Are the famously fastidious Japanese just imagining flies in their soup cans? No, says Hiroko Mizuhara, secretary-general of the Consumers Union of Japan, “There have been strange objects all along, but consumers settled complaints with makers individually. What’s new about the phenomenon is that they talk to the press, go public and try to share the problems.” That’s too generous, says Koichiro Fujita, a professor at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University whose best-selling books warn that the Japanese obsession with cleanliness is breaking down their immune systems and threatening to create a new generation of biological weaklings....

On Saturday, July 12, 2015, at 9.30 p.m., after an argument with her parents, 18-year-old Tiffany Valiante left the family home and walked out into the dark. Sadly, it was the last time she was seen alive. Her death was ruled a suicide but a closer look at the evidence, as seen in Unsolved Mysteries, raises questions of whether something more sinister was at play. The episode asks whether Valiante took her own life or whether her killers have got away with murder....

Stewart’s Friday afternoon press conference offered him reading a prepared statement. The words Stewart spoke were from his heart but his decision to not answer any questions or deal with the media horde was an error in judgment. Stewart noted the ongoing investigation into the death of Kevin Ward Jr., fair enough. What Stewart needed to attempt to answer was an understanding of how Tony Stewart the man is moving forward with his life....

The long-awaited decision—one of the most important in European Union trade history—will not only force the American software giant to revamp its business strategy, it also promises to make hardline Europe the battleground for future global antitrust battles and could force a new caution among technology market leaders. “I am deeply surprised by this ruling,” says Rony Gerrits, managing partner at Brussels-based law firm Morrison and Foerster who specializes in European antitrust law....

But Nyerere’s personality was irresistible. Absolute power never corrupted him. He always obeyed traffic laws when driving around Dar es Salaam, stopping at traffic signals; earned $8,000 a year in pay during his best year, and forgot to collect a government pension. His chosen honorific was Mwilimu, which means teacher; his great moments were articulating an idealistic post-independence vision for Africa. He won victories that have no price tag–under his direction the country adopted one language, Swahili, and defeated a neighboring tyrant, Idi Amin of Uganda....

But in the car, Lindsay, 11, remembered coming down the stairs on a weekend morning to watch TV by the twinkling lights, and her younger brother, Noah, who started out the trip opposed to a tree, said quietly, ““Couldn’t we just have a little one?” Of all the difficult emotional, theological and familial issues raised by Ricci’s conversion, this one alone remained unsettled. In one small part of Ricci’s soul, it’s Christmas, and she wants her tree....

Then there’s the worst-case scenario: Rabin proves to be nearly as intransigent as the prime minister he defeated last week, Yitzhak Shamir. The Arabs refuse to compromise with him and manage to miss another opportunity for peace. The negotiations bog down again in bitter stalemate. Rabin’s surprisingly strong victory over Shamir ended 15 years of rule by the hard-line Likud bloc and made the optimistic scenario seem the more plausible, though the timetable could easily slip....

In a display of unprecedented unity, the letter—which calls for peace between the world’s Christians and Muslims—is signed by no fewer than 19 current and former grand ayatollahs and grand muftis from countries as diverse as Egypt, Turkey, Russia, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Iraq. It is addressed to Christianity’s most powerful leaders, including the pope, the archbishop of Canterbury and the heads of the Lutheran, Methodist and Baptist churches, and, in 15 pages laced with Qur’anic and Biblical scriptures, argues that the most fundamental tenets of Islam and Christianity are identical: love of one (and the same) God, and love of one’s neighbor....

Button was flying tail-end Charlie in a three-plane formation over Arizona on a sunny April morning two weeks ago, just about to drop that first 500-pound bomb, when he suddenly broke formation and headed northeast, toward Colorado. He failed to answer radio calls or flick a switch that would have made his plane easy to track on radar. In northern Arizona about 20 minutes later, some schoolboys saw the A-10 poke down through the clouds, bank into a half-circle and then disappear again....

This spring, I received an email from a desperate father. His lacrosse-obsessed twelve-year-old son Braeden had recently come out to his family and friends and had been experiencing some very difficult times. Although Braeden was normally very outgoing and joyful, he had become sad and lonely — a target of cyberbullying by some of his peers after coming out. Braeden’s father described his son as going from straight A’s in school to struggling, crying every night, and making comments about not wanting to be here anymore....

Chichvarkin belongs to a select but growing club of megamoguls from emerging-market economies whose triumphs in the business world have won them a newfound celebrity status. Unlike their predecessors, who often kept a low profile for safety, or to avoid suspicion that their gains may have been ill gotten, the new celebrity CEOs aren’t afraid to flaunt what they’ve got, or leverage their own PR for further gain, à la Donald Trump or Britain’s Richard Branson....

Crane’s brief is to target those behind the terror of the war, which ended last year. But some analysts and U.S. officials believe the Special Court could serve a broader role too: as a model for the future prosecution of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and members of his inner circle. Washington has been instrumental in creating and funding the Sierra Leone tribunal–which Crane describes as the “next generation” court. The Special Court, created by an agreement between the Sierra Leone government and the United Nations, is intended to be more streamlined and less bureaucratic than the U....

It is nothing less than a devious scheme to reverse U.S. recognition that Jerusalem is in Israel by pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to abandon Israel’s claim to sovereignty over its own capital city. If Bennett acquiesces to U.S. pressure, he will go down in history as the Israeli leader who gave away Jerusalem. In May 1948, President Harry Truman was the first world leader to recognize the modern State of Israel, only 11 minutes after its creation....

Back home on Cape Cod a week later, Mary and her husband, Evy, watched ABC’s telecast of the German competition. When it ended, Evy was certain where Kirk’s problem lay. “It’s the music that’s killing her,” he said. “There’s no power to it–nothing that makes your hair stand on end or that makes you want to cry.” Evy knew that the months spent on the belly-dancing routine were wasted. They would have to fashion a new program–and, with the Olympic trials looming, do it quickly....

The significance of a 49ers victory would be felt on multiple levels across the NFL. SUPER BOWL 54 PREDICTIONS:Straight up | Against the spread | SN staff picks Welcome to the six Super Bowl-win club That is an exclusive club. Pittsburgh and New England are the only other NFL franchises with six Super Bowl victories. The Patriots and Steelers also each have won multiple Super Bowls since 2000. Why would this matter for San Francisco?...

The result was an evening without jagged edges, an evening in which Dole did himself good without doing Clinton much harm. Dole’s combination of wit and gravitas had not hitherto been apparent in his campaign, which after Hartford may have something it had lacked in recent weeks: a pulse. But how did Dole do at moving the daunting poll numbers? Let’s put it this way. A few years ago, before Atlanta’s Braves became mighty, attendance at one home game was just 6,000 and the Braves’ droll broadcaster, Skip Carey, declared the event ““a partial sellout....

Singh was a pioneer. He took then-unknown Ranbaxy into Nigeria and into minority partnerships in Thailand and Malaysia, to get the company name known and trusted outside India. “He saw where the future was, and invested very aggressively overseas in the ’80s,” says Ranbaxy vice president Bimal Raizada. “That was very unusual for an Indian company in those days. Why would you risk going abroad when you could make money at home in a completely protected market?...

My fellow Republicans face a critical question: Are we affronted by Trump’s undermining of the rule of law, as the face of our party? Our highest office holder has ignored the Constitution, our nation’s foundational and overriding legal document. It appears true that constitutional arguments do not grip the American public. However, it is critical for the future of our nation that we make no partisan exceptions when it comes to the rule of law....