LE NOUVELLISTE (Haiti), CNN, THE MIAMI HERALD (US) Worldcrunch Hurricane Sandy has torn across the Caribbean, leaving 21 people dead in its wake, and is expected to make landfall in New England early next week. Forecasters warned that the late-season storm could wreak havoc along America’s east coast, making landfall sometime before Halloween, provoking many […]
Month: October 2012
AL JAZEERA (Qatar), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch MAYMANA – A suicide bomb attack killed at least 41 people outside a mosque in northern Afghanistan. The worshippers had gathered for prayers to mark Eid al-Adha, reports BBC News. This important Muslim holiday, also called the Feast of Sacrifice, celebrates the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage […]
XINHUA (China), WALL STREET JOURNAL (US) Worldcrunch BEIJING – Disgraced politician Bo Xilai has been formally expelled from China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), and stripped of his legal immunity according to Chinese state media. Xinhua news agency reported that the NPC had removed Bo from his post last month, but only made […]
-Essay- PARIS – If we ask the French what they don’t understand about the U.S. elections, we are spoiled for choices. Having seen French commentary on the Obama-Romney duel, the most pointed area of incomprehension is “what it means to be an American Republican.” We just can’t seem to wrap our French brains around this […]
UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER, BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch MANCHESTER – A piece of music composed by Ludwig van Beethoven nearly 200 years ago has been unearthed by a University of Manchester scholar. Professor Barry Cooper, a leading Beethoven expert, spotted the work which the German composer wrote around 1820 alongside some original sketches of the famous […]
LONDRINA – In the southern state of Paraná, is a small town of some 12,000 people, with no schools, day care or health centers — nor any real shops. Initiated in 2009 by former Brazilian president Lula and completed last year, the Vista Bela public housing project has 2,712 residences (1,272 houses of 35 square […]
AFP, ASIANEWS, IRRAWADDY (Burma), REUTERS, AL JAZEERA (Qatar), Worldcrunch A crisis is building in western Burma where one of the world’s largest groups of stateless people, the Muslim Rohingya, are being burned out of their villages by Buddhist Burmese nationalists. Since Sunday, several people have been killed and hundreds of homes have been burned. Thousands […]
A new study finds plastic debris on the floor of the once pristine Arctic Ocean, the latest sign of environmental damage of global waste.
JERUSALEM POST (Israel), NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR, AFP (France), REUTERS (U.S.), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), AHRAM ONLINE (Egypt), LIBERTÉ ALGÉRIE (Algeria) Worldcrunch JERUSALEM – An informal ceasefire brokered by new Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was holding in most places Thursday between the Palestinian group Hamas and the Israeli army, the Jerusalem Post reported. The truce comes after three […]
ONS, BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON – Britain’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported Thursday that the UK economy has emerged from recession, helped by the Olympic Games. In the three months from July to September, the country’s economy returned to growth at its fastest pace in five years, with its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) […]
AP, CBS (USA) Worldcrunch CAIRO – Egyptian official sources say a militant suspected of involvement in the deadly U.S. consulate attack in Benghazi was killed in clashes in Cairo. An Egyptian interior ministry source told CBS News on Thursday that the suspect in Egypt, known only by his first name, Hazem, was killed after neighbors […]
CAIRO – As Egypt struggles to emerge from a period of deep financial uncertainty; government officials are looking towards the country’s vital shipping artery — the Suez Canal — as a major source of revenue and jobs. Officials from several government ministries have announced massive public-private partnerships aimed at developing the region. The hope, they […]
RAMALLAH – The smiling receptionist indicates that I should take a seat, so I settle into one of the lobby’s leather chairs. On a glass table, there’s the latest issue of an American business magazine and a day-old local paper. Flowery wall art contrasts with the space’s cool modernism. But this high tech company is […]
LE PARISIEN, LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR, LE FIGARO (France) PARIS – Parisians strolling along the chic Place de l’Alma and the Bastille are running straight into a huge new billboard (3 by 6-meter, or almost 10 by 20-feet) featuring saucy photos of four presidents of France: François Hollande, the current head of state, and predecessors Nicolas […]
THE WARSAW VOICE (Poland), JTA (USA) Worldcrunch WARSAW – Squeeze inside, what is being dubbed the “narrowest house in the world” has officialy been opened in Poland’s capital, reports the Warsaw Voice. The two-story aluminum and plastic buiilding has a floor area of 14 square meters (150.70 sq feet) and measures 92 centimeters (3.02 ft) […]
-Essay- Chinese-Americans account for 1.5-2% of the population in the United States, while Asian-Americans taken altogether account for 6%. In comparison, Jews account for only about 2%, but the positions that the two ethnic groups occupy in the eyes of American politicians are not comparable. Rudolph Giuliani, the New York mayor, once rushed to the […]
FEZ – Everyone should go to the Moroccan city of Fez at least once, if only to get lost in the medina, around the mosque of al-Karaouine, the oldest university in the world. You could choose to spend the hot hours of the day in the Bou Inania Madrasa, the religious school built in the […]
NEW YORK TIMES (US), THE TELEGRAPH (UK), REUTERS Worldcrunch An unfolding sex abuse scandal at the BBC risks spilling over to another premier global news source across the Atlantic. The New York Times’ public editor, Margaret Sullivan, has questioned whether former BBC chief, Mark Thompson, who has been tapped to be the new Times CEO […]
STERN, SPIEGEL ONLINE (Germany), DIARIO CÓRDOBA (Spain), LA STAMPA (Italy), IZVESTIA/RIA NOVOSTI (Russia), CENTRAL NEWS (Japan), PEOPLE.COM (China), EPOCH TIMES (Chinese-language, U.S.) Worldcrunch From Chinese labs to German geology groups, the aftershocks are being felt across the global scientific community. Earlier this week, six seismologists and an official in the Italian city of L’Aquila were […]
HAARETZ (Israel), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch GAZA CITY – Airstrikes carried out by the Israeli Defense Forces killed four militants Tuesday night in Gaza, reports BBC News. Israel military forces said three of the militants were hit overnight as they prepared to fire rockets. A fourth militant, reported to be a gunman from the Ezzedine […]
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG (Germany) Worldcrunch BERLIN – Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazis murdered 500,000 Sinti and Roma Gypsies. Now, nearly 70 years after World War II, a memorial is being inaugurated today in Berlin to honor those murdered. German President Joachim Gauck, Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Berlin’s Mayor Klaus Wowereit are expected to attend the […]
BENI – In the early morning hours, John Kasongo Muhowa, a tractor driver from North Kivu agricultural cooperative, is clearing the undergrowth, plowing up weeds around a two-hectare (5-acre) field where peanuts and corn will be planted. Twenty or so young men from the nearest town are waiting in line to use the tractor, one […]
BERLIN – The euro zone has granted Athens two more years to rein in its debt, Süddeutsche Zeitung has learned. Euro zone leaders have agreed to give Greece until 2016 instead of 2014 to push deficits down under to 3% of GDP. Deadlines for the implementation of employment and energy reforms and the selling of […]
CHIRANG – “Around 50 of them came and opened fire on our village.” Rebayal Ali still seems stunned, his eyes glazed over. His vest clings to his skinny torso because of the humidity, as the Muslim farmer tells Le Monde of his night of terror. It was July 23 in his village in Assam, a […]
LE MONDE (France), L’ÉQUIPE (France), CYCLING WEEKLY (UK) Worldcrunch PARIS – Le Tour d’Après. Literally “The Tour, After.” This is the name Christian Prudhomme, the French race’s organizer, has decided to give to the 2013 edition of the Tour de France, which he will be presenting this week at Paris’ Palais des Congrès. “After,” as […]
-Editorial- BEIJING – In response to a letter sent by a women’s rights NGO regarding quota on enrollment of women in certain colleges and universities, China’s Education Ministry said that this restriction was based on “considerations of national interest.” The officials probably thought they would subdue any unruly voices with such a pompous answer. However, […]
THE WEST CHINA URBAN DAILY (China), CHINA TIMES (Taiwan) Worldcrunch YANSHI – Xie Guizhi came onto the stage to a burst of applause at a community concert in Yanshi City. The 58-year-old sat at the piano and played a well-known folk song called The Waves of Hong Lake, a so-called red song of China’s Cultural […]
LISBON – Manuela, an animal rights activist, is standing outside the entrance to the Entrecampos train station in Lisbon, calling out to the occasional passersby, who pretend they don’t see her. The majority of the shops in the station’s arcade are empty, and even though the building is new, there is a feeling of neglect. […]
RIA NOVOSTI (Russia) KOMMERSANT (Russia) Worldcrunch MOSCOW – Smokers, so much for the wild East. The public smoking bans already in place in Western Europe look set to expand to Russia by 2015, RIA Novosti reports. The Russian Duma will be voting on new smoking legislation that includes restrictions on advertising and sales of cigarettes, […]
A real-life experiment is playing out in front of computer screens all over the world, as millions of people regularly consume porn. Scientists, who have begun to study the potential consequences, are divided. One person to have addressed the issue very openly is advertising maven Cindy Gallop. In 2009, during a TED conference in Monterrey, […]
LIBERTY TIMES, UNITED DAILY NEWS (Taiwan) Worldcrunch Arson is suspected in an overnight hospital fire in Taiwan that has killed 12 people, the Liberty Times reports. Police say a suspect has been arrested. The fire at North Gate Hospital in Tainan, one of Taiwan’s largest cities, began around 3:30 a.m.. Two other patients are still […]
RADIKAL, KEHABER (Turkey), FINANCIAL TIMES (UK) Worldcrunch ISTANBUL – A Turkish education union has pressed charges over the distribution of anti-Semitic books to schools in Istanbul’s Maltepe district, the daily Radikal reported. “The books include phrases that are unscientific, anti-Semitic, anti-Armenian and humiliate Christians, non-religious people and people with a left-wing philosophy,” read a statement […]
TBILISSI – A new French prime minister will soon be installed. But not in France – in Georgia, in the former Soviet Union. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has nominated Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire leader of the opposition, as prime minister. For those who didn’t know: Ivanishvili had been French by citizenship, not Georgian. Luckily for […]
Worldcrunch PARIS – The third and final presidential debate is slated to cover the major foreign-policy issues of our times: the rise of China, Iran’s nuclear program, Harry’s crown jewels. For the two candidates, suddenly having to shift gears to global concerns in the midst of a domestic, pocketbook-centric campaign means lots of extra homework. […]
GENEVA – The female mice are chasing the males around the cage; they raise their behinds in order to sniff their genitals, some even biting the males’ private parts. It is a strange spectacle, monitored by researchers from the University of Geneva (Unige). The phenomenon is described in an article in the latest issue of […]
MOSCOW – With winter coming, and the end of this year’s bicycling season, it is worth looking at Russian cities’ relationship with two-wheel transportation. First of all, the number of people choosing to get around by bike has actually become noticeable. In response, Moscow’s city government has started to think seriously for the first time […]
THE TELEGRAPH, THE BBC (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON – That mindless — and seemingless harmful — act of leafing through waiting-room magazines can pose real health risks, according to National Health Service (NHS) officials in the UK. Officials have warned dentists around the country that old magazines may be responsible for spreading bacteria and should be […]
PETRA (Jordan), INDEPENDENT, GUARDIAN (UK), AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE (France) Worldcrunch AMMAN – Jordanian police say they have arrested 11 suspected terrorists who had crossed the border from Syria and were planning a major attack against foreigners in Jordan’s capital. The U.S. embassy in Jordan was among the targets, an embassy spokesman confirmed to the Independent. […]
UCI (Switzerland), LE FIGARO (France) Worldcrunch GENEVA – The International Cycling Union (UCI) said it will recognize the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)”s sanctions against Lance Armstrong, thus stripping the former champion of his seven Tour de France titles and banning him from cycling for life. International Cycling Union president Pat McQuaid revealed Monday that […]