AL MONITOR, NEW YORK TIMES (U.S.), JERUSALEM POST (Israel), THE GLOBE AND MAIL (Canada) Worldcrunch SOFIA– The case of five Israeli tourists killed in a July bombing in Bulgaria is anything but closed. The Bulgarian government’s findings this week that the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was responsible for the bombing, which also killed the Bulgarian […]
Month: February 2013
PHNOM PENH – A few years ago this scene would have played out in China. More specifically, it would have played out in a Chinese coastal region to which millions of rural folks had arrived looking for work. A huge hangar, piles of fabrics of all colors at both ends, and some 200 heads lowered […]
FRANCE 24 (France), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), REUTERS Worldcrunch Tunisia’s ruling Islamic Ennahda party has rejected Prime Minister Hamdi Jebali’s proposal to dissolve the government in a bid to restore calm after the killing of opposition leader Chokri Belaid in Tunis. Hours after Wednesday morning’s assassination, which sent protesters onto the streets across Tunisia, Jebali had […]
SYRIA WILL ATTEND 2ND ROUND OF GENEVA 2Syrian state television announced that the government will participate in the second round of the Geneva 2 peace conference, due to start Feb. 10, quoting Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad. The announcement came as a first group of 200 civilians is about to be evacuated from the city […]
CAIRO – Among the amazing landscapes Egypt possesses, the most precious are undoubtedly the seashores on the North Coast and the Red Sea, as well as the desert. Countless sites in these areas are unique and rare wonders of nature, and require special care and protection. The Egyptian Tourism Ministry has a plan for how […]
THE HERALD SUN, NHMRC, AAP, THE AUSTRALIAN (Australia) Worldcrunch MELBOURNE – Australia is officially the meanest country EVER! New hygiene rules mean that Australian children will be banned from blowing out birthday candles at school parties. Photo devinf Yes, you read it correctly. No this is not a cruel joke. According to the latest National […]
Shortages of manpower leave many of the construction projects for the Winter Games far behind schedule.
AP, EL UNIVERSAL (Mexico), NEWS.COM.AU (Australia), INDEPENDENT.IE (Ireland) Worldcrunch The big news arrived in America’s mailbox on Wednesday: the U.S. Postal Service will end Saturday delivery service starting this summer, responding to budget cuts and the growing use of the Internet for long-distance communication. AP has the news from Washington. Not surprisingly, changes to postal […]
How the intersection of show biz and state power looks from China.
LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch ROME– Like every other weekday, 100,000 free papers were handed out in the main metro stations around the Italian capital on Tuesday. But, reports La Stampa, the regular menu of political back-stabbing, soccer trade rumors and crime blotter were missing. In its place were hard-to-believe reports about an Italy and the […]
SKY NEWS (Australia), THE GUARDIAN (UK), LIBERATION (France), AP Worldcrunch PARIS – Gay marriage rights are gaining momentum around the world. In the last four days, three countries have each taken a major step toward expanding marriage rights to same-sex couples. FRANCEThough the legislative process is just beginning, the French National Assembly approved a centerpiece […]
MUNICH – It is shortly past 10 a.m. in a Munich middle school and Tammy is lying on the floor, muzzle tucked between his paws, stomach rising and falling gently as he breathes in and out, apparently asleep. Occasionally, when Salma leafs through the pages of her book, the dog’s eyes blink open then shut […]
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia) Worldcrunch SYDNEY – Australian scientists have discovered that cannabis could help reverse dementia. Researchers from Neuroscience Research Australia (NRA) believe one of the main active ingredients in cannabis – cannabidiol – could reverse some of the symptoms of memory loss, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Tim Karl, a senior NRA researcher […]
FOLHA DE SAO PAULO (Brazil) Worldcrunch BRASILIA – Francisco Everardo Oliviera Silva – better known as Tiririca (Grumpy) – was elected to the Brazilian Parliament in 2010 with the highest number of votes. He had campaigned on the slogan “Vote Tiririca, it can’t get any worse.” Now he says he has lost hope for politics […]
Police have arrested “yakuza” mob members, who recruited people who owed them money or were mentally disabled to do cleanup work in contaminated nuclear zones.
U.S. WARNS OF BOMB THREAT ON SOCHI The U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned airline companies to watch out for explosive materials that could be hidden in cosmetic tubes, including toothpaste, CNN reports. Republican Congressman Michael McCaul said that according to the bulletin, the explosives could be used during flights to or in Sochi, where […]
TUNISIALIVE, MOSAïQUE FM (Tunisia), BBC NEWS (UK), AFP Worldcrunch TUNIS – Chokri Belaid, a senior leader in Tunisia“s left-leaning opposition Democratic Patriotic party, was shot dead as he was leaving his house in Tunis. “My brother was assassinated. I am desperate and depressed,” Belaid’s brother Abdelmajid Belaid told the Agence France Presse news agency. Chokri […]
CNN, OPEN SOCIETY JUSTICE INITIATIVE Worldcrunch From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, South Africa to Sweden, a new report identifies as many as 54 countries allegedly involved in the controversial CIA-run “extraordinary rendition” and detention program aimed at combatting terrorism after the September 11 attacks. The human rights watchdog group, the Open Society Justice Initiative took an […]
AFP, AP, BBC (UK), NEWS.COM.AU, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia) Worldcrunch HONIARA– At least five people have been killed in the Solomon Islands after an undersea earthquake triggered a tsunami at 12:12pm local time Wednesday. @wxbrad The 8.0 earthquake struck near the Santa Cruz island and the worst damage was reported on the west coast, with […]
GOMA – Young Muslim men in the Democratic Republic of Congo are less interested in having several wives than their fathers were. Facing rising prices and feuds over inheritance, the new generation doesn’t see how the benefits outweigh the costs of having multiple spouses in the same household. As for the women of the current […]
Israel’s January 31 aerial attack on a Syrian research facility and arms complex has raised once again the thorny question of when preemption against a developing threat may be justified under international law—as opposed to simply strategic calculation. Predictably, the Israeli bombardment elicited a hail of criticism from some regional and global players. Syria has […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch BERLIN – German clothes shoppers have started going for bright colors, after years of opting for safe gray or navy blue. So retailers – who were taken by surprise – had no choice but to act quickly to place large follow-up orders. But according to the National Association Of German Textile […]
TURIN – So it’s like this: after having solved a mystery involving the Pope in Rome and the esoteric world of Leonardo da Vinci in Paris, the new Dan Brown thriller will be set in the streets of Florence, as well as in the pages of Dante’s Inferno. Dan Brown is no master of style, […]
“This is the saddest moment in my 45-year career as a psychiatrist…” Dr. Allen Frances wrote this in a December blog post on the Psychology Today website. The reason was the approval by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) of the new edition of psychiatry’s bible – Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM […]
PARIS – “The melting Arctic is under threat…Let’s take action!” Last July, Greenpeace launched a vast media campaign to “stop Shell from drilling in the Arctic”, as the oil giant was getting ready to open its second Arctic well off Alaska. Greenpeace’s campaign garnered huge support from the general public, but it also reached the […]
BBC 2 (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON – In the first episode of the new installment of Top Gear, on BBC Two, Jeremy Clarkson tries to build a car that is “even smaller than the famous Peel P50.” Peel P50. Photo mrflip Rising to the challenge, as always, Clarkson tests his tiny invention in London’s suburb of […]
Pennies may not change anyone’s life, but at least it helps President Dilma fulfill a campaign promise.
THE KOREA TIMES (South Korea), URIMINZOKKIRI (North Korea), AFP Worldcrunch North Korea, which is expected to carry out a third nuclear test any day now, has released a video depicting a city that resembles New York under missile attack. The footage shows a dream sequence, set to the tune of Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie’s […]
GULF NEWS (UAE), THE INDEPENDENT (BANGLADESH), BBC (UK), AP, AFP Worldcrunch DHAKA – On Tuesday, a Bangladesh war crimes tribunal sentenced Abdul Quader Molla, a leader of the country’s main Islamic party, to a life sentence for crimes against humanity during the independence war against Pakistan in 1971. In anticipation of the verdict, violent riots […]
TAWASOL, (Saudi Arabia), AL-ARABIYA (UAE), AL MOHEET (Egypt) Worldcrunch RIYADH – A Saudi cleric says babies and young girls should be covered from head to toe as a way of protecting them from sexual abuse. Sheikh Abdullah Mohamed Daoud made his statement on the al-Madj satellite station in October last year, but the video was […]
PARIS – Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the famed Swedish superstar striker of the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) soccer team has just released his autobiography, entitled “I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic.” He spoke with Le Monde. LE MONDE: This book sold 700,000 copies in Sweden. Did you expect it to be such a hit?ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC: That is more than 7% […]
EFE, ANIMANATURALIS (MEXICO) Worldcrunch MEXICO CITY – Hundreds of animal rights activists in Mexico City took to the streets this weekend to call for an end to bullfighting in Mexico, reports EFE. More than 200 activists took their clothes off and poured fake blood on themselves during the demonstration. They planted fake “banderillas” on themselves, […]
U.S. CURBS DRONE STRIKES IN PAKISTAN AMID PEACE TALKS The United States has sharply reduced its drone strikes following a request from the Pakistani government, which is currently pursuing peace talks with the Taliban, The Washington Post quotes U.S. officials as saying. This does not, however, mark an end to such attacks to prevent imminent […]
BERLIN – Winegrower Barbara Banke of the Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates in California doesn’t just love the sun because it ripens grapes. The sunnier it is, the lower the winery’s electricity and gas bills are. And those savings are possible because of the large mirrors mounted on the football-field-sized tin roof of the winery’s production facility […]
Egypt and Syria are edging toward failed state status, while the West asks how all the hope has faded so fast.
After November’s passage of a state referendum that legalizes marijuana, THC University opens its doors in Denver to teach people how to grow pot in their homes.
The dispute over the Diaoyu islands, which Japan calls the Senkaku islands, is prompting some Japanese firms to consider closing Chinese operations. They quickly run into roadblocks.
LA REPUBBLICA, LA STAMPA (Italy), THE TELEGRAPH (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON– Once upon a time, the English just drank tea. Now, they’ve discovered real caffè all’italiano and Italian coffee giant, Lavazza is planning to invade the UK with 400 coffee shops over the next ten years, reports La Repubblica. Currently there is just one, in Manchester, […]
PARIS – Kevin Kelly is a stimulating iconoclast. How many books are bought but not read? Probably many more than we think. Hence the idea of paying readers who read a book from the beginning to the end. Kevin Kelly thought about patenting his idea, but, since ideas don’t necessarily make a project, he decided […]
KARZAI HAD SECRET MEETINGS WITH THE TALIBAN Afghan President Hamid Karzai has held covert negotiations with Taliban officials, aimed at forging a peace agreement without the participation of Western allies, The New York Times reports. The discovery of these meetings seems to explain Karzai’s recent combative behavior toward the U.S., the Times reports, citing his […]