Worldcrunch
MOSCOW – It’s hard to shake the feeling that the idea of reinstating mandatory school uniforms has been discussed on and off ever since school uniforms were abandoned two decades ago. To recall the discussion last spring: The Duma came to the conclusion that uniforms could ease tensions between social classes at school, and even […]
LE MONDE (France), VICE, USENIX SECURITY (USA) Worldcrunch Remember that scene in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi when Darth Vader learns about Luke’s sister just by reading his thoughts? “Your thoughts betray you,” says Darth Vader Well the same might just happen to you soon – and if you don’t happen to […]
TURIN – It may not be wartime, but the economic crisis is changing basic facts of life. And in some cases, changing them backward in time. One notable change is that Italian women are rediscovering jobs as domestic helpers (housecleaners and care givers), that had been taken over in recent years by a virtual labor […]
XINHUA (China), NEW YORK TIMES, AP (USA), RADIO AUSTRALIA, (Australia) Worldcrunch BEIJING – China is mobilizing its security apparatus and tightening its grip over the public space ahead of the 18th Communist Party Congress, which begins on Nov. 8. A volunteer security force of 1.4 million people has been assembled for the congress. Workers and […]
China’s Ministry of Health recently drafted a new organ transplant directive called “Management for the Acquisition and Allocation of Organs.” The directive should be implemented soon in the hope of setting up a fairer and more transparent organ distribution system as well as a national database. A national organ database is an institution specifically set […]
KOMMERSANT, 36ON.RU, MOSCOW TIMES (Russia)

 Worldcrunch VORONEZH – Russian Billionaire (and owner of the Brooklyn Nets) Mikhail Prokhorov has announced that he will open a “School for Citizen Leaders,” in this city of nearly one million, some 500 kilometers due south of Moscow, 36on.ru reports. The stated goal of the school will be to find […]
MUNICH – When is a man a man? The business world has an answer to that: when he works full-time and is focused on his career advancement. To explore this a little further, we met up at a café in downtown Munich with Norbert Meier (not his real name) who by that definition is only […]
THE CARIBBEAN JOURNAL, CNN, NBC, AP (USA), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch Haiti is pleading for international help in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, as more than a million Haitians risk being victims of food shortages. The Caribbean Journal reports that Johan Peleman, the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ […]
POLITICO, WASHINGTON POST, BUSINESS WEEK, NEW YORK TIMES (U.S.) Worldcrunch Sure, it may come down to a few undecided voters in some sleepy town in Ohio, but U.S. presidential elections are also by now very much global events. So as the world prepares to follow the final countdown to Tuesday’s showdown between President Barack Obama […]
If we had been sitting on a stage instead of his home, I’d have had to block my credit card – because mentalist Christoph Kuch just told me what my PIN number is – and that it’s a MasterCard. All he had asked me to do was to think about the number as I answered […]
FOLHA DE S.PAULO (Brazil) Worldcrunch SAO PAULO – One policeman is killed every 32 hours in Brazil, according to a new report by the State Public Security Department shows. Official statistics show that at least 229 police officers – from both civil and military police – were killed in Brazil this year, reports Brazilian daily […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch BERLIN – A growing number of Germans are now moving to retirement homes in Eastern Europe, Spain or Thailand where aged care costs substantially less thanks in large part to lower staff salaries. Die Welt has obtained figures not made public by Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) showing that more and […]
PARIS – In the United States, “China bashing” is in full swing. Denigrating China has been a mainstay of the American presidential campaign, in a time of economic one-upmanship between Washington and Beijing. During the final televised debate, devoted to foreign policy, Republican candidate Mitt Romney once again accused Beijing of manipulating its currency and […]
XINHUA, CHINA NEWS, CAIXIN BLOG, UDN NEWS (China) Worldcrunch BEIJING – The Chinese government likes to boast of its superiority to the West, thanks to its socialist economy “with Chinese characteristics.” For years, it was virtually impossible to publicly say something out of step with this idealized view of the nation. But now, in what […]
The first well-known person who dared buy an island was the shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, with his famous Skorpios, in the emerald waters of the Ionian Sea off the Greek coast. Then there was Marlon Brando, who made a new life on Te’tiarao after being captivated by French Polynesia. Until recently, only the bulging bank […]
MOSCOW – Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, is calling on all members of the clergy to carefully watch what they say and how they live their lives, especially in light of the way modern information travels fast. Without naming names, he referred to some recent cases where the actions of clergy members […]
DETROIT – An old woman stands in front of a one-armed bandit with a half-lit cigarette between her lips. She takes tokens out of a bucket of popcorn and slides them endlessly into the same slot. You can tell she has been doing this for years. Further in, at the blackjack table, two young men […]
THE HANKYOREH, KCNA (North Korea), CNN (USA) Worldcrunch SEOUL – Rumors are spreading fast that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s wife, Ri Sol Ju, is pregnant. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published a picture of her wearing a long coat that could be hiding an imperial baby bump. Ri Sol Ju […]
AL JAZEERA (Qatar), AL ARABIYA (United Arab Emirates), REUTERS Worldcrunch RIYADH – At least 10 people were killed when a truck carrying flammable liquids crashed in Riyadh on Thursday, triggering a large explosion, reports Al Jazeera The blast occurred after the fuel tanker crashed into a concrete flyover in the Saudi capital. According to Al […]