Worldcrunch
CHABAS — Residents in the small town of Chabás, northwest of Buenos Aires, recently put Internet chatting to good use, effectively using the free mobile texting application WhatsApp to police their neighborhood. The “real time” neigborhood watch scheme achieved what more traditional methods — such as waiting for the Argentine police to arrive, for example […]
A German series imagines the unlikely passion between the heads of state of Europe’s two continental powers. No, no: That’s not Merkel or Hollande … and certainly not Sarkozy.
Some of the notable passings during the past month.
MOSCOW — It’s a typical summer night at Gorky Park on the bank of the Moskva River. The day has been heavy and humid, nearly 30° C (86° F), and then out of nowhere the clouds rolled in. The lightning started 30 minutes ago. It’s been like this for weeks in Moscow — scorching sun […]
JAKARTA — In a suburban part of Jakarta, we’re walking down a dirt road up to a very small pink house at the end of an alley. There are chickens running around, and children playing. It’s here that Indonesia’s first retirement home for transsexual and transgender people — known as waria in Indonesia — is being built. In the doorway, two elderly transgenders whose teeth are missing call out “good morning.” Inside, Yulianus Rettoblaut peers into a mirror while a friend goes about the daily ritual of applying her heavy makeup — thick white foundation, fake eyelashes, bright red lipstick […]
Chinese have looked skeptically at charitable organizations, for cultural reasons and a series of scandals. But as China’s rich and famous join the ALS challenge, something may be changing.
People travel around the world to discover different cultures and see new sights. Some also hope to pick up some extra luck along the way, visiting (and often touching) the supposedly magical stones and statues said to work wonders according to local traditions and urban myths. Here are nine places where you can go to […]
PARIS — The figures are dizzying. According to the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization, 1.3 billion tons of food — one-third of the world’s total food products — are thrown away or wasted each year. Among the food we needlessly toss are yogurt pots that have passed their “best before” date and potatoes that aren’t […]
KOHAND — At an age when his friends are just learning basic reading and writing, 6-year-old Kautilya Pandit can answer complicated questions about world geography, per capita income, gross domestic product and global politics. His analytical powers and incredible ability to remember facts have left everyone so spellbound that the local media has nicknamed this child prodigy living in northern India’s Kohand village “Google boy.” At SD Harit Modern School’s morning assembly, Kautliya’s presentation stands out above the rest. To the delight of the young audience, he recites with ease a difficult passage from ancient Sanskrit literature. Then Kautilya takes […]
A poorly lit city can become a hostile place for residents, so designers have gathered in Bogotá to discuss how lighting can serve pedestrians, the first step toward a new kind of city.
The country’s proposed reforms don’t consider the two elephants in the room, an expert warns: below-mimimum-wage teacher salaries and goals for graduates.
TEHRAN — Every evening, Youseph walks by the mosque in Tehran’s Fatemi Square. Before heading towards his house, he looks up at the portraits of Ayatollah Khomeini and Iran’s current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that are on the walls of the building. Then he crosses the street and descends the hill to where he lives. […]
India and Pakistan are arch enemies whose ongoing Kashmir conflict shows no signs of ending. So will the film kiss between a beloved Pakistani actress and an India heartthrob be censored?
ANSAN — It’s been over three months since the South Korean Sewol ferry capsized, killing 300 passengers onboard. It was a tragedy that sparked government reforms and national soul searching. But understandably, it’s been much more challenging for the families of the victims, almost all of whom attended the same high school. The temporary memorial that was created after the April 16 ferry disaster is a giant, air-conditioned tent with an enormous alter that holds framed pictures of the high school students who died when the ship went down. Flowers have been laid out in front of them, and there […]
After 15 years of living and working in the United States, a Die Welt correspondent says good-bye, not only to his adopted country but also to the pre-9/11 grandeur the U.S. once enjoyed.
A successful TV series is making Chinese people nostalgic for their rural roots, from which so many have fled. And the villages where the show has filmed are enjoying massive benefits.
Looking for family members who have emigrated to Europe, or in search of better opportunities, Congolese girls instead find themselves prey at the hands of human traffickers.
BOGOTA — How dirty can business get? In Colombia, it can get as dirty as a diaper. An investigation by the country’s Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) has uncovered a series of illegal, coordinated price hikes in the highly lucrative diaper industry. Trade and industry inspectors started investigating price-fixing practices in late 2013, with […]
MYITKYINA — This is a sacred place for all Burmese people. The confluence of the Mali and N’Mai rivers, known as Myitsone in Burmese, forms here in Burma’s northernmost state of Kachin. The converging rivers form the Irrawaddy river, which flows north to south over more than 2,000 kilometers. It’s a vital artery that the […]
More than two million Syrian children have lost all access to education. In western Syria, one principal is looking to change things.
KARACHI — Khushboo Rafiq is the first person in her family not to pay a dowry, or bride price, to her husband Usman’s family. Khushboo works for an organization that advocates women’s rights. It was very important to her that her wedding represents the ideals and convictions on which she spends her professional efforts.” We used the wedding invitation to tell guests they should not bring any gifts,” she says. “We also made it very clear that no dowry was being paid. We also are donating our wedding dress to a charity for another couple to use in the future.” […]
Sectarian differences have long created problems for some marriages among Shia, Sunni and others. But with the death and hatred of war, romantic tragedies abound.
Since Indonesia transitioned to democracy in the late 1990s, life for the long-suffering ethnic Chinese population has gradually improved. It’s about to get even better.
Top executives and even ordinary folks use the skills of the French company Net Dating Assistant to pose for them online and woo would-be lovers.
Why are Poles such a gloomy and miserable lot, always assuming the worst and refusing to love thy neighbor? It turns out, cheerlessness here has deep roots.
Bring your togas and laurel wreaths, just watch out where you snap your ancient selfie.
Known as the “household registration” system, hukou has denied certain basic rights to millions who have migrated from rural to urban areas. This may be set to change radically.
–Commentary– BERLIN — There are photographs of Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul, taken in the 1960s, that show elegantly dressed women sitting in street cafés. There are similar photos from the period shot in Ankara, Cairo, Damascus and Karachi. A half-century later, comparable scenes are nowhere to be found in many of these cities. Ankara is […]
ROME — These are the kinds of lives that appear like ships at the mercy of a storm, where salvation will seem like a surprise — if it actually arrives. These are the stories of Eritreans with Italian roots trying, sometimes with the most desperate means, to make it to Italy. First, the history. Italy […]
Environmental activists the world over are breathlessly indignant that the popular Rainbow Loom wristbands are neither degradable nor recyclable. But are they overreacting?
KABUL — It took me eight days to convince 37-year-old Gul Rukh to let me conduct this interview. The Afghanistan woman living in Kabul feared talking openly about her waitress job at the Mumtaz Mahal Wedding Hall. “I earn $200 a month at the hotel,” she says. “I am very happy doing my job, but I am treated very badly by society, my relatives and neighbors for doing it. They scoff at me and believe working as a hotel waitress is not a good job for a woman. But when my husband became disabled, I had to find work to […]
Modern Buenos Aires can overwhelm much of its vintage architecture, but like tough old weeds, certain significant buildings have been able to survive or find new life.
When a journalist visits an old horse stable converted into a sado-masochist club, he finds surprisingly normal people who just have a different idea of foreplay.
In September 2011, in Thessaloniki, Greece, Apostolos Polyzonis set himself on fire outside his bank, which had refused to ease his debt payments. He survived, and so did his anger.
A market of matchmaking has sprung up to wed poor Cambodian women and middle-class Chinese men, spurred by both China’s newfound wealth and one-child policy. It’s not all roses.
The world bid farewell to a Nobel author, several international actors, a guitar hero and the last foreign minister of the Soviet Union.
At Al-Ahram, Egypt’s largest daily, moveable type doesn’t cut it for major historical events such as Arab springs and presidential elections. That’s when they call in the calligrapher.
The less-than-helpful attitude of post office clerks in France (and elsewhere) has been known to get a rise out of customers. Well this French woman takes it to a whole other level. Her rage toward the ever so blasé postal staff appeared to start after she was denied a transaction because she’d arrived too late […]
Designers in Poland are giving religious T-shirts and other products a hipster makeover, mixing pop culture with the Bible to create a uniquely 21st-century look.
The island was a German colony until 1914, which was once a source of pride and income for many. A century later, this part of its history is deepening Samoa’s economic and social woe.