almost exactly 24 years ago. On Jan. 27, 1991, Barre had emptied the contents of the national bank into a tank and sped off

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