MACAU DAILY TIMES (Macau), CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY (Taiwan) Worldcrunch MACAU – Not far from Hong Kong, a small island off the coast of southern China attracts 28 million visitors a year. The tourists, hailing mostly from Mainland China, come here to gamble. It is the only place in China where gambling is legal, and with […]
Category: Society
THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch MAKHACHKALA – Herding cattle can be a dangerous proposition in Russia’s southern province of Dagestan, reports The Guardian. But Aishat Maskudova was ready when a wolf who had previously gone after her calves came for some human flesh. After being bitten by the wolf, the 56-year-old woman used an axe to […]
PARIS – Ever seen a human scalp transformed into a drumhead? Or a shrunken head with its lips sewn shut to keep the dead from casting spells from beyond the grave? With their hair uncannily preserved, these centuries-old trophies seem to have retained all their eerie powers. They are some of the key pieces of […]
AUSTAR, SOUTH WEEKLY (China), CHINA TIMES (Taiwan) Worldcrunch BEIJING – For some time now there has been talk in China about “naked officials.” These Chinese Communist Party officials work in Mainland China while their families live abroad, out of harm’s way. The idea is that, if need be, the (corrupt) official can escape the country […]
SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, DEUTSCHE WELLE (Germany) Worldcrunch The European Court of Human Rights has upheld a German ban on a poster campaign by (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) in Germany, reports Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The campaign used gruesome Nazi concentration camp imagery to evoke the suffering of factory-farmed animals today. The decision said that limiting […]
FLORENCE – It is an obvious point, but holds a hidden meaning. The last century did not have many artists who merit the “adjectivization” of their name, like Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Rembrandt or Goya, to define an entire genre. Writers have given us Kafkaesque and Chekhovian, but can we say “Baconian”? The current exhibition at Florence’s […]
EL PAÍS (Spain), AFP (France), THE LOCAL (Sweden), TORONTO STAR (Canada), MAIL AND GUARDIAN (South Africa) Worldcrunch Gay rights has had a great run the past 24 hours. In the U.S. elections Tuesday, Maryland and Maine voted yes to gay marriage in referendums, with final results still pending on a similar measure in Washington state. […]
MOSCOW – The Russian patent office has announced on its official website that it has denied Pussy Riot’s application for a trademark. The application has been at the center of a major conflict about the use of Pussy Riot’s “brand.” Band member Yekaterina Samutsevich had requested that one of the group’s lawyers, Mark Feigin, not […]
On November 1, under the nave of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem, an archeological park called “Durch die Zeiten” (Through Time) opened. It provides the answer to a question that has long eluded researchers: just where Golgotha, the place where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected, is really located. Planned and built […]
CLARIN (Argentina) EL COMERCIO (Peru) PUBLIMETRO.CL (CHILE) SANTIAGO – A new breast cancer awareness campaign has been quickening pulses in Chile. The mildly erotic video called “For The Love Of Tits,” is an appeal to men to encourage their loved ones to get regular breast exams and to do self-exams. The video features short vignettes […]
XINHUA, ARROW OF CUPID (China), Worldcrunch BEIJING – China is not only the world’s most populous country, but also has a seriously packed “singles scene” of 180 million men and women eager to find their other half. Recently, a popular TV series called Time To Be Married, depicting Chinese bachelors in their 30s in a […]
BERLIN – Men are hunters — constantly on the lookout for challenges, for the thrill of danger. But how does our modern adventurer spice up his everyday life? At the office for example, where instead of hunting prey figuratively or literally, he’s more likely to get his schnitzel served — breaded and cooked by somebody […]
Categories
Rwanda’s Failed ‘Green Revolution’
MUSANZE – The agricultural reform launched in 2007 has boosted the country’s agricultural output. Yet not all farmers are benefiting from the situation. Some struggle to sell their crops while others suffer from an unbalanced diet. They have become so desperate that they have decided to ignore governmental directives. A group of north Rwandan farmers […]
MOSCOW – It’s hard to shake the feeling that the idea of reinstating mandatory school uniforms has been discussed on and off ever since school uniforms were abandoned two decades ago. To recall the discussion last spring: The Duma came to the conclusion that uniforms could ease tensions between social classes at school, and even […]
TURIN – It may not be wartime, but the economic crisis is changing basic facts of life. And in some cases, changing them backward in time. One notable change is that Italian women are rediscovering jobs as domestic helpers (housecleaners and care givers), that had been taken over in recent years by a virtual labor […]
China’s Ministry of Health recently drafted a new organ transplant directive called “Management for the Acquisition and Allocation of Organs.” The directive should be implemented soon in the hope of setting up a fairer and more transparent organ distribution system as well as a national database. A national organ database is an institution specifically set […]
MUNICH – When is a man a man? The business world has an answer to that: when he works full-time and is focused on his career advancement. To explore this a little further, we met up at a café in downtown Munich with Norbert Meier (not his real name) who by that definition is only […]
If we had been sitting on a stage instead of his home, I’d have had to block my credit card – because mentalist Christoph Kuch just told me what my PIN number is – and that it’s a MasterCard. All he had asked me to do was to think about the number as I answered […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch BERLIN – A growing number of Germans are now moving to retirement homes in Eastern Europe, Spain or Thailand where aged care costs substantially less thanks in large part to lower staff salaries. Die Welt has obtained figures not made public by Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) showing that more and […]
XINHUA, CHINA NEWS, CAIXIN BLOG, UDN NEWS (China) Worldcrunch BEIJING – The Chinese government likes to boast of its superiority to the West, thanks to its socialist economy “with Chinese characteristics.” For years, it was virtually impossible to publicly say something out of step with this idealized view of the nation. But now, in what […]
The first well-known person who dared buy an island was the shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, with his famous Skorpios, in the emerald waters of the Ionian Sea off the Greek coast. Then there was Marlon Brando, who made a new life on Te’tiarao after being captivated by French Polynesia. Until recently, only the bulging bank […]
MOSCOW – Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, is calling on all members of the clergy to carefully watch what they say and how they live their lives, especially in light of the way modern information travels fast. Without naming names, he referred to some recent cases where the actions of clergy members […]
HAMBURGER ABENDBLATT (Germany), DUTCH NEWS (Netherlands) Since May 2012, selling marijuana to non-Dutch buyers has been illegal in the south of the Netherlands. This measure came into law in an effort to prevent large numbers of foreigners, especially Germans, from crossing the border specifically to buy drugs. Dutch buyers had to show a “weedpass” to […]
CAIRO – Five male members of an atheist group congregate in one of Cairo’s crowded downtown bars, sipping beer and Pepsi as they discuss their thoughts on religion, sex, science, culture, politics and Egypt’s new ruling regime. The group, which also shares idea on an atheist website, has been holding weekly meetings since Mohamed Morsi […]
They appear out of the darkness, men and women moving across a field carrying flaming torches, white hoods covering their heads. After forming a circle, in broken English they swear allegiance to “white power” – to the white race and the nation. Then they light a cross as high as a man. This is a […]
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG (Germany) Worldcrunch COLOGNE – A German court has ruled that male Lufthansa pilots must continue to wear their hat with their uniform at the airport – even though the same policy does not apply to female pilots at Lufthansa, the Süddeutsche Zeitung daily reports. A male Lufthansa pilot had filed a suit against […]
Last week at an unlicensed Montessori kindergarten in Taiyuan, in the western province of Shanxi, a teacher slapped a five-year-old girl in the face more than 70 times and kicked her twice because she didn’t manage to do her arithmetic. While an online video of the abuse was setting off a huge public outcry, another […]
THE TIMES, THE TELEGRAPH, THE MIRROR (U.K.), ABC (U.S.), Worldcrunch In his new book Running My Life, Sebastian Coe, the former track star who led Britain’s move to secure the 2012 Olympics for London, recounts the final sprint to see who would host the Summer Games. Coe says Paris was the favorite of the Olympic […]
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia), BBC NEWS, THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch MELBOURNE – Two million liters of water were shot into the air after a faulty valve ruptured in a peaceful neighbourhood of Melbourne, reports BBC News. At least one house has been significantly damaged, with water flooding into its living room and the garage roof […]
Worldcrunch Wait a minute. Ok, so Sandy is on its way and the race for the White House is up for grabs, but the rest of us are fretting about our Halloween costumes. We global news types naturally look for inspiration from other events that have been happening around the world over the past few […]
KOMMERSANT (Russia) Worldcrunch MOSCOW – The government in Chechnya, Russia’s Caucasian republic that has tried twice to gain independence in bloody wars of secession, has decided to start teaching the basics of Islam in preschools, Kommersant reports. Chechnya is predominantly Muslim. The initiative comes directly from the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadirov, who has already appointed […]
PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER (Philippines), CHINA TIMES (Taiwan) Worldcrunch BANGKOK– A new survey that ranks cities with the “most promiscuous men” has been making the buzz all over Asia over the past few days, the China Times reported. The survey was conducted by SeekingArrangement.com, an American-based dating website. According to the Bangkok Post the study involved […]
KABUL – There was a day when executions took place in Kabul’s Ghazi Stadium, and until 11 years ago it was a place where the Taliban punished renegades with public amputations. But for the past few weeks all you could hear in this part of the Afghan capital was the sound of chatter, dancing, celebration […]
SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG (Germany) Worldcrunch MUNICH – Extreme-right wing British writer David Irving, infamous as a Holocaust denier, has filed a suit to challenge a ban on his travel to Germany after local authorities in Munich had denied his request to visit the city, Suddeutsche Zeitung reports. Irving, 74, is barred entry into Germany until 2022, […]
BUENOS AIRES – Many people think of it as an illness of the past, something you see only in books and historical movies. Wrong: Leprosy is a reality in modern Argentina, and the passage of time has not eradicated the stigma of the disease. Lepers are discriminated against at work and even by their own […]
UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER, BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch MANCHESTER – A piece of music composed by Ludwig van Beethoven nearly 200 years ago has been unearthed by a University of Manchester scholar. Professor Barry Cooper, a leading Beethoven expert, spotted the work which the German composer wrote around 1820 alongside some original sketches of the famous […]
LONDRINA – In the southern state of Paraná, is a small town of some 12,000 people, with no schools, day care or health centers — nor any real shops. Initiated in 2009 by former Brazilian president Lula and completed last year, the Vista Bela public housing project has 2,712 residences (1,272 houses of 35 square […]
LE PARISIEN, LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR, LE FIGARO (France) PARIS – Parisians strolling along the chic Place de l’Alma and the Bastille are running straight into a huge new billboard (3 by 6-meter, or almost 10 by 20-feet) featuring saucy photos of four presidents of France: François Hollande, the current head of state, and predecessors Nicolas […]