Worldcrunch
Once considered a social phenomenon of shared sense of identity for poor youth, gangs in El Salvador have grown increasingly deadly, as the country counts the world’s highest murder rate. Latin America’s exploding drug trafficking routes threaten
Citing concerns about both productivity and security, some businesses in Britain have begun to block their employees from accessing social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
A prized Russian Toy Terrier pure breed has gone missing at a 5-star hotel in the Italian port city. The owner, a Russian chemicals tycoon, has put up 10,000 euros to have his skinny pup back — and demanded lie-detector tests for hotel employees.
Facebook is certainly a lot of fun, but for some Orthodox Jews, it can also be a bit risqué. In an effort to keep social networking both clean and kosher, an enterprising young Israeli has come up with a virtual compromise: Faceglat!
The attacks of 10 years ago have fundamentally changed the ways that U.S. companies function, with security at the center of business operations from Wall Street to the Mall of America.
After hockey powerhouse Lokomotiv Yaroslavl’s Yak 42 charter crashed at take off, President Medvedev paid homage to the 43 killed, but launched into a harsh critique of an airline industry that counts too many new, untested carriers, and too few
In sauces and on skewers, critters that crawled and worms that squirmed are increasingly seen as a thrifty source of protein for people in the developing world — and beyond.
The French government wants to impose an extra tax on sweetened beverages, both as a way to generate revenue in response the country’s growing deficit – and to fight obesity. Now, the Coca-Cola company, which has 3,000 French employees, is fighting back.
Op-Ed: Turkey’s once powerful military was respected both within the country, and around the world. But it now has it been — rightly — superseded by the civilian government, and recently leaked comments from top brass show an institution rife w
Op-Ed: In a surprise move, Switzerland’s central bank has de facto linked the country’s currency to the fate of the euro. Risky as it is, the bold move is welcomed in a country increasingly united by a common fear of recession.
Like the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Jama’a Al-Islamiya is looking to carve out a political niche in post-revolutionary Egypt. Reformists have reshaped the once violent-prone organization, but continue to be challenged internally by a powerful militant faction
In an education system that is often stuck in old ways, some French teachers are experimenting with Twitter as a writing and communication tool with students as young as six years old.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا By Kristen Gillespie DEFECTIONDespite persistent reports to the contrary, Syria’s official media continues to deny that soldiers are defecting from the army. A quick tour of YouTube turns up dozens of defector videos. The latest is here, with Ahmed Darwish in uniform and showing his official identity […]
Reuters obtains video, believed to be from 2005, of Muammar Gaddafi playing with his granddaughter. The Libyan leader’s current whereabouts remain unknown.
Initially, the overthrow of the Taliban had given hope to many Afghans. But 10 years after the Al Qaeda attacks on the U.S. set off a bloody chain of events, the Afghan people seem to have accepted a fate where certain troubles are always bound to return.
The hotel heiress had refused to give back $60,000 worth of diamonds that had been stolen, but later located by police. A girl’s best friend? A good lawyer.
Op-Ed: China has helped fund a major new project to build schools in Africa, raising the ire of some Chinese for not first taking care of kids at home. The writer lays out the local benefits of helping globally.
Advisors say the former IMF chief will publicly offer his “regrets,” but won’t address details about what happened in the infamous Sofitel hotel room in New York. And if all goes right, he will reclaim his role as a global authority on t
A new amateur video has been unearthed, capturing the cataclysmic power of the tsunami as it hit Japan earlier this year.
Facing surprisingly high obesity rates, the Czech military is forced to crack down on high-fat diets. Some, however, have pointed out that certain plump generals set a bad example for the troops on the ground.
No central bank or state authority to manage the country’s money supply, degenerating schools and universities, no way to know who owns land. Here’s a look at how a stateless country manages to get from one day to the next.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا VANISHEDSyrian security forces are conducting arrests and house-to-house searches seeking any information related to the whereabouts of Hama’s Attorney General, Adnan Bakkour, who announced his resignation last week in a video posted on YouTube. Bakkour condemned the Syrian regime and cited the slaughter of civilians in Hama […]
Op-Ed: Julian Assange and his former German cohort Daniel Domscheit-Berg blame each other for the circulation on the Internet of the identities of secret informants from diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks. Now, with lives in danger, the organization
The country’s best writers were long forced to rely on metaphor and symbolism to express their art and avoid the wrath of the regime. Now, with Gaddafi driven from Tripoli, a new world is set to open up.
The eternal battle that pits animal lovers v. landlords could take a decidedly pet-friendly turn in Italy, where the Parliament is set to debate a bill that would outlaw any building regulations banning home pets.
Making the Palestinian economy and civil society function are key steps toward statehood. A current snapshot shows very mixed results, though continued border checks by Israeli are blamed for choking back progress.
In the latest sign that the Castro regime is loosening its grip over the open practice of religion, the first nationwide procession since the revolution will be allowed to take take place for the island country’s patron Saint in a celebration to
Though he fought along jihadists in Afghanistan, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, who leads the Libyan rebels in Tripoli, says in one of his first interviews since taking the capital that he was never allied with Bin Laden, and only wants democracy for Libya.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, some 100,000 young women and teenaged girls are believed to have been lured from their homes in Ukraine with false promises, winding up victims of human trafficking for street prostitution and other parts of the global
Volkswagen’s smallest model – the up! – will launch in December. We tested it, and much more than the price is right about this little gem of an automobile.
In the heart of Hong Kong, Chungking’s 17 stories are divided by price and “presentability.” They are home to travelers, traders, restaurants and prostitutes in a low-cost microcosm of our ever mobile world.
Researchers in Lausanne, Switzerland have discovered a chromosome anomaly in very skinny people that may explain pathologies that cause people to stop eating.
Unforgiving nudes are the focus of a new exhibition in Venice of the 20th century realist painter, and youngest son of the legendary Sicilian playwright.
South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela went back to his natal village of Qunu in July, and he’s still there. Many South Africans fear it may have been his last trip.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا FREE CITYAhmed Durat, a member of Libya’s National Transitional Council, is calling on all rebels to leave Tripoli and return to their hometowns now that the city has been liberated, Al Masry Al Youm reports. The council has the Libyan capital under control, Durat said. SIN CITYKuwait […]
In a further sign of how far Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi has fallen, a local newspaper – and local residents- openly mock the man who ruled the country with an iron fist for 42 years
After her historic French Open victory, Li Na instantly became the apple of advertisers eyes to the tune of $42 million. Though she was knocked out of the first round of the U.S. Open, a whole star system is counting on her earning power to keep growing.
Last May, this humble bovine in Upper Bavaria, Germany, went missing. For months she hid in the woods, prompting a Facebook page and cash reward for her return — and becoming an international media star in the process. And now, of her own free will, she’
Fueled by Internet forums and photo-sharing, so-called “urban explorers” track down decaying houses and boarded-up factories to capture the way things were in an ever more remote past.
Analysis: The emergency evacuation of Chinese companies from North Africa is a harsh reminder that firms from China must do a better job of integrating in the local environment to realize their dreams of striking it rich in the Arab world.