What Wedding? — TIME’s Ishaan Tharoor writes the definitive non-wedding story: ‘Five Reasons to Hate the Royal Wedding.’ Love it anyway? Click here.
New Waves— Over the last 32 years, China’s remarkable growth has shown that Western-style modernism is not the only route to modernization, writes Eric Li for the Christian Science Monitor.
Prisoners of the State — There are likely hundreds of Lebanese in Syrian prisons. The few who have emerged give us a sense of what the regime’s new prisoners can expect. And, reports Rania Abouzeid from Beirut, it’s grim picture.
‘Silver or Lead’ — In the New Yorker, William Finnegan investigates Mexican drug violence — or “corpse messaging,” as its called. The drug cartels give local officials a stark, impossible choice: Take a bribe or take a bullet.
Bombs are Back — Will yesterday’s terror attack at a tourist cafe in Marrakesh hurt efforts at reform within Morrocco? ask TIME’s Lisa Abend and Bruce Crumley.
Copy Cats — Forbes’ Gady Epstein profiles Wang Xing, founder of a “Chinese Groupon.” His favorite slogan? “If at first you don’t succeed, clone, clone again.”
Many Hands — “Who pickled Damien Hirst’s shark and painted Ai Weiwei’s seeds?” The Independent reminds us about the artisans whose labor fuels the global market for art.
In Pictures — Light Box features The Road to Tepeyac, Alinka Echeverria photographs of Mexican pilgrims on their way to the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City to pay homage to the Virgin of Guadalupe.
