Worldcrunch
WASHINGTON — Tattoos dedicated to Lucifer, traces of alcohol and various drugs, lots of wounds: The recently unveiled autopsy report for the nine victims of a gunfight in Waco, Texas include all the elements needed to preserve the dark legend of American bikers. On Aug. 6, a week before the report went public, Republican Party […]
Pychologists say the so-called “grandchildren of war” are beset by problems directly related to their parents’ experiences during and after the Second World War.
-OpEd- BOGOTÁ — The Colombian Health Ministry wants to tax sugary drinks. The Supreme Court is ordering parliament to regulate labeling on food products so consumers know which ones contain genetically modified ingredients. A nationwide debate has begun on the poor quality of school meals, as the regional head of the World Food Programme tells […]
London’s over-the-top mayor has published a book about Winston Churchill, and may aspire to a similar national destiny. But he strives for greatness by looking for a laugh.
Moscow’s decision to enter the Syrian conflict with bombing raids may bring smiles to the Assad regime. On the ground, ordinary Syrians are paying the price.
Tehran’s Milad Tower — Photo: Hamed Saber Tehran’s northern suburbs, in the foothills of the Alborz mountains, used to be a summer refuge from the heat of downtown Tehran, mainly for their numerous gardens and abundant trees. The rich used to live there before 1979, and some still do. But over the past 20 years […]
ISIS KILLS TOP IRANIAN COMMANDER ISIS killed Iranian Brigadier General Hossein Hamedani outside Aleppo overnight, Iranian military news agency Sepah News reports. Hamedani was providing military advice to Syrian government forces as part of support sent by Tehran. He was reportedly in charge of the Quds Force, a special unit fighting rebels in the war-torn […]
Il Messaggero, Oct. 9, 2015 The resignation of Ignazio Marino, Rome’s embattled mayor, dominated headlines in Italy on Friday after months of rising political tensions in the capital and within the center-left Democratic party of both the mayor and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. “Marino, A Surrender Amid Venom,” was the front-page headline in the Rome […]
BHAKTAPUR — With one arm, Rabindra Puri slowly clears a pile of rubble, followed by a second, and a third, until a statuette of the god Shiva appears. He delicately wipes the object’s dust-covered face, then puts it on a stretcher so that it can be carried away and placed in a locked cabin nearby. […]
While Japan’s overall alcohol consumption is in decline due to an aging population and low birthrate, Sake is showing a revival at home and abroad. There’s even a new variety with Champagne-like bubbles.
Either this is a very original place to store a lifebuoy, or sculptors on the shores of Hungary’s Lake Balaton — the largest lake in central Europe — have a peculiar sense of humor.
TEL AVIV — Israeli Defense Forces are turning their attention to a new front: the war raging in cyberspace. And in an attempt to coordinate what up to now have been disjointed, sometimes overlapping operations, the Israeli military’s chief of staff recently announced the creation of a special cyber unit. The unit will be similar […]
On the island of Sardinia, asylum seekers rebuild their lives on the football pitch.
The sinking cost of crude has disrupted the Scandanavian country’s national economy. Norwegians now start to ask how wide the hardship will spread.
NATO READY TO TO “DEFEND” TURKEY NATO is prepared to send troops to Turkey to defend its ally against any threats along its southern border, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a press conference before a meeting with defense ministers in Brussels today, Reuters reports. His comments come after Russian jets operating in Syria violated […]
Libération, Oct. 8, 2015 “How Brussels screwed up European sperm.” Libération dedicated its front page Thursday to an in-depth story about how the European Union has failed to restrict the use in every day products of endocrine disruptors, which researchers say are responsible for cancers, diabetes and poor sperm quality. Manufacturers use parabens, phtalates, bisphenol […]
The Commando Memorial in the Highlands of Scotland is dedicated to the memory of the British Commandos who died in World War II. Through the fog — one of our rare tastes of the trademark Scottish weather — the three iconic soldiers are looking south towards Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the United Kingdom.
SÃO PAULO — Israel Afonso Lima, a janitor in this Brazilian city, suffers from Down syndrome. But that didn’t stop him, at the age of 36, from deciding to go back to school to learn Brazilian sign language. And it’s for a very good reason: to be able to communicate with his wife, 37-year-old Eliene […]
ISTANBUL — The program to train and equip the “moderate opposition” in Syria, as long planned by the United States alongside Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, ended in utter failure. What led to this global diplomatic fiasco that has left the future of Syria looking so grim? The chain of problems began with the most […]
Photo: jenny downing Despite the begging and pleading, some parents manage to put off the day when their children get their swiping little fingers on their first smartphone. Those parents are right to resist, according to a a new German study on the effects of all those iPhones and Samsungs on the brains and behaviors […]
As a border guard in 1989, Arpad Bella personally opened a portion of the Iron Curtain between Hungary and Austria to a crowd of East German refugees. Today, while migrants rush to the gates of Europe, he sadly watches history run backward.
MSF DEMANDS KUNDUZ WAR CRIME PROBE Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said it will take the unprecedented step of calling on the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC) to investigate Saturday’s bombing by U.S. forces of its hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz that killed 22 people, swissinfo reports. FIRST SYRIAN AND RUSSIAN JOINT ATTACK Russian […]
Die Tageszeitung, Oct. 7, 2015 “In your face,” writes (in English) Berlin-based Die Tageszeitung on its Wednesday front page, one day after a landmark ruling by Europe’s highest court made it more dificult for Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook and thousands of other companies to transfer users’ data from Europe to the United States. The famously tongue-in-cheek […]
KABUL — Eyes are always described as a symbol of beauty in art and eastern literature, but the two eyes painted on a wall in Kabul’s Share New neighborhood have literally beautified an ugly security wall. And in this case, eyes are used as a symbol of monitoring corruption. These “we are watching” eyes were created by the ArtLords, a group of young creatives who paint war-torn walls across the city of Kabul. “We have been facing cultural and social problems in Afghanistan, and art has never been used to solve disputes,” says the group’s leader Kabir Mokamel. “Instead force […]
Admiring the New Orleans skyline from a distance while listening to a jazz band … Both myself and my grandson were lucky enough to enjoy a cruise down the Mississippi on the steamboat Natchez — although 23 years apart.
Latin American history in the 20th century is stained with autocrats and human rights violations. But with former victims now elected leaders, why don’t they speak up about political prisoners in Venezuela?
For 25 years, the Sri Lankan military waged war against the Tamil Tiger rebels, killing and displacing thousands of people. Though it ended in 2009, militarization remains and people haven’t been able to reclaim lands.
NATO WARNS RUSSIA ON INCURSIONS IN TURKISH AIRSPACE Nato has strongly condemned Russian violations of Turkey’s airspace, after Ankara reported two incursions in two days. The rising tensions between Moscow and the West come as Russia has launched air raids in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. ISRAEL RAZES HOMES OF PALESTINIAN MILITANTS Israel’s government […]
French daily Le Parisien called yesterday’s violence against two Air France executives “unjustifiable” on its Tuesday front page. On Monday, angry workers and union members stormed Air France’s headquarters at Charles de Gaulle airport, north of Paris, to protest some 2,900 proposed layoffs. Pierre Plissonnier, the director of the Air France hub, and the company’s […]
Millions of years of erosion shaped the fairy chimneys — also called tent rocks, hoodoos, earth pyramids — of Cappadocia. All that man needed was a bit of carving and digging to make himself at home in these troglodyte dwellings.
The UN estimates that at least 45,000 Palestinians who were already living as refugees in Syria have arrived in Lebanon since the Syrian civil war began.
BEIJING — A few days ago, a video showing Zhou Huzhen, the board chairman of Hebei College of Science and Technology, captured the attention of the Internet. The inevitable existential questions followed: Are Chinese universites bona fide educational institutes? Or are they really there just to maintain the power of the status quo? Zhou Huzhen […]
Only three ministers in Egypt’s 33-member Cabinet are women. But the media is apparently too dazzled by their looks to notice there’s a problem in the first place.
TURKEY AIRSPACE VIOLATION AN “ERROR,” RUSSIA CLAIMS The violation of the Turkish airspace by a Russian warplane over the weekend was a “navigation error,” Moscow has told Ankara, according to Turkish military sources quoted by Hürriyet. Two Turkish F-16 jets intercepted a Russian SU-30 hundreds of meters into Turkey’s airspace, near the Syrian border, for […]
“Confidence in the coalition,” reads Monday’s front page of Portuguese daily Jornal de Noticias, following the governing center-right coalition’s victory in the country’s general election. This was the first nationwide parliamentary election since 2011, when the government followed Greece and Ireland in requesting an international bailout to avoid default. Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho insisted […]
-Analysis- MUNICH — As the Volkswagen scandal continues to unfold, you can either look behind or look ahead. How has this historic German auto giant with 12 brands and 600,000 employees worldwide found itself spiraling downward in a bottomless pit since revelations that it manipulated emission measurements from its diesel models? How was it possible […]
Driving through Algeria and Tunisia 45 years ago wasn’t actually so rough: For our European postérieurs, the seats of our 404 Peugeot were undeniably more comfortable than the saddle of this camel.
-OpEd- WASHINGTON — I never expected to write these words, but I miss Mitt Romney. On Wednesday, the day the front-runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination was in New Hampshire alleging that Syrian refugees fleeing for their lives may actually be clandestine terrorists, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee was in Washington, talking sense. “Donald Trump will not be the nominee,” Romney told a group of business-school students at Georgetown University. And why won’t Trump, who, when he isn’t besmirching Syrian refugees as terrorists, is maligning Mexican immigrants as rapists, get the nod? Because, Romney said, “when all is said […]
Tensions rise between northern European neighbors. Sweden is second only to Germany for hosting the most refugees, while Denmark is dubbed Hungary of Scandinavia.
-Analysis- BUENOS AIRES — We’re now very much in the “hangover” stage, the proverbial “morning after,” as countries all over the world face painful adjustments now that the party years — when China’s booming economy fed a seemingly insatiable appetite for outside products — are finally over. While the pain may not be as intense […]