SCIENCE DAILY (USA), LE FIGARO, AFP (France) Worldcrunch Scientists in Norway and Italy have analyzed sewage samples from European cities to compare the drug habits of their inhabitants, the Science Daily reports. Tracing the urinary biomarkers of cocaine, amphetamine, ecstasy, methamphetamine and cannabis in sewage from 19 cities in 11 European countries during seven consecutive […]
Category: Society
AFP, LE NOUVEL OBS (France), LE SOIR (Belgium) Worldcrunch PARIS – Queen of pop – Madonna – was booed at the end of her concert in honor of “tolerant France,” on Thursday night in Paris, French news agency AFP reports. Although she waxed lyrical during the show about the importance of France to international artists, […]
JAKARTA GLOBE (Indonesia) Worldcrunch The Jakarta Globe reported that Indonesian zookeepers moved Tori the smoking orangutan to an isolated island in the Taru Jurung Zoo this week to help the female primate kick her nicotine habit, zoo officials said. @TammyLeitner: Smoking orangutan is moved to island in Indonesia to kick her habit. Seriously??? Check out […]
China talks the talk when it comes to innovation, with recent national conferences on the topic attended by high-ranking Communist party leaders. But scratch the surface, and you’ll find something that is the very opposite of innovation.
EL PAIS, EL MUNDO, LA VANGUARDIA (Spain) Worldcrunch MADRID – The unemployment rate in Spain has registered a new record: 5.693.100 people- 24.6% of the Spanish active population are jobless, Spanish daily El Pais reports. This is the highest figure since 1994. El Mundo daily titles: “Summer hasn’t curbed unemployment. One in four Spanish people […]
CAIXIN, UNITED DAILY NEWS (China) Worldcrunch BEIJING – It was last Saturday when the heavens opened above the Chinese capital, bringing the most deadly rain storm to hit here in at least six decades. Now, five days later, the municipality of Beijing has finally updated the death toll, which officially stood Thursday at 77, including […]
FRANCE TV INFO (France), BBC NEWS, THE GUARDIAN (UK), LOS ANGELES TIMES (USA) Worldcrunch “Is this the worst marketing in the world?” asks France TV Info. Every Olympic Games has to have their official clip, logo, mascot and anthem, says the French TV news channel, but the choices made by London 2012 are just terrible. […]
The small ceremonial daggers that Sikhs must carry at all times are such an important part of their religion that the London Olympic organizers allow them to be worn during events. So why does Italy have such a problem with them?
PRESS ASSOCIATION (UK), AP, PRESSE CITRON (France) DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch One would think composing the mini “Twitter bio” for Jamaican 100-meter dash superstar Usain Bolt would be simple enough: “Fastest man on the planet” That covers it, no? But never underestimate the never-humble Olympian. Here’s the subtle social network CV he chose instead: The […]
LIBERATION (France), ATLANTIC WIRE (USA), THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON – British “masked street artist” Banksy has created two new murals for the Olympic Games, reports Libération. The first Olympic-themed mural, called “Going for Mould” shows a javelin thrower getting ready to throw a missile. The second mural, called “Hackney Welcomes the Olympics’ represents a […]
EYEWITNESS NEWS (United States) Worldcrunch A small plane towing a “Will You Marry Me?” banner crashed into Rhode Island’s Block Island Sound on Monday afternoon, US website Eyewitness News reports. Coast Guard officials were able to speak to the pilot’s 8 year old son who gave them a general idea of where his father was. […]
EUROPE 1, RMC SPORT (France) Worldcrunch PARIS – This adds a new line to the definition of “armed robbery”… On Saturday morning, French disabled athlete Arnaud Assoumani, who holds the Paralympic long jump world record, was attacked by two young thieves as he was waiting at a red light on his scooter, French radio station […]
The city of Prato in Tuscany is warming up to its Chinese population. Little by little, Chinese immigrants have taken over the low-end garment industry and adapted to the Italian way of business.
NEW WEEKLY, HAN HAN BLOG (China) CHINA TIMES, UNITED DAILY NEWS (Taiwan) Worldcrunch TAIPEI – The half-century political standoff across the Taiwan Strait is slowly easing. But it may be China’s new waves of globetrotting tourists who help bury the axe once and for all, making the island nation a favorite new travel destination. Chinese […]
Categories
In This Museum: Please Touch The Artwork
A joint exhibition between two Swiss museums invites visitors to experience the sensory, and sometimes sensual world of touch – by squeezing, scratching, feeling and stroking the works of art.
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch BERLIN – A 25-year-old track layer was fired by Berlin’s public transportation company BVG for smoking hash on the weekend, Die Welt reports. A court decision in the Denny W. case could set a precedent in German law with regard to whether an employee in a sector where public safety is […]
Essay: Purists of the French language have long derided the slipping of English words into daily conversations. But now, even a reasoned observer who acknowledges the importance of English, says it has all gone too far.
CARTA CAPITAL (Brazil) Worldcrunch One year has passed since Carlos Augusto Catanheide first noticed the girl with brown skin and green eyes who went to his tiny shop to buy flour. She was 13 and he was 47. They got married soon after in Conceição do Lago Açu, a small town with 15,000 inhabitants in […]
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Erdogan called abortion “murder,” setting off protests in Turkey, where the practice has long been allowed early in pregnancies. Now, a woman who has an abortion after the 10th week faces three years in
After piecing together history from nearly 400 years ago, Cologne’s city council has identified and “rehabilitated” 38 men, women and children who were tortured and executed in the hysteria of both Catholic and Protestant inquis
AL MADINA (Saudi Arabia), AFP (France) , LIBERTÉ ALGERIE (Algeria) Worldcrunch A Lebanese man was sentenced to a year in jail and 200 lashes in Saudi Arabia for having secretly drawn tattoos on women’s bodies, according to a report that first appeared in the Saudi newspaper Al Madina. According to the report cited by the […]
They are the children of the poor masses in a nation marked by a stark gap between rich and poor. Now the so-called ‘C’ Class is the bulging target of Brazil’s consumer-driven economy. See how they live — and what they want.
A new exhibit surveys the career of the master sculptor, who captured in physical form the 20th century’s fascination for the toughest existential questions.
For the so-called “Skywalkers” of the world, understanding why they cross massive chasms is difficult — it’s no easier to explain how they feel suspended in the void.
EL DIA, INFORME 21 (Argentina) Worldcrunch BUENOS AIRES – We know that the news never waits, neither do trains nor time itself. But a good ol” fashioned book…well, we used to think that it could just sit up there forever on the bookshelf, gazing down, waiting until whenever to crack it open and devour what’s […]
MEHR NEWS AGENCY, KALEME (Iran), LE MONDE (France) Worldcrunch As a last resort to fight soaring food prices, a top Iranian official has proposed a ban on images of people eating chicken on television. National Police Chief Esma’il Ahmadi Moghadam suggested that images of chicken should be banned from state television, fearing that they may […]
Salafi sheik Abou Islam Abdallah had a dream: a television channel run only by women wearing the full-face veil. He would have to wait years, and the fall of the Mubarak regime, to see the all-niqab network launch this week for the first time.
CORRIERE DELLA SERA (Italy) Worldcrunch Was it the slightly undersized wheels that tipped them off, or maybe the front bumper that looked a bit too square, or something just not quite right in the line of the roof? Unfortunately for this Lithuanian driver, set to cross the Swiss border from Italy with what he was […]
Essay: China is consumed by the ethical rot that seems to pervade society, from official corruption to tainted food. State TV and others in Beijing are quick to blame market forces for this “moral debacle.” But one writer takes a closer
CHINA TIMES (Taiwan), SOHU NEWS (China) Worldcrunch QINGHAI – Some say China is using up all of its innovative energy in inventing new ways of showing off. The latest status symbol has four legs and is open for some geopolitical interpretation: the Tibetan mastiff. The China Times reports that as the numbers of luxurious villas […]
In São Paulo, from under a bridge to under the spotlight for an act of extreme (good ‘ol fashioned) honesty.
Categories
Evolution Gave Us The Romantic Kiss
Does it come from breastfeeding? Or ancient Greeks feeding each other mouth-to-mouth? Or, maybe, that a smooch is a biological aid to partner selection — a way of checking a potential partner’s immune system? In any case, kissing is by now locked into hu
Essay: After a senseless double murder at a French night club, a writer reflects on Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels — and Mikhail Kalashnikov, the Russian inventor of the AK-47, once hailed as the arm to carry the downtrodden along the road to justice.
Essay: With a recent ban on religious circumcisions, Germany finds itself caught up in a debate on parental freedom v. protecting children. Die Welt’s Alan Posener quips that Jews and Muslim show rare “commonality when it comes to hurtin
With a recent crackdown on child trafficking in China, a journalist recalls the shock of an earlier visit to the same remote Sichuan Province area where wretchedly poor women willingly sold their newborns — and didn’t want them back.
LE MONDE (France), WASHINGTON POST (US), BERLINGSKE (Denmark) MOSCOW TIMES (Russia) Worldcrunch PARIS – The lastest piece of good news for gay rights activists came from the Episcopal Church, which has become the largest U.S. denomination to bless same-sex unions. During the church’s general convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, an overwhelming majority voted in favor Tuesday […]
CANALE 5, LA STAMPA, WASHINGTON POST, TV5 MONDE, AP Worldcrunch The hardest part is having to say your sorry. No, actually, the hardest part is taking the blame. Sometimes, depending on the subtleties of the language in question, these are two very different things. We have been reminded of that again with the television interview […]
An up-close look at the youngest members of the beauty system — and mentality — that has produced more Miss Universe winners than anyone but the US.
NHK, ASAHI SHIMBUN (Japan) Worldcrunch TOKYO – Japan is in an unofficial, though undeniable, national state of mourning after the death of a newborn giant panda cub on Wednesday. National television broadcaster NHK interrupted scheduled programming to announce the baby panda had been found dead by officials at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo. The cub was placed […]
In Goma, in eastern DRC, families looking to cash in on the biggest dowry are pushing young people away from mariage. Some young people chose to live as unmarried partners, others break up and most young women stay at home with their parents…