BBC ARABIC (UK), AL-MASRY AL-YOUM (Egypt) CAIRO – Protests are continuing in Egypt following the verdict in the trial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, his former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly, Mubarak’s two sons and six security officials. Though the former president and interior minister receieved 25-year sentences, Alaa and Gamal Mubarak and the six […]
Author: Worldcrunch
LEADERSHIP/THE NIGERIAN TRIBUNE (Nigeria) LAGOS – Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has declared three days of mourning following Sunday’s plane crash. The Dana Airline plane crashed in a densely populated district of Lagos on Sunday afternoon, killing all 153 passengers. Only 60 bodies have been recovered so far. The number of victims on the ground is […]
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Look What’s Not Rotten In Denmark
Using the same “toxic” assets that led to the subprime crisis, Denmark has created what they believe to be the best home mortgage system in the world. It’s been 200 years since someone defaulted on payment.
Scientists have been trying for centuries to understand why some people sleepwalk. Things like stress, alcohol and genetics seem to play a role. But what actually takes place in the body and brain of a sleepwalker remains an enigma.
Gunmen have killed 11 people and wounded at least eight others in an attack on a drug rehabilitation centre in the north of Mexico.
The Tokyo market slumps to a 28-year low as Asian shares dive on fears of a nightmare scenario of euro-zone breakup, U.S. economic relapse and a sharp slowdown in China.
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US drone strike kills 15 in Pakistan
A US drone strike targeting a militant compound in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal area has killed 15 insurgents in a pre-dawn attack.
CHINA TIMES (Taiwan) BEIJING – Sina Weibo, one of China’s most popular microblogging websites, announced last week the launch of the Sina Microblogging Community Convention in order “to defend the order of microblogging.” That was the claim, at least, the reality is that it was just a ploy for giving the administrator the right to […]
Countless products are manufactured in China and then sold in the West under European or U.S. brand names. A new clothing venture is looking to turn that model inside out, hiring Italian tailors to make top-end suits for sale in China – under a Chinese br
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Madonna v. Marine Le Pen
LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR (France) TEL AVIV – Madonna has danced herself right into the center of French politics. And the show may not be over yet. During the first stop of her “MDNA” tour in Israel last week, the American pop star melded images of right-wing French leader Marine Le Pen with Nazi imagery. During […]
CHALLENGES (France) PARIS – His name is André Santini. André, with an “é”, not Andre. A French member of parliament and mayor of Issy-les-Moulineaux in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, André Santini prides himself on being the first French politician whose website features an accented letter (www.andré-santini.fr), the French weekly financial magazine Challenges reports. Bonne […]
Even as diplomatic pressure grows on the Assad regime, inhabitants of the Djebel Akrad mountains are doubtful that anything less than are a military intervention can make the difference.
Paul Ricard was a visionary: in the early 1920s, he was already dreaming of selling his aniseed liquor around the world. Eighty years later, his vision has become reality, and what was a little liquor from the South of France is today one of the world&
Feng Shui is making a come back in China – and its experts are more than happy to cash in on the boom.
THE MAINICHI / KYODO (Japan) TOKYO – Japan’s low cost carrier Skymark Airlines has found a new and unusual way to cut costs. Since May, passengers have been advised not to complain or to ask for help on board, and crew members have been told not to be helpful or nice. The airline hopes to […]
As cities in Rwanda are urbanizing and gentrifying, the poor are forced to move to the countryside, where land prices are rising nearly as fast.
Bernd Ruffing, 38, lives with a large group of people, but they’re all men, and they’re all old. His mother is appalled by the situation. But the soon-to-be monk is sure he’s doing the right thing in the right place.
ROMANDIE.COM, LE TEMPS (Switzerland) BERN – Switzerland seems to know its priorities. While economic storm clouds continue to gather over Europe, lawmakers in the landlocked country were busy this week negotiating what to do about marine mammals. The western world is undergoing one of its worst crises ever, but Switzerland “is taking all the time […]
Many countries have sent Syria’s ambassadors packing in recent days. France did the same – sort of. This week the government officially expelled Ambassador Lamia Chakkour. She plans to stay on in Paris regardless.
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Hugo Chávez, Latin America’s Twitter King
MILENIO (Mexico) Latin America’s longest serving leader, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, is also the region’s most popular head of state – at least as far as Twitter is concerned. The ailing president recently became the first of the 12 Latin American leaders with active Twitter accounts to pass the 3 million followers mark, Milenio reports. […]
The growing political movement for Internet freedom, the Pirate Party, has shocked many with recent electoral success in Germany. The next objective is establishing a beachhead in France in the upcoming Parliamentary elections.
A Chinese state security official has been arrested on suspicion of spying for the United States, a case both countries have kept quiet for several months as they strive to prevent a fresh crisis in relations.
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Irish voters back EU fiscal pact
Early indications suggest voters in the Republic of Ireland have approved the EU fiscal pact aimed at ensuring fiscal discipline in Europe, as it struggles to overcome a debt crisis.
Activists have released a video which they say shows another mass killing of civilians by a pro-government militia in Syria – the third in a week.
You can be live to 122, AND smoke, drink and devour chocolate. You can also do all those things and die young. Researchers try to unlock the secret to hyper-longevity.
EUROPE 1 (France) “May contain egg protein” or “contains traces of milk.” Not exactly what you’d expect to read on the label of a wine bottle. But starting July 1, wine sold in Europe will come marked with exactly this kind of information. The move follows a European directive aimed at informing consumers of the […]
AL-AHRAM, AL-MASRY AL-YOUM (Egypt) CAIRO – Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohamed Mursi expressed confidence that he would be elected in the upcoming runoff and sought to assuage Christians’ fears about Islamist rule, Egypt’s Al-Ahram reported on Friday. Egyptians, particularly those who supported the Arab spring revolution, will not accept a Mubarak-style regime again, Mursi told […]
ECONOMIC OBSERVER/SHANGHAI ONLINE NEWS (China) Song Wenchao has become an unlikely hero in China. The 50-year-old man lives in the only remaining house on a building site in Hunan Province. All the others have been torn down by the Changsha City Government. Song’s home is still standing — but only because he refuses to leave. […]
Analysis: Whether it is for a factory opening or a ceremony honoring her hero, “Evita,” Argentine leader Cristina Kirchner finds plenty of opportunities to speak. Many discourses, but not much dialogue.
TAGES-ANZEIGER (Switzerland) ZURICH – Sparks are set to fly as groups on both sides of the right-to-die debate prepare to descend on Zurich – with just one street to divide them. The Swiss city is known throughout the world as being something of a mecca for the practice of assisted suicide and what’s been dubbed, […]
In their search for extra-terrestrial life, scientists are zeroing in on so-called exoplanets. To narrow the field down even more, they use powerful telescopes to draw conclusions about the chemical makeup of those planets’ atmospheres.
Some Swiss are questioning the parallel lifestyle of rich and highly skilled migrants, some of whom come for tax breaks. The foreign residents are often set apart, for good, in their choice of schools. Can this be remedied?
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Why Tobacco Companies Love French Films
LE PARISIEN and LES ECHOS (France) A public health advocacy group called the French League Against Cancer is taking advantage of World No Tobacco Day – today – to sound the alarm about “hidden advertising” for cigarettes. Tobacco advertising was outlawed in France in 1991. And yet cigarette manufacturers are still finding a way to […]
LA POLITICA ITALIANA and ZENIT (Italy) ROME – For the first time in its over 150-year history, L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official daily newspaper, is publishing a supplement specifically for women. The four-page insert is called “Women, Church, World” and is written “by and for” Catholic women, La Politica Italiana reports. In an interview with […]
How would you like it if in your company, deceased employees were automatically replaced by family members, even if they didn’t have the training?
CARACOL RADIO (Colombia) FLORENCIA – Among the first to react to the release Wednesday of Roméo Langlois, a French journalist who was captured in late April by members of Colombia’s FARC, was one of the guerilla army’s old nemeses: ex-President Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010). But rather than celebrate the handover, Uribe used the opportunity to question […]
North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il has “transferred the country into an undefeated country with strong political ideology, a nuclear power state, and invincible military power,” according to the updated constitution posted on its portal
A German engineer abducted in January by gunmen in Kano in northern Nigeria has been killed during an attempt by Nigerian forces to rescue him.
LE JOUR (Cameroon) NKOL-METET – When class is over in Nkolya II School, in the small Cameroonian village of Nkol-Metet, children get to work. As in many Cameroonian schools, children, sometimes as young as six years old, do personal tasks for their teachers — like carrying firewood to their teachers’ houses at the end of […]
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Syrian troops shell Houla, site of massacre
Syrian troops shelled the country’s central region of Houla where more than 100 people were massacred last week. At least one person was killed in the latest violence and scores fled in fear of more government attacks.