Berlin Wall's Fall (1989)

Kurt Kruegermann sits in the driver's seat of a weather-beaten forklift as it slowly sputters to life. A few minutes later, the 77-year-old co-owner of Krüegermann Pickles & Sauerkraut flips a switch and a cardboard box filled with 1,500 pounds of cabbage...

For almost 30 years, desperate East Germans tried to drive through it, tunnel under it and fly over it. More than 136 died in the attempt. Less than two years after the Berlin Wall's construction in the early '60s, it inspired President Kennedy's "Ich...

THE UNITED STATES is bogged down in what appears to be an unwinnable war in Iraq; it is facing very unpleasant options in regard to neighboring Iran's nuclear program; senior NATO officers say that the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating fast; in...

Syd Barrett, the one-time frontman and songwriter for Pink Floyd, is an unlikely metaphor for both the stubbornness of the academic British communists and the Stalinist corruption of the Czech socialist ideal. After all, this troubled musician disappeared...

Russia has lost an empire and not yet found a role. As we approach the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we should pay tribute again to the fact that a nuclear-armed superpower surrendered its vast continental empire with scarcely a shot...

Europe is fast overtaking the U.S. as the leading destination for the world's cocaine, and a single Italian mafia is largely responsible. The 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate, a ruthless and mysterious network of 155 families born in the rough hills here in...

It may not be surprising that Prince Charles-Henri de Lobkowicz, a descendant of France's King Charles X (the youngest brother of the executed Louis XVI), wears a black tie every year on Bastille Day. Or that Marc de Gontaut-Biron, a member of an...

A sampling of what students know about U.S. history. Fourth-graders: --66 percent understood the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty --35 percent explained how two inventions changed life in the United States --24 percent explained why people...

ASIA Dazzling, dizzying Chiang Mai, Thailand In Chiang Mai, the old northern capital of Thailand, a construction boom has given the city some of the most stylish hotels and restaurants in Southeast Asia. Galleries and design stores have opened, showcasing...

Dazzling, dizzying Chiang Mai, Thailand http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-tr-chiangmai11mar11 http://www.latimes.com/media/alternatethumbnails/photo/2007-05/28305942.jpg http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-chiang_mai11mar11-pg,0,3289501.photogallery?...

Martin Scorsese's gangster epic "The Departed" was named the best picture of 2006 at the 79th annual Academy Awards on Sunday evening at the Kodak Theatre. Scorsese won his elusive first directing Oscar for the film, which also won for adapted...

Today's question: How far east should NATO expand? Should the United States concede Russian dominance over the Caucasus in exchange for admitting, say, Ukraine into NATO? Previously, Moynihan and Meier discussed Russia’s membership in G-8 and...