Worldcrunch
RIO DE JANEIRO – 10 employees from the Rio 2016 Olympic Committee were fired for stealing confidential information from their counterparts at the London committee during the Games this past summer. This is the first scandal involving the next Olympics, which is still three years and 11 months away. The two committees of the British […]
CHICAGO TRIBUNE, LA DAILY NEWS, LA TIMES, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER (USA), LE MONDE (France), TWITTER Worldcrunch LOS ANGELES – Quality television “is the only American product the Chinese haven’t figured out how to make,” joked host Jimmy Kimmel, presiding over the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday. The list of nominees may have been impressive, writes […]
GOMA – In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mothers of disabled children, rather than being given the help they need, are typically blamed for the disability — and often literally chased out of their homes. Lingering local superstitions say that a mother is somehow responsible for her child’s health problems — and the consequences […]
GENEVA – Sami, age 7, is puzzled. On the screen of his iMac, a small Darth Vader orders him to conjugate verbs in the future tense. The boy hesitates at the first question. “You… will likes?” Darth Vader squeaks. Wrong! Sami pulls his grammar book out of his desk, checks it, and corrects his answer […]
UOL (Brazil), BBC Worldcrunch FLORIANOPOLIS – It all started when Brazilian student Isadora Faber, 13, decided to do her homework a bit differently. She exchanged paper and pencil for a Facebook page, where she began complaining about the conditions of her school. It didn’t take long for “Diario de Classe: A Verdade” (“School Diary: The […]
LA REPUBBLICA (Italy) Worldcrunch LECCE – Though Barcelona has “King Lionel Messi”, this week the Italian city of Lecce is rolling out the red carpet for Iya Traore (“The Prince of Paris”) and Abdellah (“Amsterdam’s Maradona”) to show off their tricky soccer skills at the Red Bull Street Style soccer world championship. Held in São […]
BERLIN – In grandpa’s time, somebody would call out “End of the work day!” – as a signal in many companies for workers to pack it up and go home. It’s not so easy today, says Wolfgang Panter, the president of the Association of German Business and Company Doctors (VDBW): “Boundaries between work and free […]
GENEVA – People strolling, music, smiles, bursts of laughter. Customers walk between clothes and trinkets, homegrown zucchini and children’s games, spread on tables or on the ground. A neighbor has brought his electric razor; another has just found a book by French sociologist Marcel Mauss. This kind of flea-market-with-veggies could be coming to your neighborhood […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch BERLIN – The elite of the German Federal Armed Forces are sometimes suspected of being a breeding ground for right-wing radicals. So beginning in 2007, the Defense Ministry decided to take a closer look at the political orientation of future officers. With the results now in of a study of 2,300 […]
CORDOBA – A scruffy Argentine mutt named Capitán has taken the old adage “man’s best friend” to new extremes. The dog, a mix of German shepherd and who knows what else, has spent the past five years living in the cemetery where his owner is buried. And like clockwork, every day at 6 p.m. Capitán […]
LA VANGUARDIA (Spain), CLARIN (Argentina) Worldcrunch An 80-year-old Spanish woman’s botched restoration of a 19th-century Jesus Christ mural, which made international headlines last month, may wind up an accidental gold mine. Lawyers for Cecilia Gimenez say their client may seek to copyright the now world-(in)famous image. While the holy (and sloppy) handiwork sparked outrage among […]
KIGALI – A customer and a bank clerk nearly came to blows recently in Kigali. The customer had asked the clerk to help him fill in the withdrawal slip in English, but the clerk refused. “How are we supposed to be able to fill in a document in English if you can’t do it yourself?” […]
ISTANBUL – As children in Istanbul packed their bags this week to start a new school year, protests broke out against the controversial “4+4+4” education reform, recently implemented by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Large crowds gathered outside the Istanbul imam hatip religious schools on Fatih Street to protest the new education system […]
WUHAN MORNING POST (China), CHINA TIMES (Taiwan) Worldcrunch BEIJING – These days, being a teacher in China comes with its perks. Not only would the position offer you absolute imperial authority, but you would also get lots of presents. Some very NICE presents. September 10 was Teacher’s Day, and on that day Chinese teachers are […]
PRAGUE – The Czechs have a strong taste for alcohol. They are the world’s foremost beer drinkers, and rank second for drinking hard liquor, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This love of alcohol has taken a tragic turn with the appearance on the Czech market of large quantity of adulterated vodka and rum. […]
UOL (Brazil), AP SAO PAULO – It was a labor rights story that made world headlines — and prompted more than a few winks and one-liners. A Brazilian worker for Latin America’s biggest brewer was awarded 50,000 reals ($25,000) earlier this month after suing his employer for using prostitutes to motivate sales employees. Now the […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch More and more Germans have taken to grading doctors online on everything from quality and effectiveness of treatment received to friendliness, writes Die Welt. Medical evaluation sites have been proliferating in Germany over the last five years, and there are now more than 20. All of them contain evaluations by — […]
– Analysis – BERLIN – The invitation came from the top ranks — Council Chairman Nikolaus Schneider and Synod President Katrin Göring-Eckardt — of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), which is comprised of 22 Lutheran, Reformed and United regional churches. Most of the regional bishops, former Council chairs Margot Käßmann and Wolfgang Huber, along […]
FLUTER, DIE WELT, DEUTSCHE WELLE (Germany), ESPN (USA) Worldcrunch No name, no club – nothing that would point to his identity – that was what Fluter journalist Adrian Bechtold had to promise a professional Bundesliga soccer player in return for talking about something that is still absolutely taboo in the top soccer league of Germany […]
CLOSER (France), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch The Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton is reportedly “furious” after a French magazine published topless pictures of the Royal couple when on holiday in the south of France. Closer, a French weekly celebrity magazine, hit shelves on Friday with images of Kate Middleton, along with the headline: “Oh my God! […]
MILAN – Some stories do have a happy ending. The most multiethnic school in Italy, Lombardo Radice public school in Milan, had a new batch of first graders again this week. Last year it wasn’t allowed to open to a new incoming elementary school class because it had “too many foreigners.” It had appeared to […]
-Essay- The car drove slowly into the early spring night of Hangzhou. The person who had come to fetch me is a new acquaintance named Wang Qixian. As a member of the post-1980s generation he has worked as a white collar worker in the private sector, in Chinese state-owned enterprises, as well as in Taiwanese […]
SAINT-OUEN – At what age does gender inequality take root? As early as the crib, according to the staff at one nursery school in Saint-Ouen, in the northern suburbs of Paris. Bourdarias nursery school was the first pre-school establishment in France to adopt an anti-sexism policy, in 2009. France’s Minister for Women’s Rights Najat Vallaud-Belkacem […]
BEIJING – From his pigeon house, Wan Lianxi overlooks a sea of misshapen roofs and walls overgrown with weeds. He recently added a corrugated plastic roof for shade. Wan started raising homing pigeons in downtown Beijing 40 years ago – when he was still a teenager. Today, he has about 100 of them. During races, […]
LE FIGARO, LIBERATION, EUROPE 1, AFP, FRANCE 24 (France) Worldcrunch PARIS – French newspapers are tracking tax exiles after Bernard Arnault, France’s richest man and head of luxury good giant LVMH, said Sunday he was seeking Belgian nationality. The luxury tycoon’s move to seek Belgian citizenship has caused outrage in a country hit by a […]
Made By ABVH (Serbia and Montenegro) Worldcrunch Serbian artist ABVH has created a series of animated GIFs bringing world famous street artist Banksy’s work to life. The result is amazing:
IL MATTINO (Italy) Worldcrunch ROME – With some quick thinking, she might have found a good response when the Carabinieri officers pulled her over. Here’s my seeing-eye dog’s license… It’s a Google car… Oh, am I in the car? I thought this was the elevator… Apparently the 66-year-old woman from the central Italian town of […]
PARIS – The event was supposed to start on September 2 at 7 a.m. at the Josephine Baker swimming pool in Paris, on the banks of the Seine River. More than 3000 participants had signed up to take part in the swim that would take them up the Seine to the André-Citroën Park, west of […]
SHANGHAI – Two weeks ago Cats, the legendary musical with its record $2 billion box office sales and worldwide audience of 73 million people, had its Chinese language premiere in Shanghai. This will be followed by a tour of 162 performances in other major Chinese cities. Following the success of Mamma Mia!, Cats is the […]
MADRID – Since September 1, undocumented immigrants in Spain are now excluded from public health care. Only pregnant women and minors can still enjoy free public coverage, which had long been available to all undocumented residents. Others can still get care in cases of emergency, but for basic medical treatment, immigrants in Spain illegally will […]
HONG KONG – This is the second improvised camp to appear in Hong Kong’s business district. As the last remaining diehards continue to occupy the atrium of the HSBC tower, school kids, students, parents and teachers have set up their own tents and mats outside the parliament buildings at the Tamar site, on Hong Kong’s […]
CAIRO – It is 6 p.m. at Shohada metro station in Cairo. On the cramped platform, a group of women use their shopping bags like shields to protect themselves from wandering hands. In Egypt, rush hour is conducive to sexual harassment, and even assault – a real plague. With a deafening screech, the train hurtles […]
-Analysis- FRANKFURT – Are Hamas and Hezbollah part of “the global left?” A few years ago, during the discussion following a lecture at the University of California, Berkeley, American philosopher Judith Butler claimed they were. And now the remark is coming back to haunt her. The Central Council of Jews in Germany has strongly criticized […]
LE SOIR, RTBF (Belgium), LE FIGARO (France) Worldcrunch BRUSSELS – Insulting someone on the streets of Brussels is now a civil offense that is punishable by a fine of up to 250 euros. City authorities will now be able to impose fines of between 75 and 250 euros for insults, petty theft or other forms […]
GOMA – There are more than a dozen Pygmy ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo, making up between five and 10 percent of the country’s population. Traditionally these nomadic hunter-gatherers have lived in the Congolese rain forest, far removed from urban centers. But in recent years, Pygmies have been increasingly forced out of […]
FRANCE DIPLOMATIE, LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR (France), THE VOICE OF RUSSIA (Russia) Worldcrunch On August 17, when three members of the Russian punk rock band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in a penal colony, the verdict sparked outrage around the world: the U. S. State Department asked Russia to “review this case and to […]
BBC NEWS, THE GUARDIAN (UK), WASHINGTON POST, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (US) Worldcrunch MANAMA – A Bahraini civilian court has upheld jail sentences against 20 leaders of last year’s pro-democracy demonstrations, including eight prominent activists facing life in prison, reports BBC News. Among those convicted to life were Abdulhadi al Khawaja, who went on a 110-day […]
AMERICA ECONOMIA (Chile) SANTIAGO – With the World Cup coming to South America in 2014, the soccer-crazed continent is already worrying who will qualify, and who will be forced to stay at home and watch the others soak up the glory. Well, if you are an Argentinian, Chilean, or Uruguayan, your team is going to […]
BERLIN – Six years ago, shortly after Daniel Alter became one of the first Jews to be made a rabbi in Germany after the Holocaust, he said that he thought for a long time about how to explain to his daughter why there were relatively few Jews in Germany. He told Die Welt: “To tell […]
TRIPOLI – Nafisa Muhammad knows all too well that vengeance is alive and well in post-revolution Libya. “One of my brothers was kidnapped by rebels from Misrata at Benghazi airport,” she says. “On his first day at a local detention center, he was beaten to death.” The 31-year-old woman now lives in a refugee camp […]