Worldcrunch
BYTOM – In this desolate coal-mining town in southern Poland, every fifth resident is unemployed. You can see the impact of mining on the surroundings in this rugged region of Silesia: damaged buildings and streets, and the remains of industrial structures. Many of Bytom’s store and home windows are boarded up or covered in bricks. […]
ABC NEWS, HERALD SUN, MONASH UNIVERSITY (Australia) Worldcrunch MELBOURNE – An ingredient used in cough syrup could hold the key to improving memory, language skills and learning in people with Down syndrome. Researchers from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, believe BTD-001, an ingredient in cough syrup that was discovered in the 1920s, could help with […]
KIEV CRACKDOWN ON FAR RIGHT Ukrainian police launched a wave of arrests against the far-right nationalist group Right Sector, after members threatened to avenge the death of their leader yesterday, The Moscow Timesreports. According to The Washington Post, a senior member of the group described it as a “counterrevolutionary activity” that they cannot accept. An […]
KIWANJA – On a recent weekday morning, time seemed to be standing still in this town in eastern Congo. A strange atmosphere reigns, with most of the shops and stalls closed and the town’s schools empty. “Bullets can start flying at any time, so we let our students out early,” says a teacher in Kiwanja […]
KCNA (North Korea), THE KOREA TIMES (South Korea), AFP, REUTERS Worldcrunch North Korea announced on Tuesday that it had put its artillery and rocket units into “combat posture,” and threatened to attack South Korea and U.S. bases in Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. mainland. The Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army released a statement […]
ADKRONOS, AGI, CORRIERE DELLA SERA, LA REPUBBLICA, LA STAMPA (Italy), AP Worldcrunch ROME – Italy’s highest court has overturned the acquittal of American exchange student Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the 2007 murder of Knox’s roommate Meredith Kercher. La Repubblica reports that the judges in Italy’s Court of Cassation ruled Tuesday […]
During a long sit-down in his Dharamsala residence, the Dalai Lama answers hard questions about the self-immolation of Tibetan monks and Chinese leaders, old and new.
A new report finds that southern European households have higher net household income than places like Germany, which is shelling out euro bailout cash. Things must change.
The two world powers and BRICS nations enjoy friendly relations, and both have an interest in expanding economic and political links. Still, there is another big player always looming.
IRISH EXAMINER, IRISH INDEPENDENT, IRISH TIMES (Ireland) Worldcrunch DUBLIN – A teen charity funded by the government-backed Irish Health Board has come under scrutiny after publishing tips on how young people can explore having a ménage à trois. Irish Member of Parliament Michelle Mulherin has accused the state-funded organization SpunOut of publishing inappropriate content, including […]
Way better than an inflatable iPad!
LA CAPITAL, LA GACETA, LA NACION, LA RAZON (Argentina) Worldcrunch SANTA FE – The Argentinian province of Sante Fe will be handing out a million Viagra tablets – free of charge – but only after Easter is over, according to La Gaceta. “They’ll be available but of course there will be necessary controls so that […]
Mexico’s New President Peña Nieto’s has pushed through a sweeping reform of the telecoms and TV sector, which could undo the monopoly that turned Carlos Slim into the world’s richest man.
At the German capital’s Jewish Museum, the starting point for are anonymous questions from ordinary visitors — and a sense of humor.
UKRAINE AND RUSSIA OFFICIALS MEET Ukraine’s Acting Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Deshchytsia met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of a nuclear meeting in The Hague, Netherlands, Itar-Tass reports. This is the first bilateral meeting between Ukrainian and Russian officials in recent weeks, and a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said this was […]
Occasionally, D-Day artifacts still wash up on the beaches of Normandy. But these days, it is rare for someone in France to be able to trace them back to America’s Greatest Generation.
EL PAIS (Spain), DIE WELT (Germany), BBC MUNDO Worldcrunch MADRID – After publishing a column comparing German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Adolf Hitler, Spanish daily El Pais has now retracted the piece and apologized following an outcry from Germany and elsewhere in Europe. In the column titled “Germany Against Europe”, economist Juan Torres Lopez wrote: […]
BLOOMBERG, REUTERS Worldcrunch BRUSSELS – European banks climbed after Cyprus reached an overnight, last-minute deal with its international creditors on a 10 billion-euro ($13 billion) bailout. European and Asian shares rallied on Monday at the news of the rescue bailout, with U.S. yields also rising, thus ending a week of financial panic worldwide. In Brussels, […]
RFI, FRANCE 24 (France), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), AAP (Australia), MAIL&GUARDIAN (South Africa) Worldcrunch BANGUI – After rebels in the Central African Republic ousted President François Bozize, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared Monday that he was “deeply concerned by reports of violations of human rights.” Michel Djotodia, the leader of the Seleka rebels, declared himself president […]
This is the good kind of cheesy…
STOCKHOLM – “This is happening right now in Homs, Syria…” Hans Eriksson shows a shaky video of column of smoke just after a bombing from Bashar al-Assad’s troops. Bambuser is the name of the service launched by this 44-year-old Swede, which allows any smartphone user to broadcast live what’s happening in front of him – […]
RUSSIAN TROOPS TAKE OVER CRIMEAN NAVAL BASE Russian troops and members of pro-Russian self-defense groups raided and took over a Ukrainian Naval base in Crimea, the third in the last 48 hours, The Kyiv Post reports. After the early morning raid, acting President Olexandr Turchynov said the Ukrainian military units in Crimea had been ordered […]
After jailed rebel leader Ocalan’s call for Kurds to lay down their arms, a closer inspection of his words show real signs of hope to end three decades of bloodshed.
The South American root has been shown to boost energy for athletes, increase fertility for women, and enhance a man’s sex drive.
TWITTER Worldcrunch From Friday to Saturday morning, police forces from around the world joined together on social networking site Twitter for a 24 hour tweet-a-thon. The hashtag #poltwt showed tweets about police work, policing issues and perps gone awry from every corner of the globe. Anyone could join the virtual ride-along to see what a […]
LUXEMBOURG – For Wolfgang Schäuble, the world is sometimes a pretty simple place. Cyprus, for example, just had the wrong business model. Those were the words the German Finance Minister used to explain the problems that that European Union island nation is experiencing now. According to Schäuble, the Mediterranean state counted too much on its […]
CHALLAPATA – Standing beneath the Bolivian sun, it takes just one long look at the quinoa fields stretching as far as the eye can see, to understand why the Andean people call quinoa the golden grain. “We also call it chisiya mama, which means ‘mother of all grains’ in the Aymara language,” smiles Valentina Rodriguez, […]
Worldcrunch VATICAN CITY – Humility is inarguably the defining feature of the first 10 days of the new papacy: We have seen it in the words, gestures and symbols of Pope Francis. But on Friday, we may have the image that captures it best. La Stampa notes that the Argentine pontiff celebrated mass for the […]
With the announcement this week of a historic ceasefire from jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, a look at the feminist side of the Kurdish fight for greater autonomy.
For one grandfather, disaster has struck again — 30 years later.
NICOSIA – Cyprus is in a state of shock. The banks have been closed for days and somehow, the country has to raise 5.8 billion euros to qualify for the bailout package proposed by euro zone finance ministers. The initial rejection by the Cypriot parliament to the controversial bank account levy plan, has left this […]
HIV testing has been set up at border-crossings, with particular attention on truck drivers and prostitutes who may be particularly vulnerable.
FRANCE 24, LE MONDE, BBC, REUTERS Worldcrunch PARIS –Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been placed under formal investigation over claims his 2007 campaign was funded by “exploiting the weakness” of elderly Liliane Bettencourt, the L’Oréal heiress and France’s richest woman. Le Monde reports that Sarkozy’s supporters in the current center-right opposition called the decision […]
AFP, BBC, IRRAWADDY (Burma), REUTERS Worldcrunch MEIKTILA– Burmese sectarian violence has turned deadly, as angry mobs rioted in the streets and at least five people have been reported killed in the central city of Meiktila. The BBC cites a death toll of 20 by Friday morning, though the Myanmar government has only confirmed five fatalities […]
LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch ROME– Workers restoring Rome’s historic Palazzo Venezia have discovered what they are calling Benito Mussolini’s 12th and most secret bunker, reports La Stampa. There are no records or mentions of this bunker, which was abandoned and left incomplete. City superintendent Anna Imponente and architect Carlo Serafini made the discovery after they […]
BUENOS AIRES – The hunger to learn more about the life of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now and forever known as Pope Francis, is gripping the Argentinian capital. Just back from a meeting with the new pontiff in Rome, Mauricio Macri, head of the municipal government of Buenos Aires, announced that he will launch a “pope […]
Out of the Cold War archives, a chilling family tale from a divided Germany.
NICOSIA – The Cyprus Parliament’s initial rejection of the terms of the European Union bailout plan is bad news for Russia. The opposition to the required taxes on bank deposits means the risk is rising of a long-term freezing of corporate assets in Cyprus. Meanwhile new proposals for taxes on depositors in the island could […]
O GLOBO, FOLHA DE S. PAULO (Brazil) Worldcrunch CAMPINAS – A Brazilian transvestite has been arrested at Viracopos International Airport for allegedly trying to smuggle drugs he’d packed into an extra-large prosthetic posterior, reports Folha de S. Paulo. According to police in this southeastern Brazilian city, the suspect was due to embark on a Lisbon-bound […]
AL-JAZEERA, HURRIYET, TODAYS ZAMAN (Turkey) Worldcrunch ISTANBUL – Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan has called upon the armed PKK forces to recognize a ceasefire and withdraw from Turkey, reports Hürriyet. In what may turn out to be a historic announcement in the nearly three-decade-long conflict between Kurdish separatists and the Turkish government, Ocalan’s written […]