Is this the next David & Goliath battle against a pharmaceutical giant? A German man born with severe birth defects blames it on Duogynon, a drug that can still be bought in pharmacies. Thousands of other potential victims will be watching the Ber
Author: Worldcrunch
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…
LE MONDE (France), TORONTO STAR, RABBLE (Canada) Worldcrunch According to Canadian expert in copyright, Michael Geist, the European Commission is planning to implement the recently rejected provisions of ACTA with a clever little workaround: by applying the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). The Canadian publication Rabble reports that Canada and the European Union […]
Vladimir Putin has made a priority out of expanding and updating the military capacity of the Russian military, but there is still much heavy lifting required to move beyond the mechanical and human rust of the Soviet era.
TWITTER, GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON – Former Barclays boss, Bob Diamond, is the financial industry’s new bad guy extraordinaire as public anger mounts against chief banking executives in the Libor scandal. The news Tuesday that he had voluntarily given up his bonus of £20 million ($31 million) was supposed to quiet the outcry, as Diamond […]
LA REPUBBLICA, CORIERRE DELLA SERA (Italy) Worldcrunch LA SPEZIA – Sounds like a classic recipe for summer fun: little kids, bubbles, ice cream cones….Chinese bacteria? A huge stock of allegedly toxic made-in-China bubble soap toys has been seized by Italian Police, Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica report. Italian children, to whom the products were […]
An old man, a pregnant woman, a crowded bus. Why doesn’t anyone give up their seats anymore? There are as many theories as there are people, polite and otherwise.
REUTERS, EL PAIS (Spain) Worldcrunch Euro zone ministers struggled to reassure financial markets on Tuesday that an aid package for Spain they outlined overnight will help stabilize the currency bloc, Reuters reports. The Spanish daily El Pais called the decisions taken overnight by the euro zone partners in Brussels “a soft intervention in the economy,” […]
BBC NEWS (UK), JEUNE AFRIQUE (France) Worldcrunch THE HAGUE – Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga was sentenced to 14 years in jail on Tuesday by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for recruting and using child soldiers, some younger than 15, from 2002 to 2003. The sentence is the first to be handed out […]
With results coming this week in Libya’s first post-Gaddafi election, the Muslim Brotherhood is not expected to fare so well. After Islamists won in Tunisia and Egypt, several key factors are thought to be tipping the Libyan electorate in favor o
LA RAZON, LA RIOJA, LOS TIEMPOS (Bolivia) Worldcrunch COCHABAMBA – Bolivian President Evo Morales doesn’t forget his roots. It’s just that his happen to be in the agricultural production of coca, which also is the key ingredient in the production of cocaine. Morales has been elected for a new term as leader of the coca […]
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What’s Wrong With Chinese Education
China’s education system produces students highly adept at reciting back what their teachers tell them, and teachers who focus only on regurgitating what the state textbooks contain. What’s lost is the curiosity and creativity that motor
From the Ming Dynasty to Hong Kong gangsters, shark fin was once the symbolic ingredient of Chinese people of wealth and status. But times and tastes are bound to change.
Once South Americans looking for residency in the US or Europe would concoct bogus unions with friends. Now in Brazil, the game has flipped.
In an interview with Le Monde, Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League special envoy to Syria, concedes that his mission has so far been a failure. He speaks frankly about Russia and China, but also suggests more focus on Iran and others in coming clean on their i
ADEVARUL, ZIARE.COM, BUCHAREST HERALD (Romania) Worldcrunch BUCHAREST – An escalating political crisis in Romania pitting the prime minister against the president is spreading abroad, with protests in foreign capitals and concern from European officials about the state of democracy in one of the EU’s newest members. Center-left Prime Minister Victor Ponta and his Social Liberal […]
BBC NEWS (UK), REUTERS Worldcrunch CAIRO – Egyptian parliamentary speaker Saad al-Katatni told the state news agency on Monday that Parliament would meet on Tuesday even though Army generals ordered it dissolved last month and took over legislative power, according to Reuters. The move could threaten Egypt’s political stability and herald an open confrontation between […]
AFP, RTL, LE FIGARO (France) Worldcrunch PARIS – Outrage spread Monday after French TV station TF1 aired for the first time extracts of audio tapes between Toulouse gunman Mohamed Merah and the police during the 32-hour siege on his apartment. In the recordings, Mohamed Merah can be heard saying to the police negotiators: “Know that […]
Colombia is a paradox, with rising economic growth concentrated in urban areas and apparent progress in fighting both leftist guerillas and drug cartels. But there’s a dirty little secret that won’t go away: more internally displaced peo
SING TAO (Hong Kong), LIANHE ZAOBAO (Singapore) Worldcrunch HONG KONG – The Chinese political system is one of “progress, selflessness and solidarity.” And the “Western” alternative of multiple political parties? Well, that’s sure to bring “malignant party struggle, and it’s the people who pay…” Such keen analysis is standard fare from the corridors of China’s […]
With its blue waters and soft breezes, the island of Zante is the essence of a Greek paradise. It turns out it was also home to widespread scams of state benefits that help explain what is so deeply broken in modern Greece.
A new humanitarian crisis is unfolding after the fall of Gaddafi: thousands of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, as well as some from Pakistan and Syria, have been detained in the middle of the desert in southern Libya. No way out, and conditions are li
Folha d S. Paulo has uncovered documents showing that Brazil wants to give its struggling neighbor a break on trade deals. It’s a sign of how deep are Brazilian fears about Argentina’s economic health.
LE MONDE, LE COURRIER DE L’ATLAS (France), AFP TUNIS – A Tunisian university dean risks a five year prison sentence for allegedly slapping a student who refused to take off her veil, Le Monde reports. The case is the latest development in the bitter row at Manouba University between secularists and Salafi students who follow […]
lv7 (Argentina), EL PERUANO (Peru) Worldcrunch LIMA – Ongoing protests this week against the construction of a US-backed gold mine in the northern Peruvian province of Cajamarca have left at least four dead. According to the lv7 website, the local population has rallied in protest to oppose the project called Conga, directed by the American […]
Police say the main suspect paid someone to kill his girlfriend in order to cash in on an insurance policy to buy a stud farm.
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No Israel, Time Is Not On Your Side
Analysis: The Arab Spring and conflict in Syria have taken the focus off of the intractable standoff of the Israeli-Palestinian situation. But Israel should not be fooled into thinking that stalling is anything resembling a real strategy — or solution.
NANFANG DAILY (China), GUCHENG.COM (China) Worldcrunch GUANGZHOU – For a country like China, founded on the precepts of fairness and justice, where the proletariat are supposedly the masters, this wasn’t supposed to happen. Thanks to photographs posted this week by a Chinese blogger, we see the space under a viaduct in Guangzhou city covered with […]
SYRIA STEPS (Syria), AL ARABIYA (Saudi Arabia), BBC (UK), AP (US), LE MONDE (France) Worldcrunch PARIS – Over 100 countries gathered for the Friends of Syria conference in Paris on Friday, hoping to broker a diplomatic solution to the on-going violent conflict and to bring an end to Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The conference opened after […]
Lyon is the hometown of France’s new Women’s Rights Minister, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, who wants new measures to stamp out prostitution. With French sex workers demonstrating in the streets, Le Monde looks at how prostitution has evolved in Lyon.
CLARIN, LA NACION (Argentina), EL PAIS (Spain), AP Worldcrunch BUENOS AIRES – Former Argentinean dictator Jorge Videla’s landmark 50-year sentence for stealing babies from leftist prisoners was greeted Friday with a mix of closure and vindication by many in the South American nation who suffered through the so-called “dirty war” three decades ago. The guilty […]
The 2008 economic crisis struck particularly hard in Iceland, where banks went bust and the currency value evaporated. But a hard line both at home and abroad has helped turn things around. But can the model be copied?
LE MONDE (France), EL ATWAN (Algeria), REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS (France) Worldcrunch Algeria marked the 50th anniversary of independence Thursday, an event with significance in both Algeria and France, its former colonial ruler. As part of its coverage of the anniversary, French daily Le Monde published a commentary by Raphaëlle Branche, a historian at Université de […]
Drug dealers often “cut” their pure product with other substances to increase profit margins. A seven-year-long Brazilian police study found such relatively benign substances as caffeine to some pretty awful stuff.
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Giant ‘Pig King’ Gets Buddhist Funeral
CHANGJIANG NEWS NET (China), HUNAN ONLINE (China) Worldcrunch WENZHOU – A few days ago a special Buddhist funeral ceremony was held in a temple at Taishun in Zhejiang province. But it was not a person being laid to rest, but rather a renowned “Pig King” from a nearby village, the Hunan online reported. Dozens of […]
Essay: There is something deeply revealing about the Chinese that the nation is so consumed by the ‘regular guy’ persona of US Ambassador Gary Locke.
AP, WIKILEAKS Worldcrunch LONDON – Online whistle-blower organization Wikileaks announced the publication of over 2.4 million Syrian emails on Wednesday morning, a move which may shed some light on the inner-workings and dealings of the Assad regime as the violent internal conflict continues. Wikileaks made the announcement on its official Twitter account and gave a […]
NEWSDAY, AP Worldcrunch NEW YORK – Three people have been confirmed dead and several others are missing after a yacht carrying July 4 revelers capsized off the Long Island town of Oyster Bay. AP reported that the US Coast Guard and private boat owners rescued 25 passengers around 11 p.m Wednesday night, an hour after […]
In his only interview following news that confirmed the existence of his Higgs boson, the British physicist recounts the long years of uncertainty, the tears at Wednesday’s announcement — as well as a certain bet that Stephen Hawking must now pa
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Fukushima Was A ‘Man-Made’ Disaster
AFP, ASAHI SHIMBUN (Japan), NAIIC (Japan) Worldcrunch TOKYO – Lambasting both Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) and the prime minister’s office, the national task force investigating last year’s accident at Fukushima’s No. 1 nuclear plant concluded that human error played a role in the reactor’s meltdown, and was not only due to the tsunami that […]