As demand for organ transplants skyrockets, a new artificial heart and other sophisticated prostheses are among the medical-tech advancements raising troubling questions.
Month: October 2013
The sixth Climate Change Vulnerability Index report produced by risk analysis firm Maplecroft has found that climate change “may pose a serious obstacle to sustainable economic growth in the world’s most commercially important cities.” The index ranked the vulnerability of the world’s countries to the impacts of climate change by evaluating their risk of exposure […]
A workplace murder in China’s Forbidden City, farmyard horrors in northern Italy and a lucky smartphone in Florida are among the crimes that made it on this week’s global police blotter. photo credit: alvaro-qc
BOGOTA — As negotiations continue to try to bring a definitive end to Colombia’s decades-long civil war, another thorny issue related to the country’s violent past won’t go away: the fate of soldiers accused of crimes. The government’s proposal for a specific military justice code to handle such cases was recently rejected by the Colombian […]
Your weekly shot of what the Arab world is saying, hearing and sharing.
Beyond the Taliban’s attack against Malala, there is also widespread corruption and poor state monitoring that leads to many Pakistani schools being simply abandoned buildings.
Friday, October 31, 2014 RUSSIA/UKRAINE GAS DEAL Months-long talks between Moscow, Kiev and Brussels ended with a deal yesterday for Russia to resume supplying gas to Ukraine at least until March 2015, Reuters reports. The agreement is also good news for EU countries that rely on Russian gas because it ensures that gas supplies via […]
MOSCOW — It’s not often that the government’s plan and the people’s plan match as well as they do right now. The government is projecting an increase in real incomes in the next couple of years, but it also anticipates a decrease in the amount that people will save. And that is precisely what people […]
What’s the price of John Lennon’s childhoood home? Or the scalp of a president? Find out how the news added up over the past week…
In the wake of the immigrant tragedy off the coast of Lampedusa, a reporter sneaks into a detention center in southern Italy to witness living conditions and hear tales of refugees.
Categories
Diary Of A Double Mastectomy
A Parisian breast cancer patient kept this journal in the week leading up to her surgery, and sent it to Le Monde.
BEIJING – It’s rare that one sees the Communist leaders of China transformed into caricatures. However, a few days ago a video appeared called “How leaders are made” in which Xi Jinping’s avatar appears, from 2 minutes and 35 seconds onward, as a comic figure along with American President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister […]
Haven’t finalized your Halloween costume yet? Don’t worry! Worldcrunch has been browsing the news archives of recent months looking for good ideas, bad puns and other ways to abuse the powers of photoshop. Scary, right…??
BUENOS AIRES — There was a time when we resolved everything, absolutely everything, around a café table. Or at least, that was the feeling. A coffee bar provided the perfect backdrop and the necessary mutual understanding with friends that allowed you to talk about anything at all: the world, the country, sports, sex, television, you […]
Thursday, October 30, 2014 SWEDEN RECOGNIZES PALESTINE Sweden today became the first EU member in Western Europe to officially recognize Palestine, a month after the country’s prime minister announced intentions for the controversial move during his inaugural address. “It is an important step that confirms the Palestinians’ right to self-determination,” Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom […]
SESTRORETSK — There was a time when this northwest Russian city was considered the engine of the workers’ revolution. It had been the largest weapons factory in Imperial Russia, and just after the launch of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, workers frequently set off from here to expropriate property from the Czar’s followers in nearby St. […]
From the concrete jungles of New York and Mexico City to the outbacks of Australia and Tunisia, ground-level isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. With our populations rising and spreading out across the lands, it makes sense to dig deeper into the earth. There are a growing number of projects embracing this solution to […]
PARIS — The loud complaints of European leaders castigating Americans as vile spies who are betraying their allies are quite surprising. Oh, of course, perhaps they felt obligated to say something while they debated together in Geneva about what the common EU reaction to U.S. spying should be. What is surprising is the seeming astonishment […]
ISTANBUL — The battle over gay rights in Turkey is now centered around a smartphone app. A Turkish court has banned the application Grindr, which gives gay men a way to meet and share information, on grounds of obscenity and misuse of personal information. The ban went into effect last month after the 14th Anatolia […]
Wednesday, October 29, 2014 ANTI-ISIS TROOPS JOINING FORCES IN KOBANI Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have arrived in Kobani to fight alongside Syrian Kurds in the besieged border city, more than a week after Turkey announced it would let them cross into Syria, The New York Times reports. The 150-strong group were reportedly to be joined […]
France’s star architect Dominique Perrault is focusing his attention downward: “We come from the earth and we shouldn’t be afraid of it…”
A green city collaboration between Singapore and China has all the features of an environmentally sustainable future. But one thing it’s missing: people.
Categories
Thailand, A Foreign Investment Paradox
Thailand saw a record of capital infusion from abroad in 2012, but the country needs critical upgrades, as it remains totally dependent on technology from outside its borders.
In 2003, when Singapore, New Zealand and Chile launched the Pacific Three (P3) Closer Economic Partnership, few could have predicted that this agreement would grow into the greatest force driving the economic and political landscape of the region. The changes began in 2008 when the United States joined the negotiations and proposed launching the Trans-Pacific […]
PARIS — Desperately wanting to find their soul mates, people who use dating sites often fall victim to pointless conversations, hurt feelings, and even addictive or irrational behaviors. We spoke with four disappointed users, who share their stories. Julia, 30, stewardess “After being single for a year and a half, I got tired of not […]
Tuesday, October 28, 2014 ISIS SAYS KOBANI BATTLE “NEARLY OVER” In a new video showing captive British journalist John Cantlie, and which The Washington Post calls “bizarre,” ISIS claims that the battle for the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani is “is coming to an end. The Mujahideen are just mopping up now.” The video, made […]
A young American entrepreneur has created what appears to be a successful add-water-and-mix food he thinks could have many helpful applications around the globe. Others aren’t so sure.
NEW DELHI — He wears a badge, and his slightly wrinkled light blue uniform has epaulettes. But the security guard casually seated on a chair at the entrance to this jewelry store in a New Delhi mall, old gun in hand, doesn’t exactly look like the deterrent type. In the shop window, display busts have […]
Over the past week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reacted to the newest U.S. spy revelations that suggested her personal cell phone was targeted, and Pope Francis struck a strong note after the suspension of a bishop who lived a breathtakingly extravagant lifestyle. Meanwhile, the biological mother of the little Roma girl named Maria was found. […]
The Arctic, where Russia has dispatched military resources, is the last disputed area of such massive proportions. It’s a region where the interests of Moscow and Washington collide, an excellent stage for a Cold War parody.
Monday, October 27, 2014 ELECTION RESULTS GALORE It was “election weekend” around the world, with notable ballots held in five countries, though not always without problems. In Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko’s bloc and the party of his Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk were holding talks Monday to create a coalition after the two led in preliminary […]
In Hamburg, a major Nazi monument is being repurposed into deluxe apartments. A lesson on the luxury boom, and the way Germany faces its uncomfortable history.
ATHENS — Over the past three years, the European country most affected by the global economic crisis is without doubt Greece. Today, almost six in 10 young people are unemployed, 58.8% of those under 24. Many have also moved abroad since the country has struggled to recover from the recession. The “troika” (the International Monetary […]
JAIPUR — India is emerging as one of the fastest-growing centers in the global market for weight loss surgery. Two-thirds of wealthy urban Indians are now overweight. Like 56-year-old Chander Kataria and 65-year-old Mohan Gulati. Chander weighs 85 kilos (187 pounds) while Mohan is over 120 kilos (264 pounds). They are both trying desperately to lose weight, and one of their efforts is a morning walk around the Bhagat Singh Garden in Jaipur. “I try to exercise, shake and vibrate every organ of my body, but it’s not working,” says Chander. Mohan has tried many ways to lose weight, including […]
Hard times for American foreign policy, which no longer seems to differentiate between friend and foe. European heads of state who have been spied on don’t appreciate that one bit.
Here are some of the songs topping the charts from music hot spots around the world. Worldcrunch Pick: On Thursday, the British punk band Buzzcocks played a gig in Paris, as part of the “Europunk” exhibition in the French capital. Although putting the punk movement in a museum may seem paradoxical at the least, it […]
Moscow’s goal be an exporter of manufactured goods must be done in the face of major political and financial uncertainties.
Let’s call her Juliet. This young woman is one of the few who accepted to tell her story, under certain conditions of course: no mention of her name, not even her first name, of her studies or her former university. “During my Masters, the relationship between my thesis supervisor and I gradually worsened. At first, […]
Squalid conditions in the overcrowded slums of the island country force people to look for new shelters.