Among only five Latin Americans on Forbes Magazine’s presitigious annual index of the most powerful is El Chapo, a legendary Mexican drug kingpin poisoning the entire region.
Month: November 2013
Though she knew she would never walk again, it didn’t mean she couldn’t climb.
Over the past 30 years, while China opened up to the outside world, the Chinese business community has gradually accumulated more and more knowledge of the world as well. Access to the World Trade Organization and modern information technology also helped speed along that process of global understanding. Still, there are limits. Since the vast […]
SHANGHAI — Some inhabitants near Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport are reporting something far more odious than the usual noise pollution. According to Zhou, who lives just south of Shanghai in Luchaogang, even on sunny days, he can see “golden raindrops” falling down, accompanied by a bad smell, the Dongfang Daily reported. The droppings, which Dongfang […]
BERLIN — During his election campaign, Iran’s new president Hassan Rouhani had criticized his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s aggressive behavior towards the West. He claimed that Iran needed to moderate its tone in order to win the West’s trust about its nuclear program. Since his election victory, Rouhani has launched an unprecedented charm offensive on the […]
The teacher is a shopkeeper who volunteers his time to kids who otherwise would be shut out from any education.
Friday, November 7, 2014 OBAMA PENS LETTER TO IRAN’S KHAMENEI U.S. President Barack Obama secretly wrote a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei last month, which The Wall Street Journal reports “appeared aimed both at buttressing” the anti-ISIS campaign and “nudging Iran’s religious leader closer to a nuclear deal.” Obama reportedly stressed that the […]
Nearly three decades after a bloodbath between guerrillas and the government, prison sentences, judicial expenses, and international prosecutions are costing the country dearly.
IVRY-SUR-SEINE — The Plateau special planning district in this small town south of Paris could almost be mistaken for a regular construction site. Since 2007 the multidisciplinary artist Stefan Shankland has guided the construction of some 1,000 apartments according to an “action research” program launched by the city government and developed over the course of […]
TEL AVIV — It’s the joke of the evening and they tell it again and again, happy with themselves, a lukewarm glass of Coke in their hands: “Are you ready to hear a lie? Because if I tell you the truth, we’ll have to kill you.” They probably wouldn’t, but then again the participants of […]
Iraq’s rising death toll, a Nazi art stash recovery and other events of the past seven days are summed up by the numbers… (cover photo: Jorge Franganillo)
As winter descends on Mongolia’s cold and polluted capital of Ulaanbaatar, toxic coal heating is turning on everywhere. An estimated one resident in 10 dies from the effects of pollution.
ARABICA: Your weekly shot of what the Arab world is saying, hearing and sharing.
A German perspective on the mind-boggling modern art discovery this week in Munich – one more sign that the Nazi past is fading into history.
Thursday, November 6, 2014 AIRSTRIKES TARGET AL-NUSRA IN SYRIA The U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition launched airstrikes against the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and another jihadist group, Ahrar al-Sham, in what appears to be the beginning of a wider military operation in northern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. This came after the al-Nusra Front seized […]
MOSCOW — The U.S. government is convinced that Edward Snowden is violating Vladimir Putin’s “ultimatum.” The Russian president had said in July that the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower could stay in Russia only if he “stopped his work that was meant to cause damage to our American partners.” In August, Snowden was granted asylum […]
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Not Only NASA: 8 National Space Programs
As India launched its first spacecraft today in a bid to become the fourth national space agency to reach Mars, we went exploring other space programs around the world. Obviously, there’s the big kahunas — NASA and Roscosmos and the European Space Agency — and some surprisingly smaller national programs. There are also others we […]
-OpEd- BEIJING — Chen Yong Zhou, a reporter working for Guangzhou city’s New Express newspaper in the southern city of Guangzhou, was detained recently by police who had arrived all the way from Hunan, 425 miles away. Chen was accused of damaging the reputation and commercial interests of Zoomliom, a Hunan construction machinery and sanitation […]
HOMS — Five hundred and ten days have passed since the siege began in Homs, taking a toll on civilians and fighters alike. Homs, dubbed “the capital of the revolution” by activists for its early role in the revolt, has since been two-thirds destroyed by air raids and shelling. The mass protests that broke out in March 2011 were met with deadly military force, prompting the formation of local units of the rebel Free Syrian Army. Regime forces have worked since to quell the local rebellion; for the past year and a half, 14 neighborhoods have lived under a grinding […]
A Brazilian viewpoint in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations on widespread NSA surveillance.
We all want to get places faster, cheaper…and cleaner. Travel and commuting are parts of busy lifestyles and some cities have taken measures to make it much easier, and the journey more enjoyable, for their passengers. Whether it’s WiFi on the subway so you can check your emails, smartcards so queues don’t back up, or […]
Wednesday, November 5, 2014 REPUBLICANS TAKE CONTROL OF U.S. SENATE The Republican Party won control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since 2006, gaining at least 7 seats, 1 more than they needed to have a majority after scoring important victories in Tuesday’s midterm election in North Carolina, Colorado, Iowa, West Virginia, Arkansas, […]
BUENOS AIRES — The daily arrival of droves of people to work in Argentina’s capital has economic benefits, since these commuters are also consumers who spend their money on goods and services inside the city. But that windfall is more than cancelled out by increased spending on education, health, maintenance of public spaces and other […]
And it’s about to get worse in the country that has granted temporary asylum to Edward Snowden.
See the solar eclipse through shades, the Boston Red Sox win the Series, a “poisoned” USB key and other images that have made news in the past seven days. (cover photo: Imahinasyon)
Those who suffer from autism are increasingly sought out for their special skills set, particularly in IT. But difficulty with office politics and politesse can place limits.
Worms, crickets and the like are showing up at fine European eateries. But this is not just a gastronomical fad, as population growth means finding new sources of protein in unlikely critters.
TURIN — There are journeys even more awful than the perilous crossings in rickety boats made by would-be immigrants trying to reach European shores. In these trips instead – made to Pakistan, Iran, Egypt or certain Eastern European countries – people sell a part of themselves: a journey of transplants, to places where the human […]
Tuesday, November 4, 2014 MIDTERM ELECTION DAY Americans are voting today in midterm elections that are expected to result in a Republican Senate majority, according to The Washington Post’s election model. USA Today makes the same prediction, explaining that with a net gain of 11 seats, the GOP would win its largest majority since the […]
BAUCAU — Eleven years after achieving independence from Indonesia, Timor-Leste is still one of the youngest countries in the world. And while economic growth rates are good, thanks in part to recent revenue from oil and gas, most people here still live in poverty. But now, the government is hoping to diversify the fledgling country’s economy by focusing on the tourism industry, banking on the the country’s natural beauty as a perfect draw for holiday and adventure seekers. Ricardo Ximenes Marques wakes up to paradise every morning at one of the beaches in Baucau, where the 26-year-old works as a […]
NADOR — Papa Africa carefully wraps his only possession, a cooking pot, in a cover. He then climbs up to the top of a tree to hang it. “It’s because of the police. When they come, they burn and break everything,” he explains as he jumps back to the ground. Next stop is the “Tranquilo,” […]
Monday, November 3, 2014 EAST UKRAINE ELECTIONS Eastern Ukraine’s rebel-held regions of Donetsk and Luhansk held their own elections yesterday, which Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called a “farce” and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini characterized as a “new obstacle on the path towards peace.” Despite Poroshenko’s calls to ignore the vote, Russian officials said […]
BUKAVU – For the past two years, agricultural production has been increasing in the province of South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And at least part of the credit goes to shopkeepers across the border in Rwanda. The neighboring store owners have been providing Congolese farmers with phytosanitary seeds and products that […]
Cameron on UK press, Colombian rapper on Bieber graffiti, NSA, Mozambique and other words that drove the news this past week.. (cover photo: bes z)
Georgia’s outgoing President Mikhail Saakashvili has been a darling in the West. Now that his opponents are in power, his fate will tell us much about the nation’s young democracy.
An American spy author and rock star, a chief rabbi from Israel and legendary general from Vietnam are among those to whom we’ve bid farewell in October. Read more below. (photo of Lou Reed in 1976 – Toronto Star/Zuma)
A young Syrian widow who lost her husband and four children to the civil war describes a miserable life in a Jordanian refugee camp – and a heartwrenching decision.
Photo: Adam Kliczek Here are some of the songs topping the charts from music hot spots around the world. Worldcrunch Pick: As a tribute to Lou Reed, who died on October 27, the Parisian contemporary art museum Fondation Cartier released, for the first time, a video of Lou Reed and fellow former Velvet Underground member […]
When Gezi Park protesters held up posters of Kemal Ataturk amid a fog of tear gas, they were searching for stability in a changing world. Reflections on 70 years of the Turkish Republic.
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Redefining Death Through The Ages
Technological advances and ethical questions have forced societies to constantly redraw the thin line between life and death. (Happy Dia de Muertos!)