Worldcrunch
PARIS HOSTS IRAQ/ISIS CONFERENCEFrench President François Hollande opened an international conference in Paris this morning on the subject of battling Iraq’s ISIS terror organization, warning that “there is no time to lose” in fighting the jihadist group. At the same time, France announced it had joined Britain in carrying out reconnaissance flights over Iraq. NEW […]
CORNWALL — Every year we holiday in a small village in Cornwall, where there’s a church, the odd gift shop, a gastro pub and a bar. From the main street, concrete steps lead to a beach that is almost always deserted, and buffeted by the wind. The few brave souls who venture into the water […]
BEIRUT — Meeting for a drink, Lina, Ali and Johnny at first blush seem like normal young people enjoying a pleasant social gathering. But there is also heartbreak behind what has brought them so far from their homes in Damascus. Friends since childhood, these upper middle-class Syrians gather at one of their usual cafés lining […]
-Essay- BOGOTA — Have you heard? Your phone is spying on you, Apple isn’t as friendly as you think, and Facebook is getting scarier by the day! Today, information is an increasingly valuable currency, not only because it allows companies to generate strange intangible assets that are so difficult to replicate, but also because what […]
Here are some of the songs topping the charts from music hot spots around the world. Worldcrunch’s pick of the week is a 1963 live version of the Beatles’ “I Want To Hold Your Hand”. This Fab Fours’ classic will feature on their “new” album, On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2, which […]
A port city just like Marseille, but less riddled with crime, Rotterdam is nonetheless equipping itself with an unlikely new unit to fight illegal activity. Forensic police plan to use five big brown rats to shed light on criminal plots. After two years of training that will soon end, Derrick, Magnum, Poirot, Dupond and Dupont […]
MOSCOW — One of the defining new features of 21st century life is an attachment to our mobile phones. In Britain, a company AppRiver has actually measured bona fide fear of being without it, with 54% of the UK’s residents saying they worry when they are not able to see or hear their phones, and […]
CAIRO — The show had just started. It was one of those debates that the new private Egyptian channels love to produce: Viewers can call in to denounce a terrorist, live on air. In front of his television, Yasser was listening to the host describe an “individual who seriously affects the image of the country.” […]
La Stampa’s veteran war correspondent Domenico Quirico was held hostage in Syria for five months by rebel soldiers. Earlier this week, along with Belgian writer Pierre Piccinin, the 61-year-old was released after what he described as a “very dangerous and complex” captivity. Here is his first account of what happened… TURIN — We entered Syria […]
Since January, more than $540 billion has passed through the tax shelters of the largely unknown island of Labuan. Here’s why the rich are increasingly hiding their money there.
Sept. 12, 2014 SYRIA AND ALLIES OPPOSE U.S. ISIS PLANSyrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government and its allies Russia and Iran reacted negatively to U.S. President Barack Obama’s plans to launch airstrikes against ISIS in Syria, warning that such a move would violate international law if done outside the UN or without Assad’s approval, The Guardian […]
-OpEd- BOGOTA — “Thinking that everything can stay the same is the biggest utopia of all…” Margarita Marino de Botero is a Colombian environmentalist who aims to be as creative as she is dedicated. Environmentalism — dynamic and obsessed with changing reality — is continually touching upon the concept of utopia. This is, in fact, […]
On the first day of school in Sept 2004, after terrorists took hundreds of children and parents hostage in Russia’s Northern Caucasus region, a bloodbath ensued. Questions and scars linger.
Despite the high profile women presidents of Brazil and Argentina, the fairer sex is notably underrepresented in cabinet positions across Latin American governments.
Though Russia’s proposed diplomatic solution casts doubt over a U.S. military strike in Syria, Lebanese fear being caught in the middle if the fire spreads across the entire region.
Sept. 11, 2014 OBAMA OUTLINES ANTI-ISIS STRATEGYOn the eve of today’s 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attacks, President Barack Obama vowed to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Mideast’s ISIS terror group, also known as ISIL. Saying he had authorized air strikes against the jihadist group in Syria and the deployment […]
BOGOTA — After a long, drawn-out build-up, Starbucks has confirmed it will be coming to Colombia. The arrival of Howard Schultz’s company’s in the South America country famous for its coffee production will be the start of a very interesting showdown with local chain Juan Valdez — as well as all the small coffee shops […]
TEL AVIV — It has been a while since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pulled out some impromptu economic graph or catchy slogan. You can say he matured. Netanyahu of the third term is not the same man he was during his first or second, where he’d been drunk on victory from decimating the left […]
First, ovens that already know a dish’s cooking parameters? Now, miniature computers that you can swallow like pills? After the Internet of Things, here comes the Internet of Bodies.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014 OBAMA READY TO STRIKE ISIS IN SYRIA John Kerry arrived in Baghdad this morning where he will meet the country’s new Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to discuss the fight against ISIS, The New York Times reports. Kerry’s visit is part of a Middle East trip aimed at forging a broad coalition […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama has said he will hold off on plans for a military strike in Syria if the country agrees to surrender its chemical weapons to international gatekeepers, as Russia suggested Monday. But Obama has doubts that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom Western countries are convinced was responsible for gassing his […]
Not prone to emotional effusiveness, the Finnish have developed a particular taste for euphemisms: “Naturally, this is a day of big change for Finnish industry,” Premier Jyrki Katainen affirmed modestly last Tuesday, when the country’s best-known company, Nokia, sold its mobile phone outfit to Microsoft for $7.2 billion. That is about 15 times less than […]
China currently has just one-fifth the number of robots as Japan, and just one-third as many as the United States, but as manufacturing there grows, the country is poised for big bot growth.
Bruno Strebel spends his days tracking missing persons, insurance scammers and white-collar criminals. The former cop founded a detective school that teaches others to do the same.
A strange thing has happened on the way to the war in Syria: U.S. public opinion, like in Turkey, has lined up this time alongside Europe’s perennial reflex against intervention.
KOMMERSANT (Russia), BBC, AFP Worldcrunch MOSCOW — Kremlin-backed candidate Sergei Sobyanin has won the mayoral election in Moscow, reports the Russian paper Kommersant. With the support of 51.37% of voters, he secured just above the 50% threshold needed to avoid a second-round ballot. His main rival, Alexei Navalny, received 27.2% of the vote. According to […]
Tuesday, September 9, 2014 MH17 PRELIMINARY REPORT Dutch experts this morning published their preliminary report into the causes of the July 17 crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine. The report stopped short of saying whether a missile had hit the aircraft, explaining instead that it broke in mid-air after being hit by […]
REUTERS, AFP, BBC Worldcrunch ANKARA — Militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) announced in a statement Monday that they are halting their withdrawal from Turkey, citing the Turkish government’s failure to keep its part of the peace deal, Reuters reports. The militants said their decision did not affect the ceasefire it announced in March. […]
LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch ROME — Domenico Quirico, a veteran war correspondent for the Italian daily La Stampa, has been freed after five months as a hostage in Syria. Quirico, 62, who was released Sunday together with a Belgian teacher, Pier Piccinin, was kidnapped by Syrian rebels during his fourth trip to the country to […]
Things are getting nasty between Russia and bordering countries Belarus and Ukraine. And then there’s the Syrian factor.
High-stakes gambling machines involve billions of pounds, and prey on the destitute and unemployed. Most of the technology comes courtesy of Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi.
Monday, September 8, 2014 RUSSIA THREATENS RETALIATION Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned in an interview that further Western sanctions against Russia will see Moscow “respond asymmetrically.” According to news agency Ria Novosti, Medvedev suggested that Russia could decide to close its air space to Western companies, a move that he believes would lead some […]
A study has identified the online encyclopedia’s most controverial topics by language. Ironically, the study may also offer clues for all about how to resolve conflicts.
Syria was very much at the center of global debate this week…but gay rights, Olympic radiation and Edward Snowden were also getting talked about.
Striking farmers in Colombia say free trade agreements are responsible for their woes. Better to look closer to home, including industrial cartels and all the contraband entering the country.
Every since a private insurance system was launched in Rwanda, its citizens regularly cross the Burundi border to get better, cheaper care.
What is the world reading this week? The situation in Syria and its consequences features on several magazine covers, 21th century explorers from Portugal are preparing for Mars colonization and Quebec discovers it has surprisingly good wine. Check out our selection of covers from top magazines around the world…
ROME — Way back in 1998, Bill Clinton bet on the young Assad. He was to be his father’s successor, and the United States believed that the young Bashar al-Assad, once he reached power, would be the person to bring Syria back into the fold among the civilized nations of the world. And so Clinton’s […]
Here are some of the songs topping the charts from music hot spots around the world. Worldcrunch’s pick of the week is Bob Dylan’s “Pretty Saro”, a single which features on the latest album of his bootleg series Another Self Portrait (1969–1971), released on August 27. The compilation revisits the songs of what is commonly […]
Chinese companies justify shoddy products because of fierce competition. One businessman explains why this approach is nothing but a dead end.