Worldcrunch
Let’s conduct a simple experiment: search on Google for any image of a recent American President — Johnson, Nixon, either father or son Bush, Clinton, Obama — at the moment of their first election victory. Then, search again for an image of the same man a few years later. Each will show the fatigue that […]
PUNTA ARENAS – The first image that you see when you arrive at the edge of the American continent is intense, almost vehement. It is rays of light that pierce the clouds and give the whole landscape a glow. That was just the beginning of our Patagonian journey on the Stella Australis cruise ship. Our […]
SLATE AFRIQUE Worldcrunch ALGIERS – Amidst conflicting reports of the fate of perhaps hundreds of hostages from a showdown between an Islamist terror group and Algerian security forces, the Algerian government has released the first video of some of those freed at the gas treatment facility in the remote southern part of the country. There […]
ALGIERS – On Wednesday, an estimated 41 Western contractors were taken hostage inside the jointly run BP natural-gas facility in Amenas, in eastern Algeria, near the Libyan border. The man believed to be responsible for this assault goes by the name Mokhtar Belmokhtar – also known as Khaled Aboul Abbas – one of the region’s […]
EL NUEVO HERALD (Cuba), CLARIN (Argentina) Worlcrunch HAVANA – After remaining cholera-free for more than a century, Cuba is suffering its second bout of cholera in six months. The disease has infected more than 50 people in Havana, the government admitted, and, according to non-confirmed information, one death. In July, three people died of cholera […]
-Essay- BEIJING – Recently, a fire killed seven children in a private orphanage in the Eastern Chinese town of Lankao. The woman who runs the Henan province orphanage, Yuan Lihai, called “Loving Mother” by locals, became a controversial figure overnight, even though she has cared for more than 100 abandoned children over the past 20 […]
BERLIN – Can we draw conclusions about another person’s character traits based on their facial or body features? We have a tendency to base ourselves on outer appearance when forming first impressions of other people. Studies have shown that the shape of a face plays a role in our perception of how trustworthy somebody is. […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch BERLIN – The German Police has launched a special investigation codenamed “Tunnel” in the search for the perpetrators of a spectacular break-in at a Berlin bank. According to Die Welt, the thieves dug 100-foot long tunnel from a neighboring underground garage into the safety deposit box vault of the Volksbank in […]
PORT-AU-PRINCE – What’s left of Haiti’s dreams of reconstruction? Three years after the earthquake that devastated the country – one of the world’s poorest – 360,000 people are still living in displaced person camps and shantytowns. The cholera epidemic is spreading and more than 80% of the population is still living below the poverty line. […]
ANI (Mauritania), TSA, EL WATAN (Algeria), LE MONDE, L’EXPRESS (France), AP Worldcrunch ALGIERS – Confirmed information on the ground is still scant, but Algerian authorities do acknowledge that the assault against Islamist hostage takers was still ongoing Friday, more than 24 hours after it began at a gas treatment plant 1600 kilometers south of the […]
BBC, ESPN (U.S.), THE GUARDIAN, THE TELEGRAPH (U.K.) Worldcrunch LOS ANGELES – During an exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey on Thursday night, Lance Armstrong has admitted that he did, in fact, take performance enhancing drugs during all seven Tour de France wins. The BBC callex it the most sophisticated, professional and successful doping program that […]
A Bosnian Serb who fled the Balkans as a teenager reflects on how hard it is to face the past in the Balkans, as much for history’s winners as losers.
Jeff Bezos’ company has its head in the cloud.
PARIS – Computer services giant Atos called 2012 the year of evangelization of “Big Data.” Now, in 2013, it’s time we may all be converted. Big Data is the massive volume of digital data that is so large to process that it needs additional management tools and database processing applications. It is much more than […]
GENEVA – Reto Stöcklin can boast owning the world’s largest collection of venom. He has 1,200 samples in a freezer. A biochemist by training, he’s also a “serial entrepreneur.” The five start-ups he has created are all linked to his famous library of samples taken from snakes, fish, insects and venomous shellfish. Founded in 1995, […]
CORRIERE FIORENTINO, LA STAMPA, LA REPUBBLICA (Italy) Worldcrunch ROME – Meet Tommy and Toldo, two Italian pets deeply attached to their owners. In fact, they’re still searching for them, months after they died. Tommy is a German Shepard who lives in the town of San Donaci in the southern region of Puglia. He goes to […]
PROCESO (Mexico), AMERICA ECONOMIA (Latin America) Worldcrunch MEXICO CITY – It is being hailed as the first-ever Mexican counterpart to the CIA. But for this new “superministry” of government, established secretly over the past few weeks by just-installed President Enrique Peña Nieto, the main targets are the powerful and bloody organized crime networks that control […]
TSA, EL WATAN (Algeria), SUD OUEST, LE MONDE, NOUVEL OBS (France) ALGIERS – At least 25 Western hostages held at an Algerian gas facility have escaped Thursday. News reports say Americans and Japanese are among those freed. There are also unconfirmed reports that several of the hostages have been killed after Algerian security forces had […]
The terrorist attack and hostage-taking in neighboring Algeria is just one of the ways that France’s intervention in Mali could spread across Africa, and beyond.
Her eyes tear up when I come into the room although the word “daughter” holds no meaning for her anymore. When friends and relatives ask me “How’s your mother?,” they are not referring to the woman I used to relate to in that role, but to a whole other person behind an invisible wall. I […]
SYRIAN OBSERVATORY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (UK), AL ARABIYA (UAE) Worldcrunch Reports emerged Thursday that pro-Assad forces killed more than 100 people earlier this week, including women and children, on farmland on the outskirts of Syria’s central city of Homs. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), forces loyal to President Bashar al […]
AP, BBC, DAILY YOMIURI, KYODO (Japan) Worldcrunch TOKYO – Amidst continuing safety concerns, airlines and regulators have grounded the majority of Boeing’s flagship 787 Dreamliner planes around the world, reports the BBC. By Thursday, chief air safety agencies in Europe, the United States, Japan and elsewhere had ordered flights halted. The 787 is the newest […]
PLANS FOR CEASEFIRE IN ALEPPOSyrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem announced at joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that Syria had given Russia plans for a ceasefire in the northern city of Aleppo, RT reports. He also said that, if successful, the plan could be implemented in other cities and that the government […]
BUENOS AIRES – For some people, it’s a powerful sign of the crisis in the luxury market in Argentina. For others, it’s more a sign of the frivolity and stupidity of the Argentine elite – the opening of a Chinese supermarket on the Avenida Alvear, Buenos Aires’s most prestigious shopping street, has roiled passions. The […]
EL WATAN (Algeria), LE MONDE, AFP (France) Worldcrunch Two people were killed and as many as 41 Westerners were taken hostage in an attack Wednesday by an Islamist group at a gas treatment facility in Algeria. A British citizen and an Algerian are believed to be dead and six other people wounded in the assault […]
BEIJING – A new study published by the National Academy of Economic Strategy (NAES) finds a global energy market that is in the midst of major changes. China, in this context, is facing both opportunities and challenges; in particular, there are concerns about China’s energy security brought on by shifts in the sector in North […]
French sex symbol turned animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot is shining a light on Baby and Nepal, two former circus elephants infected with tuberculosis, now facing euthanasia.
BBC, THE GUARDIAN (U.K.), IRISH INDEPENDENT, IRISH TIMES (Ireland) Worldcrunch DUBLIN– Horse meat has been found in some beef products on sale in the UK and Ireland according to the FSAI (Food Safety Authority Ireland). Although it poses no risk to public health, for many people it is an ethical question. In fact, that’s almost […]
EURONEWS, AFP, LE MONDE (France) Worldcrunch MOGADISHU – Somali Islamist militants announced on Wednesday that they had decided to execute a French hostage they have been holding since 2009, reports the AFP. French DGSE secret-service commandos launched a raid last Saturday in an bid to rescue French intelligence agent Denis Allex, but the attempt failed, […]
Some skeptics, though, wonder whether all the enthusiasm for the developing world has created a sort of emerging market “bubble”.
BBC, SKY NEWS, THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON – A helicopter crashed during London’s morning rush hour on Wednesday, killing two people and wounding 11 others. The incident happened at St George’s Wharf on the River Thames near Vauxhall, in southern London. According to The Guardian the helicopter hit a crane on a building site. […]
THE AUSTRALIAN, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, QUEENSLAND INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL RESEARCH (Australia) Worldcrunch BRISBANE – Australian researchers believe they have found a way to halt the HIV virus from developing into AIDS. Researchers from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research say they have found a “light switch” protein within the HIV virus that can be effectively […]
–Analysis– RABAT – Recent estimates from the Moroccan High Commission For Planning (HCP) found the median age for marriage in Morocco was 31 for men and 27 for women. There are many reasons for this – more years spent studying, and the high cost of housing and wedding ceremonies being the most obvious. Some, it […]
MUNICH – Our meeting takes place at Munich’s old Jewish synagogue on Reichenbachstrasse. Rachel Salamander and her Synagogue Reichenbachstrasse charity co-chair, attorney Ron Jakubowicz, are telling us about their plans for the synagogue’s future. The mission of the charity, which was launched in November 2011, is to save and restore the pre-war synagogue that was […]
Local memories and a final salute from French-speaking Switzerland to the founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival, who died on January 10.
BBC, THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch NEW YORK– Dan Brown, the bestselling author of the Da Vinci Code, is set to release a new novel on May 14. According to The Guardian, Dan Brown’s dapper, tweed-suited symbologist Robert Langdon, the man who cracked The Da Vinci Code and found The Lost Symbol, is about to embark […]
Japan has just crossed perhaps the most vivid line in the demographic divide. Still, there are other surprises about what may ensure future economic growth across Asia.
THE IRISH TIMES (Ireland), LA STAMPA (Italy), THE NEW YORK TIMES (U.S.A.) Worldcrunch DUBLIN – It’s such a simple system. You buy something and it is sent to you. What you don’t know is that the transaction is done through a company in Luxembourg that pays very little to the Grand Duchy and almost nothing […]
EL WATAN NEWS, REUTERS ARABIC, AL AHRAM (Egypt) Worldcrunch CAIRO – The death toll has risen to 20 in a train crash near Egypt’s capital, the second deadly rail accident in two months. The crash in the city of Giza late Monday has also left more than 170 injured, Reuters reports. On November 17 in […]
KANSAS CITY- It looks like the typical American neighborhood home: a flag out front, a terrace with a rocking chair and a barbecue in the backyard. But this ordinary Kansas City street contains a hidden treasure. It’s one of the first places to have access to “Google Fiber,” the super-fast broadband that is 100 times […]