ZIUA VECHE (Romania) JURNAL DE CHISINAU (Moldavia) Worldcrunch The Communist party of the former Soviet Republic of Moldova, which had remained in power until 2009, is going to have to kiss goodbye to their hammer and sickle. The Moldovan Parliament voted on Thursday to forbid the use of Communist symbols by political groups and parties, […]
Month: July 2012
Essay: After a senseless double murder at a French night club, a writer reflects on Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels — and Mikhail Kalashnikov, the Russian inventor of the AK-47, once hailed as the arm to carry the downtrodden along the road to justice.
LE TEMPS (Switzerland) Worldcrunch BERN – A study by Swiss foreign policy think-tank Foraus says that aid development policies in poor countries have no direct effect on reducing immigration flows, Le Temps reports. The study found that most migrants come from countries that are already emerging or developed, but where there aren’t enough jobs, like […]
Chinese athletes won’t be able to explore any of London’s many global cuisines, or even eat the special food prepared at the Olympic Village. Just internal, government-approved grub. Why? Fears that banned substances might slip into thei
MAIL & GUARDIAN (SOUTH AFRICA), AFP (FRANCE) Worldcrunch JOHANNESBURG – As many as 30 people were feared dead when a train collided with a farm truck in South Africa’s northeastern province of Mpumalanga. Andre Visser, a spokesperson for South African emergency services, told the Johannesburg daily Mail & Guardian that a coal train had collided […]
REUTERS, THE GUARDIAN Worldcrunch Syrian activists say pro-government forces killed between 150 and 200 people in the Hama region on Thursday as the United Nations Security Council met to try and negotiate a resolution on Syria, Reuters reports. The allegations have yet to be independently confirmed. Activists published a video of dead bodies, but there […]
CAIXIN (China), EPOCH TIMES (USA) Worldcrunch BEIJING – Internet freedom in China has taken another blow this week. But by the very nature of the medium, every blow to digital access necessarily prompts a blowback. Caixin media reports that the latest attempt to clamp down was the joint announcement of an official “Notice as to […]
Five years after the discovery of a major offshore oilfield, people in Ghana are still banking on better times ahead. But foreign companies — notably those from China — are also poised to cash in. A visit to the rapidly expanding city of Sekondi-Takorad
Essay: With a recent ban on religious circumcisions, Germany finds itself caught up in a debate on parental freedom v. protecting children. Die Welt’s Alan Posener quips that Jews and Muslim show rare “commonality when it comes to hurtin
Swiss researchers have discovered that the more grey matter in your brain, the more generous you were likely to be, as individuals use the mental power to “overcome the natural selfishness of man.”
EL COLOMBIANO, EL LIBERAL (Colombia), EMOL (Chile) Worldcrunch Something akin to the suburban cry of “Not In My Back Yard!” (NIMBY) can be heard this week in the Colombian jungle. Indigenous leaders in the southwestern town of Toribio have demanded that both the Colombian security forces and the FARC rebels take their longstanding fight elsewhere, […]
FRANCE INFO, LE DAUPHINE LIBERE (France) Worldcrunch CHAMONIX – At least nine people were killed, at four are still missing after an avalanche at Mont Maudit (“Cursed Mount”), the third highest peak in the Mont Blanc mountain range. Eleven climbers — including a mountain guide — have so far been rescued, but French and Italian […]
With a recent crackdown on child trafficking in China, a journalist recalls the shock of an earlier visit to the same remote Sichuan Province area where wretchedly poor women willingly sold their newborns — and didn’t want them back.
CNN, AL JAZEERA, THE GUARDIAN Worldcrunch SYRIA – Following the defection of Syria’s ambassador to Iraq, both diplomatic and military pressure is growing on President Bashar al-Assad as violence continues, including around the capital Damascus. Reports on Thursday suggest that the defection of Syria’s ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Fares, who called for other members of […]
LE MONDE (France), WASHINGTON POST (US), BERLINGSKE (Denmark) MOSCOW TIMES (Russia) Worldcrunch PARIS – The lastest piece of good news for gay rights activists came from the Episcopal Church, which has become the largest U.S. denomination to bless same-sex unions. During the church’s general convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, an overwhelming majority voted in favor Tuesday […]
Essay: The election of the Islamist President Mohamed Morsi has prompted a round of stories about harassment and even murder at the hands of Islamists. Copts and women are particularly worried. But the history is neither new nor as simple as it might see
CANALE 5, LA STAMPA, WASHINGTON POST, TV5 MONDE, AP Worldcrunch The hardest part is having to say your sorry. No, actually, the hardest part is taking the blame. Sometimes, depending on the subtleties of the language in question, these are two very different things. We have been reminded of that again with the television interview […]
An up-close look at the youngest members of the beauty system — and mentality — that has produced more Miss Universe winners than anyone but the US.
NHK, ASAHI SHIMBUN (Japan) Worldcrunch TOKYO – Japan is in an unofficial, though undeniable, national state of mourning after the death of a newborn giant panda cub on Wednesday. National television broadcaster NHK interrupted scheduled programming to announce the baby panda had been found dead by officials at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo. The cub was placed […]
BLOOMBERG, EL PAIS, EL MUNDO (Spain) Worldcrunch MADRID – Reversing an earlier no-new-taxes pledge, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has announced tax increases and spending cuts totaling 65 billion euros ($80bn) over the next two-and-a-half years to try stave off the accumulating debt crisis, Bloomberg reports. Rajoy’s fourth austerity package in seven months includes a […]
Is this the next David & Goliath battle against a pharmaceutical giant? A German man born with severe birth defects blames it on Duogynon, a drug that can still be bought in pharmacies. Thousands of other potential victims will be watching the Ber
In Goma, in eastern DRC, families looking to cash in on the biggest dowry are pushing young people away from mariage. Some young people chose to live as unmarried partners, others break up and most young women stay at home with their parents…
LE MONDE (France), TORONTO STAR, RABBLE (Canada) Worldcrunch According to Canadian expert in copyright, Michael Geist, the European Commission is planning to implement the recently rejected provisions of ACTA with a clever little workaround: by applying the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). The Canadian publication Rabble reports that Canada and the European Union […]
Vladimir Putin has made a priority out of expanding and updating the military capacity of the Russian military, but there is still much heavy lifting required to move beyond the mechanical and human rust of the Soviet era.
TWITTER, GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON – Former Barclays boss, Bob Diamond, is the financial industry’s new bad guy extraordinaire as public anger mounts against chief banking executives in the Libor scandal. The news Tuesday that he had voluntarily given up his bonus of £20 million ($31 million) was supposed to quiet the outcry, as Diamond […]
LA REPUBBLICA, CORIERRE DELLA SERA (Italy) Worldcrunch LA SPEZIA – Sounds like a classic recipe for summer fun: little kids, bubbles, ice cream cones….Chinese bacteria? A huge stock of allegedly toxic made-in-China bubble soap toys has been seized by Italian Police, Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica report. Italian children, to whom the products were […]
An old man, a pregnant woman, a crowded bus. Why doesn’t anyone give up their seats anymore? There are as many theories as there are people, polite and otherwise.
REUTERS, EL PAIS (Spain) Worldcrunch Euro zone ministers struggled to reassure financial markets on Tuesday that an aid package for Spain they outlined overnight will help stabilize the currency bloc, Reuters reports. The Spanish daily El Pais called the decisions taken overnight by the euro zone partners in Brussels “a soft intervention in the economy,” […]
BBC NEWS (UK), JEUNE AFRIQUE (France) Worldcrunch THE HAGUE – Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga was sentenced to 14 years in jail on Tuesday by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for recruting and using child soldiers, some younger than 15, from 2002 to 2003. The sentence is the first to be handed out […]
With results coming this week in Libya’s first post-Gaddafi election, the Muslim Brotherhood is not expected to fare so well. After Islamists won in Tunisia and Egypt, several key factors are thought to be tipping the Libyan electorate in favor o
LA RAZON, LA RIOJA, LOS TIEMPOS (Bolivia) Worldcrunch COCHABAMBA – Bolivian President Evo Morales doesn’t forget his roots. It’s just that his happen to be in the agricultural production of coca, which also is the key ingredient in the production of cocaine. Morales has been elected for a new term as leader of the coca […]
Categories
What’s Wrong With Chinese Education
China’s education system produces students highly adept at reciting back what their teachers tell them, and teachers who focus only on regurgitating what the state textbooks contain. What’s lost is the curiosity and creativity that motor
From the Ming Dynasty to Hong Kong gangsters, shark fin was once the symbolic ingredient of Chinese people of wealth and status. But times and tastes are bound to change.
Once South Americans looking for residency in the US or Europe would concoct bogus unions with friends. Now in Brazil, the game has flipped.
In an interview with Le Monde, Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League special envoy to Syria, concedes that his mission has so far been a failure. He speaks frankly about Russia and China, but also suggests more focus on Iran and others in coming clean on their i
ADEVARUL, ZIARE.COM, BUCHAREST HERALD (Romania) Worldcrunch BUCHAREST – An escalating political crisis in Romania pitting the prime minister against the president is spreading abroad, with protests in foreign capitals and concern from European officials about the state of democracy in one of the EU’s newest members. Center-left Prime Minister Victor Ponta and his Social Liberal […]
BBC NEWS (UK), REUTERS Worldcrunch CAIRO – Egyptian parliamentary speaker Saad al-Katatni told the state news agency on Monday that Parliament would meet on Tuesday even though Army generals ordered it dissolved last month and took over legislative power, according to Reuters. The move could threaten Egypt’s political stability and herald an open confrontation between […]
AFP, RTL, LE FIGARO (France) Worldcrunch PARIS – Outrage spread Monday after French TV station TF1 aired for the first time extracts of audio tapes between Toulouse gunman Mohamed Merah and the police during the 32-hour siege on his apartment. In the recordings, Mohamed Merah can be heard saying to the police negotiators: “Know that […]
Colombia is a paradox, with rising economic growth concentrated in urban areas and apparent progress in fighting both leftist guerillas and drug cartels. But there’s a dirty little secret that won’t go away: more internally displaced peo
SING TAO (Hong Kong), LIANHE ZAOBAO (Singapore) Worldcrunch HONG KONG – The Chinese political system is one of “progress, selflessness and solidarity.” And the “Western” alternative of multiple political parties? Well, that’s sure to bring “malignant party struggle, and it’s the people who pay…” Such keen analysis is standard fare from the corridors of China’s […]