Since the beginning of June, ethnic violence has marred the western state of Arakan in Burma, killing more than 80 people and displacing 90,000. The target of this violence: an ethnic minority that has been brutally persecuted for years.
Month: June 2012
Worldcrunch REUTERS, NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is considering splitting itself into two separate companies, according to a number of news reports. The Wall Street Journal, which is owned by News Corp, said that the TV and entertainment businesses would be separated from publishing in the proposed division. Australian stock […]
Worldcrunch AL JAZEERA, FRANCE 24, HÜRRIYET (Turkey) BRUSSELS – NATO is holding a special meeting in Brussels on Tuesday at Ankara’s request, after Syria shot down a Turkish warplane last week, an incident which Turkey has branded an “act of aggression.” Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke for the first time about the incident […]
CLARIN (Argentina), LA NACION (Argentina) ABC COLOR (Paraguay) ASUNCION – Paraguay’s neighbors have reacted harshly to what they see as the undemocratic removal of Fernando Lugo from power last Friday. Argentina was the first country to recall its ambassador, and was quickly followed by Venezuela and Ecuador, Clarin reported. Argentine president Cristina Kirchner has called […]
In the Lebanese city of Tripoli, the Sunni Bab al-Tebbaneh neighborhood and the Alawite Djebel Mohsen neighborhood are at war. On one side supporters of the Syrian revolution, on the other side supporters of the Syrian regime.
WorldcrunchLA PRESSE (Canada) OTTAWA – The Canadian Department Of National Defense spent $50,000 (including tax) on little orange balls. Is this some sort of new stealth weapon developed by the Canadian Army? Guess again. According to documents obtained by La Presse, the Department Of Defense has bought 53,000 anti-stress balls in the past five years. […]
One in three companies in Germany was founded by a non-German. Discriminated against in the job market, immigrants often find that creating their own company is the only way to make it.
Worldcrunch RADIO NDEKE LUKA (Central African Republic), NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR (France) BANGUI – Unidentified rebels attacked and plundered a uranium plant operated by French energy giant Areva in Bakouma in the Central African Republic reports the Nouvel Observateur. According to the Radio Ndeke Luka, Central African Armed Forces (FACA) were unable to contain the assailants, who […]
AP, ICN, EL MUNDO LONDON – In the latest hit for a euro-zone economy, Fitch ratings agency downgraded Cyprus’ sovereign credit grade to junk status, lowering the country’s rating by one notch to BB+ from BBB-, AP reports. “Fitch acknowledges that its estimates of the losses and capital needs of Cypriot banks are subject to […]
A French squash-loving hydrodynamics scientist has finally answered a time-old question: why does hitting the ball near the corners make its trajectory utterly unpredictable?
Worldcrunch LE MONDE (France), E-DIASPORA.FR PARIS – A group of researchers has created the first comprehensive world map of immigrant diasporas, Le Monde reports. Called the “e-Diaspora Atlas’ and published by the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris, the website classifies and analyzes the online presence of 28 diasporas: “A migrant site is a […]
CNN TÜRK, HÜRRIYET, (Turkey) LA STAMPA (Italy), WSJ (United States) A Syrian general, two colonels, two majors, one lieutenant and 33 soldiers have defected from President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and arrived in Turkey, Hürriyet, the Istanbul-based daily, reports. The officers and soldiers were part of a group of some 224 people who crossed the border […]
Chinese multinationals are growing faster than their competitors anywhere else in the world, but they still have a long road ahead until they can become truly global.
He was the charismatically-challenged alternative candidate for the Muslim Brotherhood party. But destiny has awarded the US-trained Islamist Morsi the presidency of Egypt at a crucial moment in the nation’s history.
Worldcrunch CLARIN (Argentina) TARTAGAL – The ambulance was traveling fast, its lights on and sirens blaring — an emergency, for sure, in this northern Argentine city. But Salta provincial police, here near the Bolivian border, knew better. They stopped the suspiciously speedy ambulance and discovered that the apparent emergency was actually an express delivery of […]
You probably know him…or her. Charming, manipulative, a smooth talker and guilt-tripper who ends up making you do what he (or she) wants. So-called “narcissistic perverts” are all around us, explains a growing body of psychological res
Should researchers and scientists leave a country when there is a war? Quite the opposite, say the Swiss researchers at CSRS.
In this end-of-year exams and papers season, a new French study analyzes the evolution of cheating techniques in the past five years, in particular the widespread digital tool we all have come to know as “copy-paste.”
Categories
Can Solar Panels Cause Plane Crashes?
TAGES ANZEIGER (Switzerland) ZURICH – Clear, sunny skies typically make for safe airplane travel. But according to the Swiss Tages Anzeiger newspaper, airport officials in Zurich are worried that the reflected sunlight from solar panels planned for a nearby church steeple could blind pilots while they are landing. This is not the first time this […]
More and more people are criss-crossing Russia to take part in protest actions, spawning a new breed of “political tourists” just in time for the summer travel season.
Turkish President Gul breaks government silence after downing of air force jet by Syria.
Once a gateway for illegal immigrants hoping to hop a ferry to Europe, the Greek port of Patras is now a dead end, where refugees must now also face growing hostility from the popular Neo-Nazi political party Golden Dawn.
Worldcrunch O GLOBO (Brazil), EL PAÍS (Uruguay) MONTEVIDEO – Uruguayan president José “Pepe” Mujica wants to make his country the world’s first to grow and sell pot. With marijuana consumption already legal in Uruguay, Mujica says that drug-related crime continues to plague the country, and that handing over production and distribution to the government can […]
Editorial: “When France sets a 75% top income tax rate, we will roll out the red carpet, and we will welcome more French businesses,” recently announced British Prime Minister David Cameron. Et voila…a French reply.
Have negotiations with Iran hit a dead end? President Obama has made it clear the discussions could not go on indefinitely, but it is the Supreme Leader in Iran who may hold the next card.
Worldcrunch LES ECHOS (France), LE TEMPS (Switzerland), BLOOMBERG PARIS – The Moody’s ratings agency’s downgrading of 15 top Western banks reverberated in world financial capitals Friday, though markets held relatively steady in both Asia and Europe. The announcement, made late on Thursday, sparked reactions Friday morning from top bank managers and analysts in Europe. One […]
Worldcrunch CNN, ABP NEWS TV (India) KABUL – A standoff between Afghan and NATO forces and Taliban militants who had attacked a hotel near Kabul and taken civilian hostages ended Friday morning with at least 26 people dead, CNN reports. According to the Kabul police chief, the Taliban militants killed 15 civilians as well as […]
Worldcrunch HEADLINES The German and Greek press have been “at war” for nearly a week. Following Greece’s qualifying win against Russia on Saturday, Athens-based Sports Day“s front page was a message to Germany. “Angela, get ready! Did you see how your debtors qualified?”….”Give us Merkel,” headlined Greek soccer outlet Goal News. And the very confident […]
To teach business ethics to students, several MBA programs are inviting convicted white-collar criminals to talk about how they defrauded their companies.
Worldcrunch IL MESSAGERO, LA REPUBBLICA (Italy) MILAN – Under mounting pressure from the Chinese government, Milan’s city council cancelled a vote planned this week that would have awarded honorary citizenship to the Dalai Lama, the Italian daily Il Messagero reported. The Tibetan spiritual leader, who has gathered similar honors over the years from Rome, Venice […]
While giving the rest of Europe lessons on austerity, Germany has quietly been accumulating debt, a situation that will worsen with the planned social reforms and tax cuts.
Analysis: Shaming suspects, parading them in the streets – in China, police believe public humiliation is the best method to deter criminals, a practice dating from ancient times.
Worldcrunch LE FIGARO (France), AFP BEIJING – Chinese artist and political dissident Ai Weiwei said Thursday that he’d been barred from attending a hearing on a tax evasion case that the Chinese government has ordered against a firm he founded. Chinese police authorities also warned Weiwei that he was not authorized to leave the country, […]
LE MONDE (France) PARIS – Cooking food in the dishwasher…now why should anyone do such a thing? Because the French say so, and when it comes to cuisine, it’s best just to do what they say. “Wrap your fish or meat in a waterproof bag and then set your dishwasher on 60°C or more,” explains […]
Worldcrunch EL PAÍS, LAINFORMATION.COM (Spain) BILBAO – By last October when the Basque terrorist organization ETA announced an end to its decades-long campaign of violence, five different convicted ETA terrorists had already met with five people whose lives were affected by the groups attacks: the injured, orphaned and widowed. The conversations, which were all one-on-one […]
In the next six months, French troops will be leaving Kapisa province, handing it back to Afghan control. What does the future hold for this hotbed of insurgency?
Worldcrunch THE NATION, THE DAILY TIMES (Pakistan), BBC NEWS (United Kingdom) ISLAMABAD – Newly nominated Pakistani Prime Minister Makhdoom Shahbuddin came under judicial scrutiny on Thursday, only a few days after the country’s Supreme Court disqualified his predecessor, Yousaf Raza Gilani, for contempt of court. Shahbuddin was nominated Prime Minister of Pakistan by President Asif […]
Worldcrunch THE AUSTRALIAN, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia) A boat carrying about 200 asylum-seekers bound for Australia has capsized off the Indonesian coast. The Sydney Morning Herald reports an Australian Customs surveillance aircraft spotted a boat in distress about 120 nautical miles north of Christmas Island. According to the The Australian daily newspaper, Australian search […]
Worldcrunch AL JAZEERA (Qatar), JERUSALEM POST (Israel) GAZA – The military wing of Hamas announced that it had agreed to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Israel, after three days of bloodshed in and around Gaza, reports Al Jazeera. “In response to the Egyptian efforts to try and stop the aggression on our people, we at Al-Qassam […]
Worldcrunch NOVAYA GAZETA (Russia) MOSCOW – Russian aviation has been making an impact in all the wrong ways. Last May, a new airplane on a demonstration flight in Indonesian crashed into a mountain, killing all 50 people on board. And now Novaya Gazeta has revealed that Russian airlines are using scheduling tricks to cut the […]