Worldcrunch
Monday, June 23, 2014 KERRY IN BAGHDAD AS ISIS ADVANCES U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Baghdad early this morning and is expected to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as well as Sunni and Kurdish leaders to push for a coalition government to fight ISIS, The New York Times reports. The […]
NANTES – “Do not touch…” When she ran her fingers over this Braille inscription on the wall of the Sainte-Croix church, in the city of Nantes, western France, the young blind woman burst out laughing. After translation, her sighted friends were also won over by the irony of the artist. Working under the pseudonym The […]
-OpEd- BEIJING – Since late last year the way Chinese people cross the road has been receiving particular attention. Dubbed Chinese-style Of Crossing The Road, this phenomenon refers to the behavior of Chinese pedestrians, who cross an intersection not based on red and green lights, but on whether or not there are enough pedestrians to […]
VIENNA – It’s 11:45 a.m. on March 5, 2004 when two men enter the Maki diamond and jewelry store in Tokyo, set to commit the biggest theft in Japanese history. One of the men has brown leather gloves and a bag with the Cartier logo, the other is in all dark clothes. They are shown […]
RIO DE JANEIRO – They want to be heard. They want injustices reversed. They want attention. They probably didn’t think they would achieve this – but they did, to the point where the whole region is now looking at them. They are Brazilian. And since last week, hundreds of thousands of them have taken to […]
NEW DELHI – In 2012, out of the millions of people displaced by natural disasters around the world, over a quarter were from northeast India. Almost nine million inhabitants were forced to flee the region’s devastating monsoon. These forced displacements are a common occurrence. Floods have become so routine in Assam, a state located at […]
GRENOBLE – Since 2009, a team of 30 researchers from the Clinatec biomedical platform of the French Alternative Energies And Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) has been tackling a huge challenge: allowing quadriplegics to walk and open a door thanks to a brain-controlled implant system. For this to happen, the CEA is relying on different technologies […]
JINAN – How to “surf” anonymously on the Web, in a country – China – where cybercafés ask for proof of ID before you are allowed to log onto the Internet? In order to circumvent this requirement, Mr Guo, owner of a cybercafé in Jinan city, northeastern Chinese Shandong Province, had found a perfect solution: […]
With the World Cup and Olympics arriving, tough security plans are being overseen by the Brazilian Air Force. Nationwide protests have provided yet another “event” to be monitored.
With 84 players from outside the U.S. competing in the NBA this season, the American league broke its record of foreign players. It’s not a big surprise then to see nine of them on the American Airlines Arena court tonight, as the San Antonio Spurs face the Miami Heat in the decisive Game 7 of […]
Take a tour of what the world has been saying this week…
GENEVA – From one culture to another, the temperature of what people drink during their meals can vary. In many Asian countries for instance, people like to drink a hot beverage while they eat. Europeans for their part tend to favor drinks at room temperature, while North Americans prefer them ice-cold – on the rocks. […]
Decades of unbridled industrialization has left much of China’s soil badly contaminated. Some are set to make millions cleaning it up.
Friday, June 20, 2014 BATTLE RAGES AROUND IRAQ OIL REFINERY The Iraq army is still trying to push back ISIS jihadists, who are surrounding the country’s biggest oil refinery in Baiji. The Iraqi air force, meanwhile, claimed to have killed as many as 70 fighters in air strikes just north of Baghdad to prevent the […]
Being born in Italy doesn’t guarantee you citizenship. For those who grew up children of immigrants, proving you deserve a passport can be like a bus ride to nowhere.
QOM – “What are you going to do there?” asks an Iranian youth I meet in Tehran. “For us, that’s not even Iran.” My destination is Qom, 120 kilometers south of the capital. On this day, at the end of March 2013 (year 1392 according to the Persian calendar), it is snowing. I arrive at […]
The procedure is gaining popularity amongst young men who believe, erroneously, that it eliminates any risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.
Our intrepid reporter signs up for a new course taught by homeless people in the Polish city of Lodz for those who want to learn how to lives on the streets.
Thursday, June 19, 2014 U.S. WANTS MALIKI GONE U.S. officials are increasing pressure on the Iraqi government, warning that the U.S. won’t intervene militarily to stop the barbaric ISIS fighters until Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki steps down, British newspaper The Independent reports. Speaking to the BBC this morning, Maliki’s spokesman rejected calls for his […]
Not just cheap — but *free* public transport — deserves a proper public hearing. A look at the irony of those now in power, and their desire to silence legitimate debate.
HANOVER – Students here at Dartmouth College, an Ivy League university in New Hampshire have been protesting against the rising numbers of sexual assaults on campus, as well as discrimination against homosexuals. The rallying cry of protesters is: “Dartmouth has a problem!” There have also been protests in recent weeks at other elite academic institutions, […]
Op-ed ISTANBUL – If I were inclined, I could wax all day about the new National Intelligence Agency law. I could opine, for example, that “Even George Orwell could not dream of an intelligence agency that would keep the urine samples of its people.” But that’s for another day. I could also explain how the […]
Global Trade Alert has just published its 2013 report on international trade, and raised the alarm on “Protectionism’s Quiet Return.” In the cross-hairs of this free-trade advocacy group are the G20 countries, which have been taking more and more protectionist measures since the financial crisis broke out in 2008. From the anti-dumping EU measures on […]
TOKYO – A few months ago, Shin Sugimoto, Human Resources director at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Tokyo, revolutionized the traditional methods of recruitment in Japan. Instead of automatically promoting the most experienced man, as it is traditionally done – who had patiently been waiting for his turn for years – Sugimoto proposed to choose the next […]
PARIS – A cheeky move, one might say. To retrace the history of the undergarment – from the XXL fig leaf on Adam’s attributes taken from a 10th century manuscript to the tighty-whities of the 1980s (called kangaroo briefs in France because of their front pocket) – is a daring, er, undertaking indeed. A challenge […]
Wednesday, June 18, 2014 POROSHENKO TO ISSUE CEASEFIRE Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko announced after a phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that he would order shortly a “unilateral ceasefire” by government troops engaged in fights with pro-Russian groups in Eastern Ukraine, The Kyiv Post reports. According to RT’s live blog, fighters in the […]
ADDIS ABABA – On June 3, Egyptian politicians were caught in a televised diplomatic gaffe, which could have cost them dearly. Invited by Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to a debate on the $4.2 billion hydroelectric dam that Ethiopia is about to start building across the Blue Nile, one of the two major tributaries of the […]
-OpEd- BEIJING – On June 6, the Guardian newspaper in Britain and the Washington Post in the United States revealed the American government’s ongoing efforts to monitor the activities of people all around the world. They did so only after verifying the authenticity of the confidential documents they had obtained. The top-secret documents showed that […]
Iranian voters rejected the regime’s hard line on the nuclear issue that led to a deep economic crisis. Now whether Hossan Rohani softens Iran’s stance also depends on the West.
It’s more than just an easy target…
SAHARONIM – Last summer, Israel passed an amendment to the 1954 Prevention of Infiltration Law, which allows refugees to be held for a minimum of three years without detention without a trial or charges being brought against them. According to the law, refugees from “enemy states” can be held in indefinite detention, even if they […]
GENEVA – Wife: “I’ve done my share. It’s your turn now.” Husband: “If you leave me in the next five years, I’ll really feel like I sacrificed myself for nothing.” What are they talking about? Working part-time to spend more time with the kids? Turning down a promotion? Giving up paragliding and cycling on weekends […]
Tuesday, June 17, 2014 ISIS APPROACHES BAGHDAD Fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant have gained control of parts of Baquba, a town 37 miles north of Baghdad, as they continue their march towards the capital. Yesterday, U.S. President Barack Obama announced he would send 275 troops “to provide support and security […]
-Op-Ed- BEIJING – It would seem that police brutality is not just for ordinary – powerless – citizens in China. A policewoman from central China’s Henan Province was recently arrested when visiting her daughter in the provincial capital Zhengzhou. Mistakenly accused of being sex workers, the woman and her daughter were beaten, tortured and detained […]
Monday, June 16, 2014 U.S. EYES IRAN TALKS OVER IRAQ CRISIS The United States is expected to hold talks with Iran this week over possible intervention in Iraq following the aggressive jihadist offensive there, The Wall Street Journal reports. But in reaction to the U.S. decision to move the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush […]
VALETTA – It is an inhospitable rock floating in the Mediterranean Sea. A piece of coralline limestone blown by the winds and burned by the sun with a layer of earth so thin that nothing much can grow on it. Welcome to Malta, a simple and unpretentious place. Yet, this archipelago comprising eight islands – […]
As Iran voted in an apparently more moderate successor, Hassan Rouhani, the country and world could look back and ask what is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s true legacy.
A new documentary on German television uncovers the notable tax revenue and nationwide implications of being the “biggest whorehouse in Europe.”