Worldcrunch
“Here you have a stevia, that’s for diabetes,” says Téodora, a sun-weathered snippet of a woman of around 50, proudly beginning a tour of her medicinal plant nursery. She points out the Paraguayan lemongrass, for nerves; and a plant with little purple flowers, called “forever alive”, which is excellent for the heart.” All told, her […]
The revelations of the NSA surveillance program came on the heels of the Boston Marathon attack. America weighs the links between an alleged terrorist and self-avowed whistleblower.
THE JAKARTA POST (Indonesia), REUTERS, CNN Worldcrunch NABIRE – At least 18 people were killed in a stadium stampede on Sunday night after a riot broke out over the result of a boxing match in Nabire, in eastern Indonesia. Around midnight, just after the end of an amateur boxing game, some spectators started protesting the […]
BDNEWS24 (Bangladesh), BBC Worldcrunch DHAKA – Ghulam Azam, spiritual chief of Bangladesh’s main Islamist party, was sentenced Monday to 90 years in jail for crimes against humanity during the country’s Liberation War in 1971. A war crimes tribunal in the capital of Dhaka found the 91-year-old former Jamaat-e-Islam leader guilty of five charges: murder and […]
BBC (UK), CNN (USA) Worldcrunch WASHINGTON– In a statement released on the White House’s website, US President Barack Obama has called for calm as protests continue following a Florida jury’s not guilty verdict in the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case, reports the BBC. In his statement, Obama called Martin’s death a tragedy, but said that America […]
MOSCOW – Russia’s history is not going to be just “political” anymore. Publishers of new history textbooks for Russian schools have been charged with the task of “encouraging patriotism in the younger generation.” That is not all: History is now going to include “religious history,” especially the history of Eastern Orthodoxy. These are the backbones […]
PARIS – So Yves Saint Laurent“s CEO has been named vice president at Apple. We don’t know much yet about what Paul Deneve’s role will be beyond the company’s mention of “special projects” and his reporting to Apple chief Tim Cook, but let’s try to analyze the move from the perspective of luxury strategy. We […]
SANTIAGO – Between reforestation and afforestation, 100,000 hectares are planted in Chile on average every year – 160 million new trees. Reforestation is the restocking of forests that have been depleted, while afforestation is the establishment of new forests. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Chile and Uruguay are the only South […]
Monday, July 14, 2014 GAZA STRIKES CONTINUE AS OFFENSIVE ENTERS 7TH DAY The Israeli army continues to launch air strikes in Gaza, while more rockets are fired towards Israel, as the open conflict reaches its seventh day. At least 172 Palestinians are reported killed with more than 1,100 wounded. The United Nations said that 17,000 […]
Recently a home of 400 square meters was put on sale for a cool $21.2 million. That’s an astronomical sum, even for a piece of property advertized as being located adjacent to a good school that guarantees any entrance to the school for the children of the buyers. As news spread of this over-the-top pricetag […]
Exactly 100 years ago, the renowned Italian educator first landed in America with a method that pushes independent thinking. Today, the results are everywhere — notably at Google HQ.
BERLIN – Anyone who owns a Trabant — or “Trabi” as the East German cars are called these days, often with a mixture of affection and amused derision — really wants to own one. But probably not as a financial investment, because even a beautifully maintained Trabant P601 fetches no more than 3,000 euros. Instead, […]
Covers from top magazines around the world…
Cases of vandalism are multiplying against Arab villages and places of worship.
IMST – It’s seven o’clock in the morning, and what’s left of the night’s thunder clouds sit perched wispy white above the rocks. Despite the cool temperature, Andreas Riml sits wearing a T-shirt on the terrace of his hut, drinking coffee and looking out over the breadth of the alpine valley that opens out toward […]
Here are the songs topping the charts from some music hot spots around world. First, our pick of the week from Varazdin, Croatia Croatian Tambura band: Mejaši
-Essay- BEIJING – Lately a friend of mine was particularly busy looking for a bottle of red wine of a certain year from a certain Spanish vineyard. It took him quite a lot of time and trouble and a lot of calling in favors to find the wine and get it brought back from abroad. […]
BUENOS AIRES – Washington’s blatent public pressure to keep Edward Snowden from obtaining political asylum has fed a new wave of anti-Americanism worldwide. It also represents a test for the United States’ bilateral relations with several countries, including Russia and those in its own “backyard.” What explains the willingness of Barack Obama’s government to pay […]
In Japanese schools, parents come and talk about the upside of starting a family. The number of places in day care centers is being expanded; on the walls, posters show male celebrities touting the advantages of being a dad. In view of demographic change, the Asian archipelago nation is trying all it can to get […]
–OpEd– There are many similarities between the protests around Gezi Park in Turkey and those of the Free Pass Movement in Brazil. In both cases, initial demonstrations were small with specific objectives: to save the park and to obtain free public transport, respectively. And discontent in both countries reached a critical mass amid widespread perception […]
Take a tour of what the world has been saying this week…
NEW YORK – In the art world, auctions and mega galleries dominate. There are departed graffiti artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat who sell for tens of millions of dollars. Venice’s biennial tips its hat to ‘outsider’ artists, such as Antonio Ligabue, and mixes them with ‘insiders’, such as Richard Serra. Enter Thomas Hirschhorn, a creator of […]
You probably have never heard of French engineer Louis Pouzin. But you might not be reading this website without him. At 82, he offers a unique perspective on Edward Snowden, and us all.
Friday, July 11, 2014 NEW EVIDENCE OF EASTERN UKRAINE TORTURE NGO Amnesty International says it has gathered evidence of “stomach-turning beatings and torture” committed by pro-Russian and pro-Kiev groups against “activists, protesters and journalists” in Eastern Ukraine. In its report, the organization notes however that pro-Kiev forces have committed “a smaller number of abuses,” and […]
Circuses in Russia are facing animal cruelty accusations and competition from abroad.
BERLIN — They hardly had to beg Renate Künast. The chairwoman of Germany’s Alliance 90/Greens parliamentary group and former minister of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture was thrilled to open last week’s Ethical Fashion Show in Berlin. It’s right up her alley. “This is a countermovement to mass production,” she says. Slow Fashion instead of […]
SHANGLIN – Zhen Minxin keeps repeating that he is “lucky.” On this warm morning of mid-June, his return back home is being celebrated, with the slices of watermelon laid out on the table and cigarette butts scattered on the floor as sure signs of the festivities. Zhen’s own cigarettes are Gold Seal, a brand unknown […]
We are well past the tipping point, where governments are violating privacy and limiting the people’s rights in the name of some faceless enemy.
Rising prices in the developing world will eventually usher in a whole new paradigm on global currency markets.
Liu Zhijun, China’s former Railway Minister, has received a “suspended” death penalty. He may get a reprieve. But one writer says it’s time for a vengeful China to abolish executions altogether.
Thursday, July 10, 2014 77 PALESTINIANS DEAD IN GAZA A Gaza health ministry spokesman said that at least 77 Palestinians had been killed and more than 500 injured in the past three days, as Israel intensified strikes on targets in Gaza, The Guardian reports. Israel military said it had hit 322 targets last night, taking […]
It’s an attitude, a way of life — but have no doubts, these women riders are very much aware of the dangers.
In most countries black-market work is not an exception, but the norm. A recent study comissioned by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) revealed that the shadow economy was booming. Illicit economic activities constitutes between 20 to 30% of GDP in many southern European countries. An estimated two billion people work for this global black […]
Every night, Domenico Codispoti arranges his sleeping bag on a fixed patch of sidewalk in central Milan — and is not allowed to move until the next morning.
Though Israeli leaders were pleasantly surprised by some aspects of Mohammed Morsi’s reign, they are not sorry to see him go. For one thing, it’s a big blow to Hamas.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014 AIR ATTACKS INTENSIFY BETWEEN ISRAEL AND HAMASIsrael carried out dozens of air strikes early Wednesday, with at least 28 people reported killed and more than 100 wounded in Gaza since Monday. Palestinian authorities said two women and five children were among the victims killed in what the Israeli military called “Operation […]
HERZOGENAURACH – The thing with the brush shoes gets Helmut Fischer going to this day. The small man with the friendly smile and pirate goatee sits in the visitors’ room of Puma Deutschland in the small, central German city of Herzogenaurach. Around here, Fischer is known as “Mister Puma.” The 63-year-old has been working for […]
BUENOS AIRES – It’s the first guide of its kind. It explains which medical issues demand immediate attention and which ones can wait. Someone feels well and then, all of a sudden, they feel very ill. It could be an incessant cough, acute headache, fever, bad stomach ache, a cold with constant sneezing, increased blood […]
ISTANBUL – An electronic version of a Strauss waltz suddenly starts to play. In the small fountain in the center of the mall, some trickles of water start to sprinkle up, with blue and green spotlights illuminating the scene. All in rhythm. Everybody freezes at the moment the spectacle begins: a group of men seated […]
DJERBA – Otto Dix in Tunisia? Sounds like a mistake, a geographical accident, as if somebody or something got on the wrong plane. Not so. There really are some 100 works — sketches, drawings, oils — by famed German New Objectivity artist Otto Dix (1891-1969) on exhibit on the holiday island of Djerba. On the […]