Once again we are having an adolescent conversation in Ireland and resolutely fail to learn from the mistakes of others.

IMAGINE Dostoevsky and Flann O’Brien had an adventure and you got to hear about it second-hand from Haruki Murakami. That is what it is like to read Roberto Arlt’s 1929 novel Los Siete Locos — or, as it is presented here, The Seven Madmen — a rollicking and prescient dive through the anxieties of an urban Argentina on the cusp of transformation.

For the rebel fighters who seized control of the strategic town Ukraine of Debaltseve, it was a day of jubilation and bragging of victory.

Joseph Stalin was violent and ruthless from an early age, and his criminality, his talents as an organiser and a manipulator, and his over-weening ambition, facilitated his later rise to power, says Geoffrey Roberts. 

Frantisek Smuda, the Poland coach, stares out from the front cover of the current Polish version of Newsweek, a look of impressive resolution on his face.

Frantisek Smuda, the Poland coach, stares out from the front cover of the current Polish version of Newsweek, a look of impressive resolution on his face.

The Lacuna

By Jean Lombard

FORMER enemies and allies sombrely marked the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II yesterday, underlining the need to remember the bloodiest conflict in the 20th century so as not to repeat it.

Boris Yeltsin marked his 75th birthday today, with more than 200 guests expected to honour Russia's first post-Soviet president at an evening Kremlin gala.