THE GUARDIAN, REUTERS, BBC, ZAMAT Worldcrunch DAMASCUS – Violent clashes between government forces and rebels continued in the Syrian capital for the third day on Tuesday, as U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan visits Moscow to promote a peace plan. Heavy clashes taking place in new areas right in the middle of #Damascus. The city is […]
Author: Worldcrunch
CBC NEWS, THE TORONTO STAR (Canada), Worldcrunch TORONTO – A shooting at a barbecue street party in Toronto’s residential east end left two dead and 19 injured, in what the Canadian police called “the worst incident of gun violence” the city has ever seen. A teenage girl and a man believed to be in his […]
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.
Manfredi Borsellino still has many questions about how his father, anti-mob magistrate Paolo Borsellino, was allowed to die just three months after his colleague, and fellow crusading hero Giovanni Falcone had been killed. Now you can see it in his eyes.
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 […]
In the West African nation of Mali, the situation is rapidly disintegrating for large swaths of population as Islamist radicals intent on imposing religious law are spreading their power. On the ground in a nation in peril.
AFRISCOOP, INFOPLUS GABON, BUSINESS DAY Worldcrunch For the first time ever, the African Union has a woman president: South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will lead the continent-wide body, after defeating incumbent Jean Ping following four rounds of voting. Senegalese website AfriScoop reports that Dlamini-Zuma, 53, who had been serving South African Minister of Home Affairs and […]
THE KOREA TIMES (South Korea), THE KOREA HERALD (South Korea), NEW YORK TIMES Worldcrunch SEOUL – North Korea has relieved its army chief Ri Yong Ho of all government posts because of an “illness,” prompting speculation of a possible power struggle within the secretive regime, South Korea’s daily newspaper The Korea Herald reports. The North’s […]
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
AL-MASRY AL-YOUM (Egypt), HAARETZ (Israel), THE JERUSALEM POST (Israel) Worldcrunch JERUSALEM – On the tail end of a tricky Asian and Middle East tour, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Israel for a 24-hour visit that will include talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a thorny array of issues: the stalled […]
EURONEWS, THE WARSAW VOICE Worldcrunch Poland is launching major clean-up operations on Monday after summer tornadoes ripped through the country over the weekend, killing one man and wounding ten others. Weather forecasts point to more storms in the coming days as 1,200 rescue workers work to remove fallen trees. Euronews reports that the Baltic region […]
The eccentric offerings at Baumhaushotel Solling in Uslar, Germany, sleep six people each and come with a toilet and balcony. Others have flat-screen TVs and slate bathtubs. They also happen to be 10 meters off the ground. Check out these tree house hotel
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 […]
With crime on the rise, youth in the Congolese city of Beni have banded together to protect their neighborhoods. Though some bad guys have been busted, some worry that well-meaning crime-fighters can one day turn into dangerous militias.
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Baltic Amber, The Gold Of The North
Prized for its warm tone, the real value of the ancient gemstone is often what has been trapped inside millennia ago. Traveling to the regions around the North and Baltic Seas, you can find amber both in special gem shops, and if you’re lucky, al
Hillary Clinton’s historic visit this week to Laos highlights the reality on the ground: China’s influence grows bigger with each passing day. There are decidedly mixed opinions about what Beijing will bring.
In São Paulo, from under a bridge to under the spotlight for an act of extreme (good ‘ol fashioned) honesty.
In the conservative West Bank city of Hebron, a special, highly-trained unit of women officers is not just about gender equality, it’s about smart and effective policing.
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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
ZIUA VECHE (Romania) JURNAL DE CHISINAU (Moldavia) Worldcrunch The Communist party of the former Soviet Republic of Moldova, which had remained in power until 2009, is going to have to kiss goodbye to their hammer and sickle. The Moldovan Parliament voted on Thursday to forbid the use of Communist symbols by political groups and parties, […]
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.
LE TEMPS (Switzerland) Worldcrunch BERN – A study by Swiss foreign policy think-tank Foraus says that aid development policies in poor countries have no direct effect on reducing immigration flows, Le Temps reports. The study found that most migrants come from countries that are already emerging or developed, but where there aren’t enough jobs, like […]
Chinese athletes won’t be able to explore any of London’s many global cuisines, or even eat the special food prepared at the Olympic Village. Just internal, government-approved grub. Why? Fears that banned substances might slip into thei
MAIL & GUARDIAN (SOUTH AFRICA), AFP (FRANCE) Worldcrunch JOHANNESBURG – As many as 30 people were feared dead when a train collided with a farm truck in South Africa’s northeastern province of Mpumalanga. Andre Visser, a spokesperson for South African emergency services, told the Johannesburg daily Mail & Guardian that a coal train had collided […]
REUTERS, THE GUARDIAN Worldcrunch Syrian activists say pro-government forces killed between 150 and 200 people in the Hama region on Thursday as the United Nations Security Council met to try and negotiate a resolution on Syria, Reuters reports. The allegations have yet to be independently confirmed. Activists published a video of dead bodies, but there […]
CAIXIN (China), EPOCH TIMES (USA) Worldcrunch BEIJING – Internet freedom in China has taken another blow this week. But by the very nature of the medium, every blow to digital access necessarily prompts a blowback. Caixin media reports that the latest attempt to clamp down was the joint announcement of an official “Notice as to […]
Five years after the discovery of a major offshore oilfield, people in Ghana are still banking on better times ahead. But foreign companies — notably those from China — are also poised to cash in. A visit to the rapidly expanding city of Sekondi-Takorad
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
Swiss researchers have discovered that the more grey matter in your brain, the more generous you were likely to be, as individuals use the mental power to “overcome the natural selfishness of man.”
EL COLOMBIANO, EL LIBERAL (Colombia), EMOL (Chile) Worldcrunch Something akin to the suburban cry of “Not In My Back Yard!” (NIMBY) can be heard this week in the Colombian jungle. Indigenous leaders in the southwestern town of Toribio have demanded that both the Colombian security forces and the FARC rebels take their longstanding fight elsewhere, […]
FRANCE INFO, LE DAUPHINE LIBERE (France) Worldcrunch CHAMONIX – At least nine people were killed, at four are still missing after an avalanche at Mont Maudit (“Cursed Mount”), the third highest peak in the Mont Blanc mountain range. Eleven climbers — including a mountain guide — have so far been rescued, but French and Italian […]
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.
CNN, AL JAZEERA, THE GUARDIAN Worldcrunch SYRIA – Following the defection of Syria’s ambassador to Iraq, both diplomatic and military pressure is growing on President Bashar al-Assad as violence continues, including around the capital Damascus. Reports on Thursday suggest that the defection of Syria’s ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Fares, who called for other members of […]
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 […]
Essay: The election of the Islamist President Mohamed Morsi has prompted a round of stories about harassment and even murder at the hands of Islamists. Copts and women are particularly worried. But the history is neither new nor as simple as it might see
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 […]
BLOOMBERG, EL PAIS, EL MUNDO (Spain) Worldcrunch MADRID – Reversing an earlier no-new-taxes pledge, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has announced tax increases and spending cuts totaling 65 billion euros ($80bn) over the next two-and-a-half years to try stave off the accumulating debt crisis, Bloomberg reports. Rajoy’s fourth austerity package in seven months includes a […]