A Spanish pianist faces seven years of prison…for practicing; Italian thieves clean up; An Argentine doctor’s zealous anti-abortion move; and more from the week in global crime.
Month: November 2013
Your weekly shot of what the Arab world is saying, hearing and sharing.
Police are monitoring traffic from a small wooden gatehouse in eastern Vientiane, on the outskirts of the Laotian capital. It was here nearly one year ago, opposite the Indian embassy, that 62-year-old Sombath Somphone mysteriously disappeared. The rural development promoter and farmers’ rights activist hasn’t been heard from since. On Dec. 15, 2012, Somphone was […]
TACLOBAN — The pictures emerging from the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan last weekend show utter devastation. Experts will say that no two natural disasters are ever the same, yet it can often be useful to learn from reactions to past calamities. United Nations agencies were quick to announce the call for funds to support the […]
Exclusive: Rebels and drug traffickers teamed up to take out Colombia’s former president. Two undercover agents gained key information, before being discovered and killed by FARC.
KIEV — So Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is still a prisoner — and Ukraine’s future as part of the European Union hangs in the balance. The Ukrainian Parliament balked Wednesday night on any decision to release the opposition leader, who has been jailed since 2011. Meanwhile, the EU has sent Kiev a clear […]
BEIJING — The Chinese authorities have recently introduced a “Ten Thousand Talents Support Program,” a nationwide project for selecting outstanding talent in all areas of scientific and technological innovation. Among those, 100 people would be identified as potential Nobel Prize winners. Similar programs, equally generous and costly, have been put in place before. But regrettably, […]
Orange diamonds, Francis Bacons, Twitter shares and Chinese singles help us see the world in numbers over the past seven (7) days…
The ceremony was a favorite annual inter-faith event of then Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who went on to become Pope Francis.
SASSARI — The raw material costs absolutely nothing, and to fill up your tank there’s no need to look for a gas station. All you need to do is drink some water to stimulate your diuretic system and take a break at a rest stop. Yes, the solution to expensive petrol may be a car […]
NANJING — War crimes should never be forgotten, no matter how misleading may be their names. Asia’s history includes “comfort stations,” places used during World War II by Japanese forces to provide sexual services to their soldiers, often by imprisoned women from other countries. A recent controversy in this eastern Chinese city, infamous for the […]
KIM JONG-UN’S UNCLE EXECUTED North Korea’s official news agency KCNA announced that Kim Jong-un’s uncle and mentor, considered the second most powerful man in the country until his recent dismissal, was executed yesterday. Official media branded Jang Song-thaek a “despicable human scum” guilty of leading a “depraved life.” Read the full announcement here. CHEMICAL WEAPONS […]
Friday, November 14, 2014 G20 IN AUSTRALIA The summit season continues with a meeting of the G20 this weekend in Australia, where Prime Minister Tony Abbott is hoping to postpone climate change talk in favor of focusing on a growth target, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. But his wish will likely be challenged by U.S. […]
Chinese business leaders have everything, except for their health.
Syria is an apocalypse: dozens of disparate armed groups clash, alliances change weekly, the death toll has reached 100,000, and some two million Syrians have fled the country. Meanwhile, all sides are trying to gain an edge before the second round of Geneva talks to be held next month. Indeed, a recent increase in the […]
Thursday, November 13, 2014 SERIES OF ATTACKS TARGET EGYPT A series of apparently unrelated attacks has targeted Egypt, the most significant and unusual being one on an Egyptian navy ship yesterday in the Mediterranean Sea, which left five servicemen injured and eight more missing at sea. Four of the gunmen were killed and 32 arrested. […]
RABAT — At the mouth of the Bou Regreg River in Morocco, the small blue boats go from one shore to the other. The tireless rowers have assured the exchange of goods between Rabat and Salé, a commuter town on the other side of the river. “We wanted to preserve the boats, because they are […]
Does the classification of tropical storms need changing? With sustained winds of 195 miles per hour, and gusts close to 235 mph, the super typhoon Haiyan, which left a trail of destruction in the Philippines and beyond, was the most powerful cyclone to make landfall in recent history. So much so in fact that some […]
What does “sustainability” really mean? A forward-looking French architect offers his reflections as part of Worldcrunch Impact: Smarter Cities.
News in images, from New York to China to the Philippines. Look and read on…
HAMBURG — When Natalie Leroy talks about this German city’s water, her voice changes. It’s as if it was bubbling directly from the holy spring in Lourdes, not from one of the thousands of faucets in Hamburg. “It’s just water…” you might want to tell her, but then you would be getting it totally wrong. […]
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 CHINA-U.S. AGREE ON GAS EMISSIONS Presidents Xi Jinping and Barack Obama signed a landmark deal to limit their greenhouse gas emissions, The Washington Post reports. China, for the first time, agreed to cap its output by 2030 or even earlier if possible, and pledged to increase the share of non-fossil fuels […]
SANA’A — Antar Al-Aldharij pins his opponent down on the mat without using a dagger or a rifle. Yemen“s national judo champion, who trains every afternoon in a gym just outside of the capital, Sana’a, just needs the strength of his arms and bare hands. Al-Aldharij and his teamates share the small room of just […]
-Op-Ed- BOGOTA — The urge to wander the streets and feel the adrenaline rush that comes when painting on a public wall or bridge is condemned in our society, which has demonized this colorful art form and freedom of expression. This is a fundamental right — to communicate through letters and images painted on surfaces […]
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was smart to reject a pact that offered no long-term guarantees for Iran to dismantle its nuclear program. A Le Monde editorial.
Poor women come to this Indian clinic to rent their bellies to wealthy couples from around the world. A practical solution to modern problems or the worst kind of social engineering?
UKRAINE PROTESTS: UPDATE U.S. CONGRESS CLOSING IN ON BUDGET DEAL Republican and Democrat negotiators have agreed on a federal budget for the next two years, brushing aside fears of a new government shutdown in January, The Washington Post reports. If passed by the House and the Senate, the deal will translate into spending cuts and […]
Tuesday, November 11, 2014 APEC SUMMIT ENDS WITH CHINESE FREE-TRADE PROGRESSAfter two days of meetings at the Beijing-hosted Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, leaders of the 21 regional economies agreed to begin work toward possible adoption of a free-trade pact proposed by China, AP reports. A two-year study of the initiative will be launched with the […]
-Op-Ed- ISTANBUL — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the following to parliamentary representatives at his party’s gathering last week at Kizilcahamam: “A university student girl is staying at the same house with a male student. There is no supervision for that. This is against our conservative democratic nature. Some kind of supervision must […]
When it comes to offering comfort and counseling to parents dealing with their Internet-era teenagers, the French government is shelling out major cash.
HOMS — I still remember April 18, 2011, when it seemed all of Homs turned out for the funeral of 12 people. Tens of thousands of men and youths exited the grand mosque of Homs, the coffins held aloft amid the multitudes. The procession headed to al-Kateeb cemetery, one of the most revered burial grounds for Muslims in the city. Twenty years ago, Homs residents were forbidden from burying their dead in al-Kateeb cemetery; it was running out of space and the final few places were reserved for only the most prominent sheikhs. They would be the lucky few accorded […]
Monday, November 10, 2014 APEC SUMMIT Asia-Pacific leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, are in Beijing for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit, where China’s Xi Jinping and Japan’s Shinzo Abe met for formal talks for the first time after more than two years of deep tensions over disputed islands. South Korea and China announced this […]
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford lets loose again, so does Silvio Berlusconi. There’s also a controversy over FARC rebels on a yacht, up-close memories of Pope John Paul II and more of the week’s news, collected in quotes. (cover photo: Danielle Scott)
While U Slept THAI PM DISSOLVES PARLIAMENT, CALLS FOR NEW ELECTIONS Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra announced this morning the dissolution of the country’s parliament, a move that paves the way for new elections on Feb. 2, The Bangkok Post reports. Shinawatra will remain PM until a new cabinet is formed. Anti-government protests have resumed […]
HONG KONG — While migrating to Hong Kong has become trendy for certain Chinese middle-class families, a wavelet of Hong Kong’s own middle class seems to be moving off the wealthy island. According to data from Hong Kong’s Security Bureau, some 3,900 people emigrated in the first half of this year. Though this is still […]
BEIJING — The Chinese capital likes to dazzle visitors with the biggest and best projects in the world. Consider, for example, the Olympic Park built for the 2008 games. It is spread over nearly 12 square kilometers, intersected by a canal that, seen from above, resembles a dragon. The park is an exhibition of the […]
Bad guys and the cops who chase them… from Russia and Mexico, to Belgium and Australia. Freeze!
Babs tried and failed, so did the peeps working for Beyonce and even French President Francois Hollande. Once online, information beats to the sound of its own drum.
NEW YORK — The U.S. government has come in for severe criticism about its use of drones, as many claim that it is violating one of the central tenets of international humanitarian law: Under no circumstances should civilians be the target of military operations. Any country that deliberately crosses that line is guilty of war […]
Photo: Kris Krüg Here are some of the songs topping the charts from music hot spots around the world. Worldcrunch Pick: The hard rock band Motörhead released their 21st album, Aftershock, last October, 36 years after their 1977 debut album, Motörhead, came to give the British rock “n” roll a raging new life. At the […]