DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch TRIPOLI – Libya’s former dictator Muammar Gaddafi has been dead since Oct. 2011, but Libyans are still faced with his image daily on their one, 20 and 50 dinar notes. However on Feb. 17 – the second anniversary of the start of the revolution – the Libyan National Bank put new […]
Month: February 2013
ISTANBUL – A Turkish writer has won a court battle against Turkish Airlines for censoring an article published in their inflight magazine. In June 2009, Buket Uzuner was commissioned to write an article about Istanbul’s Moda neighborhood for Turkish Airlines’ Skylife magazine. In her article she criticized the city of Istanbul’s ban on alcohol sales […]
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Watch Beckham Bend It In Paris
Worldcrunch PARIS – David Beckham has finally made his much anticipated debut in Paris, almost one month after signing for Paris Saint-Germain. Here’s Becks warming up before Sunday’s kick-off. Although he only played for the last 14 minutes of Sunday night’s game, Becks was finally given a chance to get his much-advertized bottom off the […]
FORMATION OF UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT DELAYEDUkraine’s interim President Oleksandr Turchynov has delayed the formation of a unity government, initially planned for today, until Thursday, Itar-Tass reports. The Parliament also voted to give Turchynov the power to sign laws until the early presidential election, planned for May 25. ISLAMISTS KILL DOZENS OF NIGERIAN SCHOOL PUPILSIslamist fighters from […]
BBC, THE GUARDIAN (UK), THE IRISH TIMES (Ireland) Worldcrunch EDINBURGH – Cardinal Kevin O’Brien has announced he will be stepping down as Archbishop of Edinburgh and St. Andrew’s following allegations of “inappropriate behavior” during the 1980s, reports the BBC. The announcement comes three days before Pope Benedict XVI is slated to step down, and Cardinals […]
TALLINN – It’s 4 p.m., and night is already falling on Tallinn. The wind is freezing. Covered in snow, the old Soviet military barracks located on the outskirts of Estonia’s capital city look like the set of a Cold War movie. Uniformed soldiers occasionally cross the courtyard. You almost expect James Bond to suddenly come […]
THE KOREA TIMES, THE KOREA HERALD (South Korea), REUTERS Worldcrunch SEOUL – Park Geun-hye was sworn in on Monday as South Korea’s first female president ; she began her five-year term by urging an increasingly hostile North Korea to drop its nuclear ambitions. “North Korea’s recent nuclear test is a challenge to the survival and […]
WASHINGTON POST, VOICE OF AMERICA, YAHOO (USA) Worldcrunch LOS ANGELES – In case you missed it, the 85th Academy Awards took place last night. Life of Pi was the biggest winner of the night, scooping four golden statuettes. Here’s what you need to know about this year’s Oscars: 1. Daniel Day Lewis’ win for his […]
AFP, NHK (Japan) Worldcrunch TOKYO – A powerful earthquake shook Tokyo on Monday, with buildings swaying for 30 seconds, but few reports of injuries. The magnitude 5.7 quake was centered in the mountain resort town of Nikko, about 140 kilometers northwest of Tokyo, reports the AFP. Earlier reports had put the quake at magnitude 6.2. […]
GRANMA (CUBA), LA NACIÓN (COSTA RICA), SBS (AUSTRALIA Worldcrunch HAVANA – Cuban President Raúl Castro’s reelection for a second term Sunday was no surprise. But Cuba is still absorbing the unexpected announcement that it would be Castro’s final five-year mandate, and his naming of a much younger government minister to be his No. 2, and […]
The most alive of the dead languages is also getting a boost in some surprising corners outside the Vatican walls.
Not many years ago, the concept of “neuromarketing” was presented as a revolutionary discipline. Introduced as the newest buzz word along such topics as neuroscience, emotions, sensory, unconscious, subliminal, neuromarketing was presented as the key to understanding consumer behavior. Those most passionate about the subject promised companies that it could even help them read their […]
TELAM, EFE (ARGENTINA) Worldcrunch MONTEVIDEO – Uruguay introduced a bill last November to regulate production and sale of cannabis. Under the proposed legislation, Uruguayans over 18 will be able to purchase pot in state-approved distribution centers. Time to light up? Well, not exactly. While the country is waiting for Congress to pass the bill, the […]
YANUKOVYCH WANTED FOR “MASS MURDER”A police warrant has been issued for ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, whose current whereabouts are unknown, the acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov announced this morning. Yanukovych, who was last seen at his residence in Crimea, is wanted for “mass murder of civilians,” after last week’s riots in Kiev in which […]
LA REPUBBLICA (Italy), VATICAN RADIO Worldcrunch VATICAN CITY– Just four days before his historic resignation, Pope Benedict XVI delivered his final weekly Angelus prayer Sunday from the window of his Vatican apartment. A large crowd below in St. Peter’s Square interrupted several times with applause during the brief address as the 85-year Benedict alluded to […]
-Essay- We’re all critical of the leaders of our time: Obama let us down, Merkel isn’t Adenauer, and Hollande and Cameron are just pale copies of Monsieur Mitterrand and Lady Thatcher. Meanwhile, in Italy, in front of the disappointing batch of candidates for national elections, nostalgia runs deep for figures of the past from Christian […]
And don’t forget: bad blood runs in both directions!
And why it’s not as bad as you think.
LANDQUART – He stirs his spaghetti with one hand, holding a cigarette in the other. Mohamed* has drops of sweat beading on his forehead despite the near-freezing temperatures. “It’s really tough here,” he says in his broken English. “Last week, there was a knife fight between the Afghan and the Nigerian. They were drinking, shouting. […]
Up close, on set and in search of extras inside India’s over-the-top movie scene.
LIMA – You’ve seen highway billboards advertising some rest-stop or hotel: “Oasis, Next Exit.” Now in Peru, there’s a billboard that actually is itself something of an oasis. The Technology and Engineering University of Peru has installed a billboard panel along the Panamericana Sur (PanAmerican highway) highway that generates 96 liters of drinkable water a […]
Street artists spray the images of the women who have fought for equality in Egypt, from the early 20th century to the Jan. 25 uprising.
CNN, REUTERS AFRICA, NEWS 24, EYEWITNESS NEWS (South Africa) Worldcrunch PRETORIA– Oscar Pistorius has been granted bail after a hearing that lasted four days. He is charged with the shooting of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine’s Day. In Friday’s ruling, Magistrate Desmond Nair stated that his decision does not mean that the State’s case […]
In recent days, U.S. and Mideast officials have reported that Iran and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group, are making military preparations for the sectarian chaos likely to engulf a post-Assad Syria. Counterterrorism expert Matthew Levitt says that Hezbollah has closely aligned itself with Iran’s Quds Force, an elite paramilitary group linked directly to Ayatollah Ali […]
Silvio Berlusconi bad-mouths Angela Merkel, while Mario Monti tries to woo her. But there are deeper reasons the German factor is at play as Italians go to the polls Sunday.
DIE WELT (Germany), AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MICROBIOLOGY (USA) Worldcrunch BERLIN – The main ingredient in beer is yeast, which is a complex microorganism – a microbe from the fungi kingdom. To make beer, you need microbes, fermentation and bacteria. While this may seem like too much information, here’s the cool truth: beer is actually good […]
MONTEVIDEO – Racism and racist expressions are often ingrained in society. In Uruguay, they are also written in the dictionary. Last month, Vice-Minister of Culture and Education Oscar Gomez urged the Uruguayan Academy of Letters to remove racist and offensive expressions from the Dictionary of Uruguayan Spanish. It is part of a campaign launched on […]
And a bit “Poodle” too, according to Marcela Iacub, a lawyer and writer who had an eight-month affair with Strauss-Kahn last year.
A new Swiss study helps explain why we think that our important changes are behind us — and how this false belief can drive us to make poor decisions.
AFP, EL NACIONAL, EL UNIVERSAL (Venezuela) Worldcrunch CARACAS– Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez continues to suffer from chronic respiratory difficulties since his return to the country from Cuba earlier this week. The news came in a televised statement from Venezuelan Minister for Communications Ernesto Villegas, which was the first information from the government on Chavez’s health […]
A 30-year battle ends in victory for owners of land that French energy giant Areva wanted to mine for uranium.
BERLIN – In late 2011, a former German television correspondent in Tel Aviv, Sebastian Engelbrecht, reported some sensational news: Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal had “renounced armed combat against Israel,” conflicts among Palestinians were in the process of being resolved and “by early May in Gaza and the West Bank a new president and parliament will […]
Perhaps the most acclaimed Israeli writer of his generation, and a fixture of the peace movement, Oz continues to surprise at the age of 73.
EL UNIVERSAL (Mexico) Worldcrunch MEXICO CITY – Linguistic experts have identified as many as 364 different dialects in modern Mexico, with at least 100 people speaking each linguistic variation. But this wealth of language diversity risks disappearing. Javier López Sánchez, director of the National Indigenous Languages Institute in Mexico (INALI), says that currently 64 dialects […]
VATICAN CITY – A long queue of men dressed in black is winding silently around St. Peter’s Square: They are Roman priests here to say their last goodbyes to Benedict XVI at a recent Vatican audience. When he decided to resign, did it cross the Pope’s mind that the cross he’d bear would also affect […]
Delayed by the popular uprisings in the Arab world, the first-ever summit between Russia and the Arab League is on this week in Moscow. Though Syria is on the agenda, many the questions linger.
SYRIAN OBSERVATORY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, BBC NEWS (UK), AP Worldcrunch DAMASCUS – A series of bombings in Syria’s capital Thursday has killed at least 31 people, among them children and civilians. A car bomb struck the heavy-populated central Damascus district of Mazraa, near the headquarters of Syria’s ruling Baath party and the Russian Embassy. I […]
RIOTERS OPEN FIRE IN KIEV DESPITE DEALA group of rioters opened fire on security forces near Kiev’s Independence Square this morning as they were headed towards the Parliament, Reuters quotes a police statement as saying. This comes despite news of a deal between the government, the opposition and EU foreign ministers after a night of […]
EYEWITNESS NEWS, JACARANDA NEWS, NEWS24 (South Africa), TWITTER Worldcrunch PRETORIA– It has emerged that the lead investigating officer in the Oscar Pistorius case is facing seven counts of attempted murder himself, according to Eyewitness News. Pistorius, the legendary paralympian accused of shooting his girlfriend to death, is back in court Thursday as a bail hearing […]
-Analysis- SANTIAGO – While Argentina and Venezuela have had to devalue their currency as a result of rampant spending and foreign exchange shortages, the rest of Latin America faces exactly the opposite problem. Local currencies have appreciated against the dollar, which has had three negative effects. It is bad for exports; economies have become less […]