Worldcrunch
KAZAN – Nobody has the exact numbers. The arrests are only talked about when the suspect is someone already well-known in the region. People like Artyom Kalashov, a Russian weightlifting champion, who they first interrogated, then tried to arrest without actually accusing him of the crime. The court blocked the arrest. Then they arrested the […]
MASHABLE (USA), BBC NEWS, DAILY MAIL (UK) Worldcrunch The number of fake accounts on Facebook is roughly the size of Egypt’s population and larger than most of the world’s countries, reports Mashable: 83.09 million. The astonishing figure makes up 8.7% of all Facebook’s 995 million active viewers, says the Daily Mail. According to the London […]
TRIPOLI – There were just five Libyan athletes in the delegation that walked out in London’s Olympic stadium for the Opening Ceremony. After 42 years of dictatorship, they want to “show they’re proud of being Libyan” under their new flag. A white crescent and star centered on a horizontal tricolor of red, black and green […]
BEIJING – Recently, the Chinese newspaper Global Times seems to have become less sensational than it used to be. But the other day, one of their commentary pieces showed they hadn’t lost their ability to shock — It was titled: “A proposal for repealing the appellation of intellectuals.” As expected, within a short time China’s […]
SALON, QUORA, KQ 103, CBS CLEVELAND (USA), HERALD SUN (Australia) Worldcrunch On Monday, writes Salon, Missy Franklin competed in two Olympic races in 15 minutes. She barely had time to get from one pool to the next, let alone make a pit stop along the way. Which made the website wonder: Since toilet trips can […]
LONDON – The telephone at Stephen Holt’s tailoring business hasn’t stopped ringing for days. Photos of his shop-front window in the English town of Surbiton are all over the Internet. Holt wanted to feature the Olympics somehow in his window display, but as a “non-sponsor” of the Games, he was strictly forbidden to do so: […]
LATINOSENLARED, OPINION (Bolivia), FORBES (USA) Worldcrunch Bolivian President Evo Morales has announced the end of Coca Cola in his country starting from December 21 2012, Latinosenlared website reports. The date of the ban is symbolic, explains the South American website, quoting the Bolivian blog Nada nos libre de Escorpio. For the Bolivian government, this infamous […]
REUTERS, AL JAZEERA (Qatar), NEW YORK TIMES (USA) Worldcrunch Barack Obama has authorized covert US support of Syrian rebels in order to oust President Bashar al-Assad, reports Reuters. The secret order, which was allegedly signed earlier this year allows the CIA to offer support and assistance to rebel fighters engaged in conflict, with similar reports […]
BLOOMBERG, BUSINESS INSIDER (USA), LA TRIBUNE (France), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch FRANKFURT – The European Central Bank (ECB) is holding a meeting today in Frankfurt (Germany) to make a crucial decision on the euro’s future reports French financial newspaper La Tribune. Investors are looking for the European Central Bank President to make good on his […]
SHANGHAI DAILY, RADIO TELEVISION HONG KONG (China), RADIO FREE ASIA (USA) Worldcrunch On Thursday, Chinese courts sentenced 20 people for terrorist and separatist crimes in Xinjang, a resource-rich autonomous region in northwest China, which is home to the Muslim Uyghur ethnic group. Chinese authorities have stepped up security against the ethnic minority since July. Radio […]
When a marketing ploy blows up in your face: French online tee-shirt retailer Early Flicker has become Anonymous’ new target after trademarking the hacktivist’s logo and slogan.
XINHUA (China), CHINA DAILY (China), BBC NEWS (UK) LONDON – Eight women badminton players from Korea, China, and Indonesia were disqualified from the London Olympics for unsporting conduct on Wednesday. Chinese double players Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli are accused by the Badminton World Federation of deliberately losing a game on Tuesday to get easier […]
In northern Mali, Islamist extremists are on a rampage, destroying Sufi Muslim shrines and historical treasures. In a Timbuktu library, a man has vowed to protect his precious manuscripts from the fundamentalist wrath that has taken over the city.
COPENHAGEN – It’s party time in Christiania, a neighborhood of the Danish capital, Copenhagen. Hundreds have gathered to listen to Sussie & Leo, a crazy duet that plays old rock and roll hits with a certain touch of self-mockery. “I’m an absolute fan,” says Inge, a fifty-something-year-old woman with blue hair. “This group is part […]
The members of the Russian female punk rock group are on trial for a protest concert in an Orthodox shrine that offended many believers. But now, Church leaders are in a bind of their own as public opinion could sway against them.
THE NEW YORK TIMES (US), FOLHA DE SAO PAULO (Brazil), BBC NEWS (UK), BRASILIA – Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has ratified the entry of his country into South American trading bloc Mercosur, a boost to both his reelection chances and the economic influence of the free-trade bloc. Chavez was welcomed to Brazil on Tuesday by […]
HINDUSTAN TIMES, THE TIMES OF INDIA (India), AFP (France) Power has been fully restored Wednesday in India after a grid failure left more than 600 million people without electricity for two days. The failure of the northern grid in India’s state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) on Monday brought the country’s expansive railway system to a […]
BERLIN – Last week it became clear that, as regards the euro, political Europe has overstepped the limits of its power. The joint statement by France’s President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying that “Germany and France are deeply committed to the integrity of the Eurozone and are determined to do everything to […]
REUTERS, BBC NEWS, AL ARABIYA (Saudi Arabia) Worldcrunch Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned that the conflict between rebels and government forces across Syria will “decide the fate of the nation.” This is a big admission by Assad: “the fate of Syria hinges on this battle”. Likely to be justification for the scale of the […]
NPR, LOS ANGELES TIMES, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE NATION, ABC NEWS (USA) Worldcrunch Gore Vidal, American author and essayist whose prolific career spanned six decades, died Tuesday at age 86, reports NPR. He died at home from complications of pneumonia. “Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.” RIP Gore Vidal, a great intellectual […]
MULTAN – Malik Sarfaz, a simple farmer, has been administering justice in his village of Chah Peppal Wala for more than 30 years. Tucked into a particularly poor and rural corner of southern Punjab in Pakistan, this village is situated more than 10 hours away by car from the capital Islamabad. The man with the […]
CLARIN, C5N, MINUTOUNO, JORNADA DE CHUBUT (Argentina) Worldcrunch GIRONA – The son of a prominent Argentinian businessman who lived as a squatter and participated in the Indignados movement in Spain died recently in this city north of Barcelona. His family insists that Juan Pablo Torroija died after Spanish police inflicted a brutal beating, while Spanish […]
DIE WELT (Germany)Worldcrunch LONDON – Different strokes for different folks, as the saying goes – although different courses for different horses might be more apt as far as the four-legged athletes competing in the Summer Olympics go. What makes the horses happy makes the riders happy, and that includes providing their mounts with the equine […]
A glimmering reminder that Europe still has some spare money (and time) to spend: even as Spain’s economy spirals out of control, vacations are still on -though shorter, cheaper and closer to home.
BEIJING – We all know about China’s economic growth. But the country also has the world’s fastest growing obese population in absolute numbers, according to data from the World Health Organization. This is not only because China has the world’s biggest population, but also because it has seen proportionately sharp rise in obesity. In 1980, […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch HAMBURG – Penguins may look as if they’re wearing tuxedos, but they feel more comfortable in a sweater – when, that is, the sweater can protect them from the disastrous effects of oil slicks. Since February, German woman Angelika Regenstein has been knitting wooly jumpers for penguins and has developed a […]
THE NEW VISION (Uganda), CHANNELS TV (Nigeria), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch An outbreak of the Ebola virus has emerged in rural western Uganda. 19 cases of the deadly virus were reported at Kibaale Hospital on Tuesday morning, Uganda’s daily The New Vision reported. Fourteen people have died from the virus in the past three weeks, one […]
PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER, PHILIPPINE STAR (Philippines) Worldcrunch MANILA – Seven people have been confirmed killed from the onslaught of typhoon Saola (also named typhoon Gener) in the Philippines, the Philippine STAR reports. Several others are still missing. Philippines’ National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that 8,298 families or 40,477 […]
THE INDEPENDENT, THE GUARDIAN (UK), BRISBANE TIMES, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia) Worldcrunch LONDON – Sixteen-year-old Ye Shiwen is the teenage torpedo, the Chinese swimming prodigy whose devastating performances have already made her the Games’ most talked-about new star, writes the Independent. But on Monday, after winning the 400 meters individual medley in a world-record […]
SAO PAULO – With an average of 14 murders a day over the past 18 months, the southeastern Brazilian state of Sao Paulo has a bona fide violence problem. In the first six months of the year, the number of homicides was 8% higher across the region than the first six months of 2011. And […]
LE MONDE (France) Worldcrunch Baddre-Eddine Bentaïb, a French Muslim from the city of Orléans, has set up a website mapping and providing information on mosques throughout France. Now, he is embarking on a “Ramadan road trip” that will take him around the country. When travelling around France for his work, Bentaïb discovered there was no […]
LE POINT , NICE MATIN (France) Worldcrunch NICE – Overzealous forest rangers of the Mercantour National Park in the French Alps, gave a 1,500 euro fine to an association for organizing a catholic mass without authorization. At first, the rangers told them that it was forbidden to hold a religious event or play the saxophone […]
The election of an Islamic president in Egypt hasn’t, as many had predicted, resulted in the full opening of borders between Gaza and Egypt. President Morsi, it seems, is in no rush to irk Israel or the U.S. with full support for Hamas-run govern
In Rwanda, where 60% of people live below the poverty line and land is scarce, burying the dead comes at too high a price. A new bill before Parliament would introduce cremation, a totally novel concept in this country.
ADEVARUL, ZIARE.COM (Romania) Worldcrunch BUCHAREST – For the second time since his election in 2004, Romanian President Traian Băsescu survived an impeachment referendum on Sunday. According to the latest numbers from the National electoral bureau, only 46% of the population voted in the poll. Romanian legislation demands 50% participation for a ballot to count. An […]
ITESPRESSO, LE POINT (France) Worldcrunch A column published on the New York Times’ website had the web abuzz on Sunday, reports French website ITespresso. It was revealed later in the day, after many people including journalists and college professors had retweeted the column, that the whole thing was a hoax. On Sunday, Bill Keller, former […]
The Tate Modern museum in London, is not like any museum you’ve every seen. It’s an ever-evolving space, adapting to new art forms as they come along.
JAPAN TIMES, ASAHI SHIMBUN, JAPAN TODAY (Japan) Worldcrunch TOKYO – Thousands of people gathered in Tokyo on Sunday to form a human chain around the parliament building, to protest against the reopening of nuclear power plants, after the Fukushima disaster reports the Japan Times. Organizers set up “family” area for parents/children, wheelchair-bound at the Diet. […]
THE TIMES OF INDIA, THE HINDU, HINDUSTAN TIMES (India) A fire on a passenger train in southern India has killed at least 47 people in the early hours of Monday morning. The fire broke out at around 4:30am on a train travelling from Delhi to Chennai, when passing through Nellore in the state of Andhra […]
Blackmailing, drug dealing, and murder…. if you think the female mafia bosses are softer than their male counterparts, think again.