LE TEMPS (Switzerland) CNN, BBC GENEVA – Aung San Suu Kyi arrived in Europe for what some have seen as a sort of victory lap for democracy. The Burmese pro-democracy leader arrived on Wednesday at the annual conference of the U.N. International Labour Organization in Geneva. Watch a clip of Suu Kyi at the International […]
Author: Worldcrunch
Worldcrunch EL MUNDO (Spain), LE FIGARO (France) BLOOMBERG (U.S.), MADRID – At the beginning of the week, Spain was supposed to have been saved. So much for that: Moody’s downgraded Spain’s debt rating three steps to Baa3. The main reason for this downgrade “is obviously the need of Spain’s government to ask for external help,” […]
Worldcrunch L’EQUIPE, LE MONDE (France) PARIS – As the cycling world gets ready for the 2012 Tour de France, the man who dominated the competition for years is once again accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs, and risks losing all of his record seven titles. Lance Armstrong has confirmed that he is under investigation by the […]
Prime Minister Erdogan has confirmed the introduction of Kurdish language elective classes, beginning in the fifth grade, hoping to placate the country’s largest minority. But some Kurds are hardly satisfied.
Worldcrunch ORIGINAL CONFIDENCE (Japan) TOKYO – What do Japanese animated films (anime) and automobile industries have in common? They are joining forces together, bringing product placement (in this case Japanese cars and motorcycles) to animation. Carmaker Subaru and famous anime studio Gainax collaborated on the web series Hōkago no Pleiades (Wish Upon the Pleiades), a […]
Valérie Trierweiler, companion of France’s new President François Hollande, wants to keep up her journalism career. She wants to be free to speak — and tweet — her mind. But when she took a political slap at Hollande’s ex, France was r
Op Ed: What happened in Chinese society for nepotism and corruption to become so entrenched that children already have it in mind as they make plans for the future.
TUNIS TRIBUNE (Tunisia), FRANCE 24 (France) TUNIS – Former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was sentenced to 20 years in prison, for “incitement to public disorder, murders and lootings on the Tunisian territory.” The sentence was handed down Wednesday morning by a Tunis military court, following a trial focused on the days around […]
Worldcrunch AL ARABIYA, BBC NEWS, CNN BAGHDAD – A wave of bombings in six Iraqi provinces, including 10 locations in Baghdad, has killed at least 62 people and wounded dozens more in the country’s worst attack in more than a year, BBC News reports. Al Arabiya reports that the string of car and roadside bombs […]
From the G8 summit later this month in Mexico to her own domestic political fortunes, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will have all the world asking if she can lead the charge to save the euro, and help reverse a sinking world economy.
Worldcrunch CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY (Taiwan), VOA TAIPEI – These are not the kind of words that typically go “viral.” Following the mysterious June 6 death in China of prominent dissident Li Wangyang, a growing number of Chinese human rights activists in China have been using Twitter and other microblog services to personally declare: “I will […]
Analysis: Much has been made about China’s move toward a market economy. But seen from up close, the private sector is still a second-class player in the face of state-run economic interests.
Analysis: A Swiss correspondent in Washington, like others from the Old Continent, has concluded that Obama lacked the leadership skills necessary to meet the challenges of his times. He also made one crucial error from Day One.
Alexandre Herchcovitch, one of Brazil’s top designers, says the future of fashion in this Bric country is in clothing the rising middle class — even if he won’t ever stop making super-expensive stuff for the super-rich.
Worldcrunch LE NOUVEL OBS (France) PARIS – #trierweilergate, #vaudeville… Hashtags have been flourishing on Twitter since Valérie Trierweiler —French President François Hollande’s girlfriend— posted an unexpected message endorsing the Socialist candidate running against Hollande’s former long-term partner Ségolène Royal in parliamentary elections. At 11.56AM, Trierweiler (@valtrier) tweeted “Good luck to Olivier Falorni who is a […]
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German Austerity v. Europe’s Luxury Lobby
Is the European economic paradox such that the luxury sector is the best hope for relaunching the moribund economy?
NGO’s and activists are denouncing the way police officers strip and examine “suspects” to determine if they are homosexual, which is illegal in what many consider the Arab world’s most open society.
Although 3.5 million tons of garbage are floating in the North Pacific, most of it is hard to track down. Could satellites help spot this elusive yet lethal garbage patch?
Worldcrunch BOSTON GLOBE, AP (United States) MIDDLEBOROUGH – When in Massachusetts, watch your language! Residents in Middleborough, a town of about 20,000 inhabitants outside of Boston, have voted to make the foul-mouthed pay $20 fines for swearing in public. Town Meeting members, by a 183 to 50 tally, voted to institute as a non-criminal civic […]
BBC NEWS (United Kingdom), PAJHWOK (Afghanistan) PUL-I-KHUMRI – A dramatic landslide killed at least 80 people in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan. The landslide was the result of two successive earthquakes that were felt as far as Kabul, 105 miles away. “A quake measuring 5.4 struck the Hindu Kush region, followed by a 5.7 […]
Worldcrunch AP, LENTA.RU (Russia) MOSCOW – Thousands of Russians have gathered in the capital for the first protest march against Vladimir Putin since his reelection last month as president. According to organizers, up to to 20,000 people took part in the “March of Millions’, the Moscow-based news website Lenta.ru reports. The protest began without top […]
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When Kurdistan Won The World Cup
THE KURDISH GLOBE, RUDAW (Kurdistan) ERBIL – While all eyes turn to the European Football Championship in Poland and Ukraine, another little known soccer World Cup quietly found its new owner over the weekend. The Kurdistan soccer team became VIVA World Cup champions after beating Northern Cyprus 2-1 in the finals, held at the Franso […]
A little lesson in what not to do when a porn star killer posts a photo of himself on Facebook drinking a bottle of your delicious beer.
LA TRIBUNE (France) BORDEAUX – Bordeaux wines have become so popular in China, reports La Tribune, that they are now widely targeted by counterfeiters. Wine consumption in China – a relatively new phenomenon – has doubled in the past five years, and should continue to become more and more mainstream. So much so that China […]
On the eve of another mass protest in Moscow, opposition leaders had their apartments turned upside down by special security forces.
Worldcrunch LIBERATION (France) PARIS – Three months after the Toulouse shootings, the father of the slain killer Mohamed Merah is suing France for murder. Mohamed Benalel Merah lodged a complaint on Monday in Paris, accusing senior French police officials of murder with aggravating circumstances. Merah’s son killed seven people around the French southern city of […]
Established in 2007, the Monumenta series challenges an artist to occupy the vast open space of the Grand Palais of Paris. French artist Daniel Buren has a colorful response.
A new tax agreement signed with Germany, Britain and Austria has the smaller Swiss banks thinking about “phasing out” customers from these countries, while bigger banks like UBS and Credit Suisse are rubbing their hands with glee.
Worldcrunch THE TIMES OF INDIA, OUTLOOK (India) MUMBAI – Citing slowed growth and stalled reforms, Standard & Poors has warned India that it risks losing its investment-grade rating, and being downgraded to junk category, reports the Times of India. S&P assigned much of the blame to politicians, notably Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “It would be […]
When Twitter made its debut in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez did his best to co-opt the social network and flood it with official statements. But now the social network is used by those undermining the twitterer-in-chief.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are sorry to inform you that we cannot proceed to takeoff because we are still waiting to receive papers for the radioactive cargo on board – please excuse the delay….”
WorldcrunchCAIXIN / CHINA DAILY (China) BEIJING – As far as mass national mobilizations go, nothing can quite match the Spring Festival transportation rush around the Chinese New Year. But in China, another massive annual event is the “Gaokao,” when millions of high school graduates take part in the National College Entrance Examination in 7300 test […]
BLOOMBERG (U.S.), EL MUNDO (Spain) MADRID – European markets got a boost following Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s confirmation that Spain received 100 billion euros ($125 billion) from the European Union to rescue a major chunk of its banking sector. The rebound in Monday trading was described as “euphoria” in the Spanish press. According to […]
Worldcrunch LIBERATION (France) PARIS – On the wave of the solid popularity of newly installed French President François Hollande, left-wing parties look to be headed for a clear majority after Sunday’s first round of parliamentary elections. First estimates give the Left — led by Hollande’s Socialist Party — 47% of the vote, in front of […]
Worldcrunch DAILY TIMES OF NIGERIA, AP (Nigeria), CORRIERE DEL MEZZOGIORNO (Italy) Police rescued midfielder Christian Obodo, a player in Italy’s top soccer division, a day after he was abducted in his native Nigeria. Obodo’s abductors had contacted his family in the delta city of Warri to demand a ransom of 150,000 euros, the Daily Times […]
More than 15 years after the end of French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, 720 people afflicted with cancer and other illnesses have sued France for compensation.
No one knows what goes on or even who are all the people taking part in this invitation-only, top-secret club for the world’s most powerful elites. So how did a loquacious Green Party member manage to get invited?
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants plays to be submitted to public servants before they can be shown, and for inappropriate scenes to be “reformed.”
CBN RADIO (Brazil) In Jardim Helena, a poor area 18 miles from downtown São Paulo, postmen now need a security escort to deliver mail. Already this year, more than 450 mailmen have been victims of robbery and flash kidnappings, CBN Radio reports. Authorities explain that Jardim Helena’s many alleyways make it easy for criminals to […]
In the northwestern African nation, anti-slavery activist Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid is accused of burning pages from a holy book that promoted slavery, prompting a call for his execution and a return to Sharia Law.