ASSOCIATED PRESS Worldcrunch VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI became the first Roman pontiff in six centuries to step down, boarding a helicopter outside St. Peter’s on Thursday that took him to the Vatican retreat of Castel Gandolfo south of Rome where he will stay hidden from view for the forseeable future. Earlier, the Pope […]
Month: February 2013
BEIJING – It has been several weeks since North Korea conducted its third nuclear test on February 12. The international community has condemned it, and the worry expressed is unprecedented. China, in a very unusual move, summoned the North Korean Ambassador to Beijing the same day. The UN Security Council immediately made a declaration condemning […]
Computer wizard Jinha Lee from MIT (Massachussets Institute of Technology) designed an interactive three dimensional computer called SpaceTop. With a LED screen and two cameras, the interface allows you to manipulate 3D objects. The young whiz said that “It shouldn’t be in the hands of scientists, it should be in the hands of normal people,” […]
But you may also find Amanullah Mojadidi doing performance art pieces in Kabul.
DIE WELT (Germany), THE LOCAL (Sweden) Worldcrunch BERLIN – Among the many questions raised by Europe’s spreading horsemeat scandal is what to do with all the products of questionable provenance. Most major supermarkets have simply dumped out loads of horse-tainted “beef” lasagna, and the like. What a waste! But all’s not lost. A spokeswoman for […]
VATICAN CITY – Nevermind the “courage, humility, respect and lucidity,” and the other praise we’ve heard associated with Pope Benedict XVI’s historic decision to step down, he leaves behind a papacy stained with failure and a deep feeling of something left incomplete. On some matters, the Pope’s decision is indeed a form of renunciation. “Purification” […]
ARMED MEN RAID CRIMEA AIRPORTA group of armed men sympathetic to fallen Ukrainian regime raided the two main airports in Crimea overnight, sending the newly formed Ukrainian government on alert. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov accused Russia of carrying out “an armed invasion and occupation.” The Russian Black Sea Fleet, which has a base at Sevastopol […]
AP Worldcrunch ROME — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday the Obama administration will provide the Syrian opposition fighting against President Bashar Al Assad $60 million in assistance and provide food and medical supplies, the Associated Press reports. The AP says the move marks the first time American aid, though still not military […]
LA STAMPA (Italy), VATICAN NEWS (Vatican), BBC (UK), Worldcrunch VATICAN CITY– After a sometimes bumpy eight-year rule, and a surprise decision to become the first pope in 600 years to retire, Benedict XVI steps down from the papacy at 8 pm local time. Benedict met Thursday morning for the final time as pontiff with the […]
Categories
What A German Dreams For Italy
(Hint: it won’t ever come true)
HERALD SUN (Australia), SKY NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch SYDNEY –Australian police have seized 585 kilograms of pure methamphetamine in Sydney bound to flush the major Australian cities. The haul was estimated at $438 million in street value, in what is largest seizure ever of methamphetamine down under. Police had been tipped off in September about “suspicious […]
SLOVENSKA TISKOVNA AGENCIJA (Slovenia), BBC NEWS (UK), REUTERS Worldcrunch LJUBLJANA – The Slovenian parliament has ousted Prime Minister Janez Janša and his conservative government amid corruption allegations and growing discontent over the country’s struggling economy. The country’s National Assembly asked opposition leader and finance expert Alenka Bratušek to form a new government, after Prime Minister […]
It’s more about secret oil reserves than Cold War nostalgia.
CAIRO – It just happened one day, without prior notice. On Jan. 26, Moheddin Marwan lowered the iron curtain of his grocery store at lunchtime. When he came back to work the next day, he just stood there petrified, as motionless as the new barricade that blocked the access to his shop. Stacked up like […]
BERLIN – There are more and more healthy food snobs in our society – and I’m probably one of the worst. It all began when I was sick and a friend showed up with a green smoothie, telling me that drinking it would bring “pure light” into my body. I got better right away, and […]
LE MONDE (France), MILLIYET (Turkey) Worldcrunch After frozen Findus lasagne, Nestle ravioli, IKEA Swedish meatballs, now its the popular “döner kebabs” — the (supposedly) lamb sandwich — that has turned up signs of horsemeat across Europe, reports Le Monde. But the twist in this case is that traces of pork were found as well, in […]
Hung Huang has come to Paris to unlock the secrets of the Chinese fashion market.
CHINA DAILY, SOUTHERN METROPOLIS DAILY (China) Worldcrunch GUANGZHOU – An organization of parents of gay and lesbians in China has sent an open letter to China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), demanding the legalization of same-sex marriage, according to the Southern Metropolis Daily. “Some of our children have been living with their partners for nearly 10 […]
A Belgium perspective on the urgent risks that Italy’s economic implosion will spread. France could be next.
STUFF, TV3, ONE NEWS, NEW ZEALAND HERALD, AUCKLAND NOW (New Zealand) Worldcrunch AUCKLAND – An award-winning filmmaker was killed in a shark attack on Wednesday at a popular surfing beach west of New Zealand’s largest city. Muriwai beach on Auckland’s west coast has been closed after a fatal shark attack: ow.ly/i52Gv — nzherald (@nzherald) February […]
The new edition of the DSM, modern psychiatry’s bible for mental disorders, gives a medical diagnosis for what others just call bratty behavior. How parents can recognize the difference.
LE MONDE, AFP, FRANCE 24, LIBERATION (France) Worldcrunch PARIS – Stephane Hessel, the French best-selling author, Resistance figure and diplomat died last night at age 95. He is mostly known however, for his rights activism – his tireless combat for the disenfranchised and illegal immigrants, writes France 24 and is considered the father of the […]
CORRIERE DELLA SERA, LA STAMPA, RAI NEWS, LA REPUBBLICA (Italy) Worldcrunch VATICAN CITY– Pope Benedict XVI presided over his final papal audience Wednesday before a crowd of some 200,000, reaffirming his own faith and a conviction that his historic decision to resign was for the good of the Church. Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported […]
EL UNIVERSAL, MILENIO (Mexico) Worldcrunch TOLUCA – Forbes magazine named her the “most powerful woman in Mexico” in 2012, but now Elba Esther Gordillo, 68, is under arrest for embezzling more than $156 million dollars from the country’s main teachers union. Esther Gordillo, former head of Mexico’s long-ruling PRI party and longtime teachers union chief, […]
THE INDIA TIMES, HINDUSTAN TIMES (India), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch CALCUTTA – At least 19 people have been killed and over a dozen critically injured in a fire that broke out early on Wednesday morning at an illegal market in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta. It took three hours to contain the blaze, but […]
GUNMEN SEIZE CRIMEAN PARLIAMENTAn armed group seized parliament and another government building in Ukraine’s region of Crimea early this morning and raised the Russian flag, sending the Ukrainian security forces on alert. At least two people have died and some 30 people have been injured since pro-EU and pro-Russian protesters began clashing in Crimea Wednesday, […]
Forced marriages in this central Asian country are not simply about arrangements between families, but also strangers abducting women to be their wives.
ECONOMIC OBSERVER (China) Worldcrunch BEIJING – From Brangelina to Bradillac? You have to be in China, but car lovers and movie fans now have a new automotive pinup after Brad Pitt was named official spokesman for the luxury Cadillac XTS sedan, being rolled out especially for the Chinese market. The parent company of the Cadillac […]
PARIS – In 140 characters of hacker jargon, French security company Vupen tweeted on Oct. 30, 2012 that they had discovered a security flaw in Windows 8 and that they were selling it to the highest bidder. Our first 0day for Win8+IE10 with HiASLR/AntiROP/DEP & Prot Mode sandbox bypass (Flash not needed) is ready for […]
BOCHUM – Intensive sports make our muscles grow – nothing new there. But now clinical neurophysiologists from Germany’s Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB) have shown that sports can change our brain too. For their research, 26 high-performance athletes (half of them practitioners of judo and karate, the other half marathon runners and triathletes), and 12 non-athletes, had […]
Beppe Grillo’s protest movement was the winner in Italy’s election that signals a failure of an entire political class.
FOLHA DE SAO PAULO (Brazil) Worldcrunch RIO DE JANEIRO – No matter who’s playing, a new Monopoly game created especially for the upcoming Rio de Janeiro Olympics always has the same winner: Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes. “Your house now costs more after the pacification of a neighboring community. Get 75,000 reais ($ 37,500)…” This sentence […]
UKRAINE’S NEW GOVERNMENT PRESENTED TO MAIDANThe new Ukraine government will be presented to the protesters of Kiev’s Independence Square tonight, Radio Liberty reports. A member of Vitali Klitschko’s UDAR party announced that the union government would include some of the protesters. HEZBOLLAH VOWS TO RETALIATE AFTER ISRAELI AIR STRIKELebanese militant group Hezbollah said in a […]
Most foreigners in Finland hail from the former Soviet Union, many hoping to find more greater (and cleaner) economic opportunities than back home.
LES ECHOS, RTL, FRANCETV INFO (France) Worldcrunch PARIS – A video has been posted on YouTube showing members of a French family of seven, including four children, who were taken hostage last week by Boko Haram, the Nigerian Islamist sect. The three-minute video, which was posted on Monday, shows the French family – two men, […]
BBC NEWS (UK), AL-MASRY AL-YOUM (Egypt), AP Worldcrunch CAIRO – A hot air balloon caught fire and exploded as it was flying over the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor on Tuesday, killing at least 18 tourists. The casualties included French, British, Japanese nationals and nine tourists from Hong Kong, a security official told AP. The […]
Some Mexican leaders say immigration reform is simply a domestic matter to be left for Washington to resolve. But the stakes for Mexico are simply too big.
BEIJING – Over the past three years, a growing number of high-ranking officials in China have committed suicide, according to data from the Legal Weekly journal. In just the last two months alone, three officials — Qi Xiaolin, Deputy Secretary of Guangzhou’s Municipal Public Security Bureau, Zhang Wanxiong, Vice-President of Liangzhou Court of Justice in […]
Worldcrunch Maybe it was inevitable that Europe’s worst false-advertising scandal in memory would wind up hoofing through the front door of the Old Continent’s best-marketed, most clean-scrubbed, low-cost brand of home furnishings and other you-can-count-on-us modern life supplies. Yes, that’s right: horsemeat in IKEA’s scrumptiously affordable Swedish meatballs. Outrage is bound to follow, but those […]