Worldcrunch
PARIS — Lance Armstrong has shown again he doesn’t know how to say he’s sorry (in any language), and clearly doesn’t know when he’s not bienvenu. The “welcome” has indeed been overwhelmingly nasty and negative for a much-hyped ride just two years after reluctantly admitting to doping, and stripped of his record seven Tour de […]
Photo: Natsuki Sakai/ZUMA GREECE APPROVES BAILOUT, BUT TSIPRAS IN TROUBLE Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras won a bittersweet approval late yesterday of a package of tough measures — including an increase in sales tax and a pension shakeup — that will make a third bailout of the ailing country possible. But 38 members of his […]
PARIS — With celebrations from the streets to social media, Iranians have broadly welcomed Tuesday’s deal between their country and the six major world powers to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of international economic sanctions. Still, there are differing views about how the accord will actually affect the lives of the […]
Photo: Ahmad Halabisaz/ZUMA IMF URGES MORE GREEK DEBT RELIEF The Eurozone must “go well beyond what has been under consideration to date” to relieve Greek debt, and it could even eventually forgive a part of it, IMF officials wrote in a report obtained by Reuters.
Athens must make some painful changes to survive and preserve its Eurozone membership. But the monetary pact needs to be fundamentally changed.
As strange as it sounds, this daytime photo could very well have been taken at night: My wife and I were on our way back from Norway“s North Cape, where we watched the midnight sun go down, flirt with the horizon, and go back up.
A timeline of a standoff that long seemed destined to continue, or worse.
HISTORIC DEAL INKED ON IRAN NUCLEAR PROGRAM After years of on-again, off-again negotiations, Iran and six world powers agreed Tuesday to a deal to halt Iran’s nuclear weapons program in exchange for an end to crippling economic sanctions. Together with five negotiating partners, Russia, China, France, UK and Germany, American diplomats had demanded a framework […]
BUENOS AIRES — Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, the 19th century activist and intellectual who went on to be Argentina’s seventh president, was a firm believer in the education. “May the entire Republic be a school,” he famously said. Sarmiento understood how education and the knowledge people gain from it can contribute to social equality. Little did […]
Overrun with prisoners sentenced for their roles in the country’s 1994 genocide, Rwanda had to find a way to deal with its massive prison waste and reduce energy costs. It managed both with a biogas system.
More men than ever do housework and care for kids. But when comparing household behavior of top male and female executives, a German study shows stark differences between the sexes remain.
La Razon de Mexico, July 13 “He left by this hole,” reads the front page of La Razon de Mexico“s Monday edition, a day after Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman’s escaped for the second time from a Âmaximum security prison. Guzman — who already escaped from another Mexican maximum security prison in 2001, […]
CARUARU — For months now, water taps in some of northeastern Brazil’s cities have been running dry. Not during certain hours of the day. Or certain days of the week. But all the time. Morning and night. Day after day, with the exception of just two days per month. And it’s not just residents being […]
CAIRO — Aisha was sleeping when her apartment was raided. She and three other friends had just moved in when the police came by asking if they had weapons or anything illegal. They said no, and were asked for their identity cards. Aisha and her friends are transgender women, but their identity cards say they […]
MOSCOW — Alexander Prokhanov loves to play the bad guy. But he’s no character actor. He is editor-in-chief, since its founding in 1993, of Zavtra (Tomorrow), a Russian ultra-nationalist newspaper that is fiercely anti-Western and anti-American, as well as clearly anti-Semitic and homophobic. In his mess of an office, Prokhanov, 77, invites us to sit […]
BEIJING — In recent years, we have seen numerous Chinese dairy firms sign cooperation deals with and make acquisitions of foreign dairy companies. Such a strategy has thus helped introduce advanced technology into the Chinese market, and offer the advantages of low-priced international milk resources that allows China to compete against foreign brands’ milk-powder baby […]
SALINAS DEL REY — An endangered giant sea turtle has been found dead in Salinas del Rey in northern Colombia, having somehow traveled all the way from a zoo in Gainesville, Florida. The Colombian daily El Heraldo reported that the leatherback sea turtle, which appears to have died before reaching land, had been spotted by […]
From Athens’ corrupt and radical politicians to the staid bankers and diplomats of Brussels, all are to blame for the crisis in Greece. An un-lesson for modern politics.
China’s President Xi Jinping is featured three times on today’s front page of Chinese state-owned newspaper People’s Daily. Xi arrived in Ufa, Russia on Wednesday for a flurry of diplomatic activity ahead of the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summits. The Chinese leader is pictured shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian […]
Photo: Alberto Lingria/Zuma FOUR MILLION SYRIAN REFUGEES More than four million Syrians — a sixth of the population — have fled the country since the war broke out more than four years ago, and more than seven million who have remained have been forced out of their homes, according to the United Nations and international […]
A school founded in 2008 offers classes in literature, cuisine and the finer points of French culture and language to a new class of refugees from around the world every year to help them integrate to their new home.
Locals in the city of Palmyra speak out as ISIS threatens the treasured ancient ruins of their city, after destroying its notorious Assad regime prison that scarred so many.
Photo: Thierry Roge/Zuma LAST CHANCE FOR GREECE? Greeted by a mix of cheers and boos, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday as the fate of his country’s membership in the Eurozone — and perhaps the ultimate destiny of the single currency itself — hangs in the balance. TALIBAN […]
Despite negotiations, perhaps the Greek Prime Minister wants to lead his country toward a Latin American-style leftist populism, like Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador.
-OpEd- BEIJING — The picture is not pretty: drug-related crime is spreading and deepening throughout China. The latest National Narcotics Control Report notes that the problem increasingly involves new types of synthetic substances, even as China has stepped up its efforts to effectively combat the trafficking and use of illegal drugs. Drug-related crimes used to […]
There is determination in this sky with a great desire to get things done! When your motor is revved up, it may seem that the world around you is slow and sluggish. Don’t go forward anxiously, things will happen at the right time while your sky maintains a patient and concentrative order. TEMPO: adagio pazientando […]
Sports is at its best when scores are tight, competition is fierce and even the losers can hold their heads proud. Then there are the blowouts, like Tuesday’s 46-0 soccer result at the Pacific Games, where even the winners look down in shame. ONE GOAL EVERY TWO MINUTES Micronesia is not one of the big […]
Last month, Spanish correspondent Ricard Gonzalez was forced to leave Egypt in a hurry. Here is his story
Photo: Panayiotis Tzamaros/ZUMA GREECE TALKS RESTART IN BRUSSELS Eurozone leaders and Finance Ministers are meeting today in Brussels to reopen negotiations on the fate of cash-strapped Greece, two days after a resounding “No” to austerity from Greek voters. Angela Merkel declared that “time is running out” and gave Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras hours to […]
From Hungary to Switzerland, fortifications are rising in the heart of Europe, where the once-heralded borderless zone is being diminished by the day.
As oil and commodities prices drop and the U.S. dollar is revalued, Latin American economies must prepare for life with less hard cash.
Photo: Wang Yuguo/Zuma GREEKS SAY “OXI,” VAROUFAKIS SAYS BYE-BYE Greek voters overwhelmingly rejected a bailout-extension that would prolong or increase austerity measures, with more than 61% voting “Oxi,” the Greek word for no. The result, which was followed by large celebrations across Greece is a major defeat for the European Union and the Eurogroup, where […]
Greek voters have refused a bailout deal of billions of euros in exchange for more austerity measures, with a final result of 61.3% to 38.7%. Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis announced he will step down in a blog post Monday morning due to pressure from Greece’s European partners, and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has vowed to […]
PARIS — France rolled out the proverbial red carpet this past week for Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, offering what one diplomatic source described as “presidential treatment.” The welcome contrasts with the second-fiddle status Li is used to back in China, where he is more often than not overshadowed by President Xi Jinping, with whom […]
CAIRO — With its densely populated coasts and low-lying agricultural areas, Egypt is one of the most vulnerable countries to rising sea levels. According to World Bank data, a one-meter rise in the sea level would inundate a quarter of the Nile Delta and force 10.5 million people from their homes. Rising sea waters would […]
After doing business with both Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and China, Brazil’s space program is going back to where it started: NASA.
While Colombian justice has ruled to allow euthanasia for patients who ask for it, physicians are reticent to apply the health ministry’s “vague” norms.
President Erdogan is raising the tone about a “buffer zone” needed along the Turkish-Syrian border to halt a supposed Kurdish push for independence.
Photo: Zhao Yingquan/Zuma NEW BOKO HARAM MASSACRES At least 148 people have been gunned down by suspected Boko Haram fighters in separate attacks across northeastern Nigeria over the the past few days, Vanguard reports. According to witnesses, gunmen stormed villages, entered homes and mosques before rounding up people and shooting at them. The New York […]
As the conflict between Assad’s military and Syrian opposition forces escalates around the southern city of Daraa, religious minorities fear persecution from all sides.