It is too early to speculate, but in the absence of a distress call, investigators looking into the sudden disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 777-200 plane over the South China Sea are already working on two distinct theories ― a catastrophic electrical failure or a mid-air explosion.Ominously, the plot has thickened since it was discovered that at least two men, an Italian and an Austrian, who were listed among the 239 passengers and crew, both had their passports stolen more than a

There are 40 million stolen passports in Interpol’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database in Lyon, France, including at least two that were used to board ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 early Saturday morning. Naturally, speculation about what might have caused the plane’s disappearance has fallen on the two people who boarded with those passports. Did they carry out a terrorist strike? Or, like the other 237 passengers and crew on the flight, were they also victims? An urgent global

Three years after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami nearly triggered a nuclear cataclysm in central Japan, conditions at the shattered Dai-Ichi power plant in Fukushima don’t inspire confidence. Radiation levels in the surrounding area will keep more than 150,000 residents from returning to their homes for years, if ever. Groundwater flowing under the rubbled reactors, where it is contaminated by radioactivity, is accumulating at the rate of 400 tons a day in more than 1,100 tank

When Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, one of his selling points was the promise of a more modest foreign policy than that of his predecessor. And when Obama won re-election 16 months ago, he renewed that pledge. Drone strikes against al-Qaida would continue, and Navy visits to the South China Sea would increase, but the U.S. footprint around the world was being resolutely downsized.Mitt Romney warned at the time that Obama wasn’t being tough enough on Vladimir Putin, but the president sc

This is one of those days where I realize I don’t understand anything about finance or capital markets. I’m a dinosaur. I don’t get it. People are saying things like “this time is different” again in news articles about initial public offerings by Internet companies, and they mean it. All I can do is watch, dumbfounded.Today a 16-year-old company that loses money called Coupons.com Inc. went public. Had I been paying attention to Coupons.com sooner, I might have guessed after the disastrous post

Russian President Vladimir Putin is gambling in the Crimea that the United States and Europe will prove incapable of any effective response. Certainly, there is no appetite in the United States or Europe for a military engagement. And Putin is not greatly concerned about the largely rhetorical threats of unspecified consequences being directed his way by President Obama and other western leaders.There is something, however, that might make Putin re-examine his reckless course: The Russian econom

Last week, I wrote that the Ukraine crisis did not mean the return of the Cold War. Since then, I’ve received emails from readers confused about what it does mean and why it should matter to Americans.Their confusion is warranted. The Ukraine crisis is far more complex than a simple matter of East vs. West or Obama vs. Putin. So here are some answers to a few of the queries I’ve received.If the Cold War is over ― meaning the end of an existential and global conflict between two superpowers armed

The world’s condemnation of Vladimir Putin’s power grab in Ukraine is missing one important voice: China’s. That’s no surprise.Since assuming office, Chinese President Xi Jinping has put great emphasis on building up his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both men fancy themselves strong, charismatic leaders bent on restoring their nations to greatness. But if China wants to be the world leader it claims to be, it cannot afford to sit on the sidelines this time. Xi spoke with U.

In a bit of life-imitating-art serendipity, “The Walking Dead” is a huge hit in China just as the nation faces its own onslaught ― of zombie companies.Today, China’s 1.3 billion people got their first glimpse of the undead as Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science & Technology shuffled out of the shadows. According to the Wall Street Journal, the solar-equipment maker scared up China’s first domestic corporate bond default. You don’t have to be a fan of cable television channel AMC’s show or this

It might have escaped your notice that a heckler interrupted oral arguments at the Supreme Court the other day. He wasn’t the first protester to sneak inside, and he won’t be the last. The main reason anybody paid attention ― and not many did ― was that his rant was deleted before the court’s official audio recording of the argument was released to the public. A handful of bloggers briefly debated the sleepy issue of whether the justices were engaged in censorship before returning to their regul