Worldcrunch
SAINT-DENIS – Those going through the Legion d’Honneur Square, not far from the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Denis, in the northern Seine-Saint-Denis suburb of Paris, will perhaps wonder about the presence of a globe-shaped monument in the middle of a flower bed. As they come closer, they will see that names, surnames and numbers have […]
After becoming the first person in Poland born from in vitro fertilization, Agnieszka Ziolkowska, 26, decided it was time to act after Catholic leaders compared IVF to “plant breeding.”
ZOO ATLANTA, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION (USA), AP Worldcrunch ATLANTA – The world’s second most closely watched pregnancy has reached an end: Lun Lun, Zoo Atlanta’s giant panda gave birth to two little cubs on Monday night — the first twin pandas born in the U.S. since 1987. Both cubs appeared healthy, Zoo Atlanta deputy director […]
LE PARISIEN (France) Worldcrunch PARIS – Et voila…there she is: Elysee (Twitter) The Marianne is France’s national emblem, present on various official logos of public institutions, including official stamps of the French postal service. The stamps of the female figure have been redesigned every few years since 1967, based on famous women. According to Olivier […]
“Here you have a stevia, that’s for diabetes,” says Téodora, a sun-weathered snippet of a woman of around 50, proudly beginning a tour of her medicinal plant nursery. She points out the Paraguayan lemongrass, for nerves; and a plant with little purple flowers, called “forever alive”, which is excellent for the heart.” All told, her […]
MOSCOW – Russia’s history is not going to be just “political” anymore. Publishers of new history textbooks for Russian schools have been charged with the task of “encouraging patriotism in the younger generation.” That is not all: History is now going to include “religious history,” especially the history of Eastern Orthodoxy. These are the backbones […]
Recently a home of 400 square meters was put on sale for a cool $21.2 million. That’s an astronomical sum, even for a piece of property advertized as being located adjacent to a good school that guarantees any entrance to the school for the children of the buyers. As news spread of this over-the-top pricetag […]
Exactly 100 years ago, the renowned Italian educator first landed in America with a method that pushes independent thinking. Today, the results are everywhere — notably at Google HQ.
Covers from top magazines around the world…
IMST – It’s seven o’clock in the morning, and what’s left of the night’s thunder clouds sit perched wispy white above the rocks. Despite the cool temperature, Andreas Riml sits wearing a T-shirt on the terrace of his hut, drinking coffee and looking out over the breadth of the alpine valley that opens out toward […]
In Japanese schools, parents come and talk about the upside of starting a family. The number of places in day care centers is being expanded; on the walls, posters show male celebrities touting the advantages of being a dad. In view of demographic change, the Asian archipelago nation is trying all it can to get […]
Take a tour of what the world has been saying this week…
NEW YORK – In the art world, auctions and mega galleries dominate. There are departed graffiti artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat who sell for tens of millions of dollars. Venice’s biennial tips its hat to ‘outsider’ artists, such as Antonio Ligabue, and mixes them with ‘insiders’, such as Richard Serra. Enter Thomas Hirschhorn, a creator of […]
Circuses in Russia are facing animal cruelty accusations and competition from abroad.
BERLIN — They hardly had to beg Renate Künast. The chairwoman of Germany’s Alliance 90/Greens parliamentary group and former minister of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture was thrilled to open last week’s Ethical Fashion Show in Berlin. It’s right up her alley. “This is a countermovement to mass production,” she says. Slow Fashion instead of […]
SHANGLIN – Zhen Minxin keeps repeating that he is “lucky.” On this warm morning of mid-June, his return back home is being celebrated, with the slices of watermelon laid out on the table and cigarette butts scattered on the floor as sure signs of the festivities. Zhen’s own cigarettes are Gold Seal, a brand unknown […]
Liu Zhijun, China’s former Railway Minister, has received a “suspended” death penalty. He may get a reprieve. But one writer says it’s time for a vengeful China to abolish executions altogether.
It’s an attitude, a way of life — but have no doubts, these women riders are very much aware of the dangers.
Every night, Domenico Codispoti arranges his sleeping bag on a fixed patch of sidewalk in central Milan — and is not allowed to move until the next morning.
BUENOS AIRES – It’s the first guide of its kind. It explains which medical issues demand immediate attention and which ones can wait. Someone feels well and then, all of a sudden, they feel very ill. It could be an incessant cough, acute headache, fever, bad stomach ache, a cold with constant sneezing, increased blood […]
ISTANBUL – An electronic version of a Strauss waltz suddenly starts to play. In the small fountain in the center of the mall, some trickles of water start to sprinkle up, with blue and green spotlights illuminating the scene. All in rhythm. Everybody freezes at the moment the spectacle begins: a group of men seated […]
DJERBA – Otto Dix in Tunisia? Sounds like a mistake, a geographical accident, as if somebody or something got on the wrong plane. Not so. There really are some 100 works — sketches, drawings, oils — by famed German New Objectivity artist Otto Dix (1891-1969) on exhibit on the holiday island of Djerba. On the […]
China’s amended “PRC Elderly Protection Law” has come into effect this month. The new law stipulates that family members cannot neglect the elderly, and are required to care for their spiritual needs. Family members who live separately from their aging parents must visit them regularly. Employers, likewise, must guarantee their workers the right to have […]
-Essay- GENEVA – Have you ever heard of Dan Rollman? If so, you are spending way too much time on your computer – just like me. Dan is a Canadian native who now lives in New York and works in media. On May 28, he caught the attention of Internet addicts when he went viral […]
Like other countries, France faces a rising number of young people who arrive illegally into the country, without their parents or other family members. It poses unique questions.
A view from Italy, where the Protestant revival-style musical festival never had a chance…
Here are the songs topping the charts from some music hot spots around world. First, warm up with the Worldcrunch pick of the week:
With the latest incarnation of Superman on the silver screen in “Man of Steel,” we see the most evolved form of the complicated and conflicted superhero.
ISTANBUL – On the eve of the traditional Kirkpinar oil wrestling competition, to be held in its 652nd year in the Edirne province in western Turkey, attention was turning to the “pehlivans,” as the wrestlers are called. The pehlivans hailing from Istanbul have arrived in Edirne for the July 5-7 competition, but the contingent from […]
Most Americans will spend Thursday marking the birth of their nation 237 years ago, with the founding fathers’ adoption of the Declaration of Independence. July 4th celebrates the American colonies’ independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the establishment of the United States as a nation self-evidently free to pursue happiness and hot dog-eating […]
Ralf Winkes has tried his hand at a number of different careers: waiter, taxi driver, stock broker. But the 44-year-old German may have finally found his calling…
BUENOS AIRES – B.M. is a year and a half old. The cups and paper napkins on the coffee table interest her far more than the rubber ducky her parents offer. The coffee table commotion ends with a baby bottle, a pacifier, and a small nap in the arms of mamá. The three of them […]
In the province of the Bas-Congo, southwest of Kinshasa, “prophecies” blame innocents for the misfortune of their loved ones.
On the Moroccan beaches, near Tangier or Casablanca, the dunes have disappeared – leaving a lunar landscape. They were not destroyed by storms, but stolen night after night by squads of trucks – to build vacation homes for the tourists who come for the coast’s warm waters and soft sands. For many years now the […]
The World Bank has recently published a report entitled “Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts, and the Case for Resilience.” Rising sea levels, heat extremes, aridity, impacts on ecosystems… Unsurprisingly, the news is not so good on the climate front, and the experts are raising the alarm. In the first Turn Down the […]
MADRID – Spain is in danger of extinction. There are fewer and fewer children and more and more elders. This stark prognosis has been known for some years now: in 2050 Spain will be the oldest country in the world. People over 80 years old will represent the biggest segment of its population. There will […]
TURIN – It’s a little like Babel. In Italy, words can have one meaning on one side of the street and something entirely different on the other. From the mountains to the sea, from the north to the south, this is the land of endless dialects. But because families are using these local languages less […]
Lance Armstrong hasn’t told “the whole story” yet. Ever since his long-awaited January confession with Oprah Winfrey, the high priestess of American talk shows, the now former seven-time winner of the Tour de France hasn’t uttered a word, just a rare tweet from time to time to his four million followers on Twitter. So when […]
A newly unearthed trove of documents linked to the reign of Augusto Pinochet reveals the regime’s obsession with controlling its youngest members. Some parents even reported on students.