Worldcrunch
BEIJING — In China, the core users of the professional social networking site LinkedIn are white-collar and managerial-level staff of large companies, particularly multinationals or joint ventures with foreign firms. Still, the network has a long way to go if it wants to recruit native Chinese. The users it can claim in China tend to […]
SEOUL — Kim Ju-hwan is headed toward an uncertain future. The 24-year old university student was sentenced to a year in jail for refusing to serve in South Korea’s military. As a Jehovah’s Witness, Kim says he’s morally opposed to war. “Based on what I learned in the Bible, I’m a conscientious objector. There’s a verse that says love your enemy. That’s my belief, and it’s how I’m trying to lead my life.” All able-bodied South Korean are required to serve in the armed forces for about two years. But for conscientious objectors like Kim Ju-hwan, there is no alternative […]
KOSTIANTYNIVKA — It was still early on Monday morning in the east Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka when the city administration and police station were visited by 20 weapons-bearing men wearing camouflage uniforms. Within a few minutes they had control of the seat of power in this city of 95,000 people, and it wasn’t long before […]
WINDHOEK — A train trip through Namibia? Several times a year, the Desert Express travels a loop through the most beautiful areas of Namibia, which is more than twice the size of Germany. The trip is far more comfortable than the alternative — a strenuous bus journey along dirt roads. We start out in Windhoek, […]
If you ever wanted to be friends with Timon from The Lion King, Will Burrad-Lucas will make you jealous.
The city of Sukhothai in central Thailand, which used to be the capital of the ancient Siam Empire, is now in ruins. I went digging for this slide a couple weeks ago after I saw an image of this same buddha’s head being “swallowed” by a banyan tree on a French television reportage about Thai […]
Economic growth has brought more people into Latin America’s middle class, a first but insufficient sign of progress in one of the world’s most unequal regions.
KERMANSHAH — It looks like a bank heist that took a very bad turn. Police of the Kermanshah province in western Iran suspect that a unidentified man’s body found in a bank ventilation shaft belonged to a would-be thief who suffocated there overnight. Employees of a branch of the Bank Saderat (the Exports Bank) called […]
The French navy has announced it will allow women to work in submarines starting in 2017. A Le Temps columnist contemplates whether that takes gender equality too far.
Two sisters return to the camp 70 years after they were first brought there, sharing memories of snowball fights, feelings of guilt and the need to never forget.
We all know how ubiquitous Coca-Cola“s red-and-white logo is around the world. But together with its archrival Pepsi-Cola, these U.S.-based cola giants have had to fend off smaller, locally-produced alternatives. Call it the alter-cola revolution. Let us take you on a fizzy little tour of the new regional and national cola brands springing up everywhere. […]
“Restaurant,” “haute couture,” “cuisine,” “raison d”être…” There are many examples of the linguistic prestige of the French language worldwide. But in Denmark, the perfectly acceptable Danish word for urinal, “pissoir,” is also tacky French slang for the john.
CAIRO — The desperation that causes such aggressive tactics is understandable. Nowadays, Egypt is in the headlines more for sporadic bombings, rowdy demonstrations and security crackdowns than for its wealth of tourist attractions. Unsurprisingly, tourist arrivals have tumbled, from a peak of around 14 million in 2010, to just 9.5 million last year, most of […]
An accusation, later withdrawn, by French cosmetics giant Yves Rocher stands at the center of the case of against celebrated anti-Kremlin blogger Alexei Navalny. Who’s pulling the strings?
Reconciliation between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority has angered Israeli leaders. But Israel’s own economy can’t afford a strangling of the Gaza and West Bank economies.
The Toulouse Museum took part in a project that allows viewers to spend a few hours with a female Slovenian bear named Tolosa. A video camera was placed around the animal’s neck for 20 days. The uniquely European project called “Inside the Eyes of the Bear” is linked to an exhibit and has provided valuable […]
MUNICH — Many business people believe that gamification is going to dramatically change the working world over the next decade. Companies are increasingly thinking about how they can motivate both employees and clients to solve problems and develop ideas with the help of digital platforms. Which is why Munich’s Technical University (TU) is using a […]
Before Kiev or Kharviv, Moscow’s new cold war with the West meant would-be American parents were banned from adopting Russian orphans. The effect can only now be tallied.
The Taj Mahal mausoleum is, to me, the most harmonious building man has ever designed, which is why I have a large version of this photo framed in my home. The shape of the domes, the colors of the marble ornaments, and the views through the refined archways make it second to none.
Two Argentine authors dig deeper into the causes – and cycles – of poverty in Latin America.
A smile, a chuckle, a LOL, a full-throated guffaw: getting yourself laughing is good for the soul, good for your health.
CORDOBA — Back in 1984, UNESCO included Spain’s Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba on its World Heritage list. Thirty years later, the site that tourist guides describe as one of Andalusia’s architectural masterpieces — a symbol of the golden age of the Umayyad civilization and of the “concord” between religions — now represents conflict. Though the exceptional […]
MUNICH — Audiences mostly find the sex-obsessed protagonists of Steve McQueen’s movie Shame and Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac bizarre and alien, or at the very least irritating. But there really are people like that in real life. Take, for example, this 58-year-old man somewhere in the eastern part of Germany sitting by his phone. He’s […]
Ukrainian politicians are united on the idea of more regional autonomy, but they seem to draw a red line on the question of federalism. That, they fear, would play right into Moscow’s hands.
Gossip columns and scurrilous TV shows peer into people’s private lives more every day. Not about freedom of information, they perpetuate the social complexes of the Colonial era.
As war upends the economy in Damascus, a few brave souls are launching small business projects that provide jobs for those desperate to work.
QUINGGOU — It was back in the mid-1990s, amid China’s major economic reforms. Liu Changxia and other men in the village of Qinggou felt it was “time to leave home” because the farm wasn‘t bringing in enough and their families needed to be provided for. The whole country was talking of nothing but economic growth. […]
Below are some of the songs currently topping the charts around the world. Worldcrunch Pick Jack White broke a record last week when he recorded the title track from his forthcoming album Lazaretto just hours before selling it to eager fans who queued up outside his studio. Fans could buy a vinyl 45 of the […]
MUNICH — In many places in the northern Alps, the winter sports season is already over before Easter. Some view the mild winter as a kind of foretaste of climate change, but experts warn against reading too much into any single year’s weather. “What was extreme is that the weather this winter on the whole […]
It’s no wonder Pretoria is known as The Jacaranda City. The streets lined with thousands of jacaranda trees are definitely a sight worth seeing. The beautiful purple blooms tend to coincide with year-end exams at the University of Pretoria, and legend has it that if a flower drops on a student’s head, it’s a sign […]
-OpEd- PARIS — From Vichy France to the Algerian War, the demand that France “open the archives” resonates every time the country struggles with one of its “pasts that don’t pass.” Twenty years after the Rwandan genocide of the Tutsi people, researchers are once again singing this refrain, especially in light of the provocative declarations […]
Technology will destroy more jobs and leave fewer for the under-qualified. Are countries prepared to deal with the social exclusion being forged by this work revolution?
Photographs that have caught our eye and captured events.
Master Chef and other TV shows celebrating fine food are all the rage. But in real life, both rich and poor are increasingly buying pre-packaged meals. Reflections from a London-based Sicilian.
In Sloviansk, masked men storm homes of Roma families and agitators blame the Jews.
Up until we went on a cruise on the Volga, the very name of the river brought images of iciness, Czars, snow, and tales of folklore. But on this hot summer day along “Russia’s main street,” as they call it, babushkas had given way to bikinis.
-OpEd- This is the time of year when American colleges inform applicants whether they’ll be accepted or not. Admission to prestigious universities grows tougher every year. Stanford University“s acceptance rate has fallen from 22.4% in 1970 to 5.7% in 2013. It’s the same for the University of Chicago, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, […]
Some “two million fish” were found dead and floating in a water reserve outside Tehran, possibly poisoned by untreated sewage that had been seeping in for months, the semi-official ISNA agency reported Wednesday. Mohsen Showkati, head of the environmental office of the district of Reyy where the Fashafuyeh dam was located, blamed waste waters from […]
The best weapon against insects is often other insects.
If you’re here searching for the secret to eternal life forget it, we’re not there yet. But in the meantime, here’s some supercentenarians from around the world with their own secrets to a long life. Some might surprise you!