CLINTON AND TRUMP WIN CRUCIAL NEW YORK VOTE
Frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have moved significantly closer to winning their parties' nomination after the two candidates clinched resounding victories in the New York primary. With final ballots tallied early Wednesday, Clinton got close to 58% of the vote in the Democratic race, while Trump obtained 60.5% of Republican primary support. In his victory speech, Trump declared: "We don't have much of a race anymore." But for The New York Times, Bernie Sanders and John Kasich, despite their defeats, "should ignore any pressure to quit." Dan Balz writes in today's edition of The Washington Post that Clinton has been badly damaged by Sanders' challenge.
ECUADOR HIT BY SECOND QUAKE
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck off the coast of Ecuador, but early reports Wednesday make no mention of new damages. This comes four days after a devastating quake that killed at least 525 and wounded more than 2,500, with hundreds more still missing. According to newspaper El Mercurio, 54 people were found alive yesterday in the rubble of a building. President Rafael Correa said Saturday's earthquake would likely cost the economy about $3 billion, with years of reconstruction ahead.
WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO
A recently inaugurated mega-mosque near Washington D.C. is one of many the Turkish government has built in an effort to extend its influence and tout a moderate model of Islam. For French daily Les Echos, Adrien Lelievre reports on Turkey's sometimes controversial "mosque diplomacy": "Despite Turkey's recent diplomatic setbacks and increasing international isolation, Ankara continues its worldwide project of mosque construction in order to spread a moderate vision of Islam. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, credited in the 2000s as the mind behind the ‘neo-Ottoman policy,' declared that Turkey's vision of Islam could act as an "antidote" to the ideology espoused by the Islamic State (ISIS), which draws its ideas from the Sunni movement of Wahhabism."
Read the full article, Why Turkey Is Building Mosques Around The World.
KABUL DEATH TOLL MORE THAN DOUBLES
The death toll of yesterday's Taliban suicide bomb in the center of the Afghan capital rose from 28 to 64, CNN reports citing official figures. Some 300 people are now reported wounded.
VERBATIM
Photo: Xinhua/Ismael Francisco/CUBADEBATE/ZUMA
"Our turn comes to all of us, but the ideas of Cuban Communism will live on," the Cuban revolution leader Fidel Castro told a party conference in a long speech Tuesday, urging his successors to keep his legacy alive after his death, the official Havana-based state daily Granma reports. Castro, who will turn 90 in August, said that living so old "never would have occurred to me and it's not the outcome of any effort, it was fate's whim. Soon I'll be like everybody else."
OBAMA VISITS SAUDI ARABIA
U.S. President lands today in Saudi Arabia for the last Middle East trip of his presidency in what promises to be a tense visit amid recent frictions on a range of issues going from the oil-rich kingdom's alleged role in 9/11, to the wars in Syria and Yemen, a resurgent Iran and low oil prices,USA Today reports. Obama is expected to meet with Saudi leaders in Riyadh, where they will discuss the fight against jihadism and ways to end violent conflicts in the region.
£1,000
A reader of British magazine The Spectator is offering £1,000 ($1,430) to whomever will come up with the best poetic insult of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "The President Erdogan Offensive Poetry Competition" was launched in support of German comedian Jan Böhmermann, who is being sued in his own country for writing a provocative poem about the Turkish leader, and to denounce Turkey's blasphemy laws. The man behind the UK contest, Douglas Murray, said "the aim of the competition is to be as filthy and insulting as possible."
MY GRAND-PERE'S WORLD
Pick Your Poison — Singapore, 1991
INTEL CUTS 12,000 JOBS
Chip maker Intel announced plans yesterday to cut 12,000 jobs globally, 11% of its workforce, as it aims to reorganize its activity and put focus on cloud computing. Read more from The Wall Street Journal.
PATRICIO AYLWIN DIES
Patricio Aylwin, who was president of Chile from 1990 to 1994, died Tuesday in his Santiago home. He was 97. Check how Chilean daily El Mercurio covered the death of the man who helped his country transition back to democracy after Gen. Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship.
ON THIS DAY
17 years ago today, the Columbine school massacre shocked the world. That, and more, in your 57-second shot of history.
U.S. LAUNCHES POST-PANAMA PAPERS PROBE
The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into tax evasion claims published as part of the Panama Papers, The Guardian reports. Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela meanwhile rejected accusations that his country was a tax haven. "Panama is a country respectful of laws," he said. Read more from Politico.
MORE STORIES, EXCLUSIVELY IN ENGLISH BY WORLDCRUNCH
- Argentina v. Spain, Battle For Control Over Spanish Language — Clarin
- A New Way To Track Photographic Footprints On The Internet — La Stampa
- A Rumination On Excellence (Or Why Mediocrity Often Wins) — America Economia
DIAL M FOR MURDER MAP
This slightly disturbing murder map of London, spotted by IFL Science compiles every single case of homicide and manslaughter in the British capital, from the era of Jack the Ripper in the late 19th century to the present day.
