The old saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” has never been truer. An initiative to fight against prejudice, the Human Library project “rents” out people who have fallen on hard times or who have had a life
Author: Worldcrunch
JAPAN TIMES/KYODO NEWS (Japan) YOKOHAMA – Japan is known for its vending machines: there is one on every street corner, selling anything from underwear and socks, to toys and green tea. But here’s one you may (or may not) be jonesing for: a vending machine that sells marijuana. Last week police in Kanagawa, near Yokohama, […]
Uniquely situated, NATO member Turkey is pushing fellow alliance members to rethink the approach to the withdrawal from Afghanistan slated for 2014. Turkish President Abdullah Gül also has his say on Pakistan, and addresses unfinished business with the ne
LA REPUBBLICA (Italy) VATICAN CITY – The Vatican confirmed Saturday that Pope Benedict XVI’s personal butler has been arrested, as a scandal over leaks to the press and alleged financial corruption threatens to spin out of control, La Repubblica reports. Beyond the substance of the charges, the arrest of Paolo Gabriele, a layman who lives […]
Categories
Nicaragua’s Sex Abuse “Epidemic”
LA PRENSA (Nicaragua) MANAGUA – A leading women’s rights organization is calling on Nicaraguan authorities to declare a “yellow alert” over the country’s growing sexual abuse “epidemic,” La Prensa reports. Martha María Blandón, the Central American director of the international rights group Ipas, cites official court statistics to suggest that abuse cases are on the […]
Categories
Are Power Moms The New Gays?
Essay: ‘Brigitte Mom’ is a new German magazine for the post-modern mother, who the publishers want us to believe are the hippest urban creatures since upwardly mobile gays and lesbians.
EL MUNDO (Spain) MADRID – Has the European economic crisis managed to sully the Eurovision Song Contest? The 2012 edition of the competition, which takes place Saturday in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, includes competitors from an array of debt-ridden countries. This is a European song contest, after all. But reports say that contestant Pastora […]
Categories
Russia And Syria Get Even Cozier
GAZETA.RU (Russia) MOSCOW – Russia and Syria are in talks to establish a new free-trade zone, the latest sign that Moscow will stand by their man in Damascus. In an interview with ITAR-TASS news agency, Russian Vice-Premier Alexander Khloponin announced the possibility of a new free trade zone to expand commerce between Syria and the […]
Top economists at Germany’s Deutsche Bank suggest creating a second “parallel” currency, alongside the euro, to save Greece. They also believe Greek banks should be turned into a European-managed “Bad Bank,” a
Scientists in Germany are using DNA to test the real origins of lumber from around the globe.
The World Heritage List maintained by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a nice shot of status. More practically, it would help protect France’s famous bubbly from fraudulent imitators.
A book fair planned for this weekend was supposed to liven up Moscow’s Taganski neighborhood with a bit of poetry and music. City authorities saw a threat to public order.
LE DEVOIR (Canada) MONTREAL – Student demonstrations in Quebec took a new, loud turn last night in Montreal, as demonstrators crowded city streets and banged on pots and pans in response to a new law limiting protests, Le Devoir reported. Demonstrators started their noisy procession around 8 p.m local time in Montreal and other cities. […]
A suicide bomb squad killed two policemen and wounded more than a dozen people during an attack on a police station in central Turkey.
Deputies of the Ukrainian opposition fought with deputies of the pro-presidential majority during a session of parliament in Kiev. The opposition parties were protesting a bill that would make Russian an official state language along with Ukrainian.
Categories
Japan’s AWOL Penguin Back In Captivity
A young penguin that escaped from a Tokyo aquarium has been caught more than two months after slipping out of an aquarium in Tokyo.
CORRIERE DELLA SERA (Italy) ROME – An Italian diplomat who was spotted last year performing on stage in a fascist rock band has been brought back from Japan, Corriere della Sera reported. Controversy had erupted when Mario Vattani, visiting home at the time during his stint at the General Consul of Italia in Osaka, was […]
On May 15 Palestinians always mark Nakba Day, or the “catastrophe” of their exile following the creation of Israel. Some Israeli leaders have now responded by asking for the compensation of Jews expelled from Arab countries.
Even though Brazil’s hosting of the World Cup and Summer Olympics are two and four years away, it is apparently already “clean-up” time for at least one Rio de Janeiro slum.
Categories
Jeremy Lin Is A Junior High Exam Topic
LIBERTY TIMES (Taiwan) TAICHUNG – Is Jeremy Lin Taiwanese or American? This dumb question, as some put it, appeared on a recent test at a Taiwanese junior high school. Half of the students answered “Taiwanese.” Wrong! But the apparently light exam topic about an NBA basketball player has set off hot debate in Taiwan, where […]
MTV (Lebanon) BEIRUT – After having earlier stood by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch has now declared that the fall of what he calls the “dictatorship” of the current regime would not affect Christians in Syria, reported Lebanon’s MTV television (not affiliated with the American music broadcaster) Still Patriarch Bishara al-Rai, whose followers […]
Europe hustles to figure out how to save its single currency in the face of an escalating debt crisis in Greece. Germans are looking surprisingly fondly at Ireland and Portugal, which have shown a commitment to austerity that Greece has simply not managed
Op-Ed: In China, the government has long been deciding who does what, where and when, even jailing people for moving without a “permit.” Now, its “Building The Socialist Countryside” policy has been relocating farmers i
EL TIEMPO (Colombia) BOGOTA – For the first time in the country’s history, a top Colombian court has awarded adoption rights to a homosexual man. The court made the landmark decision Tuesday, allowing American journalist Chandler Burr to leave Colombia with two boys – aged 10 and 13 – he legally adopted there in early […]
PAGINA DE MEDIA (Romania) This story has been updated After being the source of much mockery, Romanian reporter Adrian Boioglu wants to set the record straight. During a live weather report from Constanta on the country’s Black Sea coast, the roving news reporter from the Realitatea news channel appeared to get caught red-handed as he […]
EL UNIVERSAL (Ecuador) MADRID – For Ecuadorans hoping to escape poverty, Spain was long seen as a land of opportunity. Nowadays? Not so much. Due to the prolonged economic crisis in Spain, many Ecuadorans who took up residence there are ready to seek greener pastures — or simply return to their homeland (where 21% of […]
Categories
Hewlett-Packard to cut 27,000 jobs
Hewlett-Packard Co. is cutting 27,000 jobs in an effort to save up to $3.5b annually and recover from recent management missteps.
Pakistan’s problematic relationship with the US plunges to new depths as Senators warn of aid cuts after the jailing of the surgeon who helped the CIA hunt down Osama bin Laden.
Activity at European businesses hit a near three-year low in May and the euro dropped sharply to $1.2515, its lowest level since July 2010.
From Tokyo, Japan to Esslingen, Germany, researchers are coming up with ways to make robots more intelligent, autonomous and even sensitive. One test bot knows how to make popcorn – without burning the kernels. Another is being designed to keep senior cit
Ahmed Shafik’s giant posters are all over Cairo as Egypt goes to the polls to pick a new president. Well-financed, this candidate was once a minister for deposed President Hosni Mubarak. He famously offered to pay Tahrir Square demonstrators in c
A new report found that Italy suffers an acute shortage of young people in positions in power. The first place to look is inside the ruling cabinet of (69-year-old) Prime Minister Mario Monti.
ÉCRANS, RTL (France) PARIS – Four French anti-racism organizations have sued Google for its automatic suggestion function that prompts search requests to see if certain public figures are Jewish, French website Écrans reports. The Union of French Jewish Students (UEJF), SOS Racism and two other groups said the search engine corporation’s “auto-suggestion” tool was breaching […]
In Burundi, birthdays, baptisms and burial ceremonies tend to be marked with big family gatherings. Guests are expected to help out by offering, for example, a case of beer. For families with modest incomes, the price of so much partying is often untenabl
LA TERCERA (Chile) SANTIAGO – Emergency workers in Chile have pulled off another daring mine rescue, lifting two men to safety early Wednesday morning from a partially collapsed coal pit in the town of Colonel. The rescue comes nearly two years after the world was captivated by the drama of Chile’s “los 33,” a group […]
JAPAN TIMES (Japan) TOKYO – While some might have been worrying about earthquakes, the world’s largest tower has opened safely in the Japanese capital. Still, the first day was not all stable at the structure, dubbed Tokyo Skytree, as high winds forced two elevators to shut down around 6 p.m., stranding visitors in the No. […]
AL ARABIYA (Dubai) In the first such step of its kind, the Syrian Army has agreed to a prisoner exchange with the opposition forces of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Syrian government forces freed two arrested men from Syrian prisons in exchange for the remnants of a destroyed tank in the town of Khan Sheikhoun […]
LA REPUBBLICA (Italy) ROME – Doctors of the Bambino Gesù Hospital announced that they have successfully transplanted what is believed to be the lightest-ever artificial heart, La Repubblica reports. The titanium heart, weighing 11 grams (0.39 ounces), was transplanted in a 16-month baby last month. The average adult heart weighs 300 grams.H The baby is […]
Officials of six world powers –the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China– begin a fresh round of talks with Iran amid hopes of progress toward a deal on Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
Egyptians are voting in their first free presidential election, a historic achievement for those who worked to topple longtime leader Hosni Mubarak a year ago.