An astronomer uses stargazing to give young Afghans some much-appreciated perspective, all the while taking care not to tread on anyone’s religious sensibilities.
Author: Worldcrunch
BEIJING — China has received a string of recent visits from African government and business officials, including Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, in April, and Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, who came in May accompanied by officials from his national petroleum company. The president of the Algerian national oil company also made a trip to China of […]
The worst mass shooting in recent U.S. history has proven to be a litmus test for the two top candidates in the race to the White House. When a gunman pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group opened fire at a gay club in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people and wounding 53 last weekend, the […]
Ramadan is a sacred month of prayer and fasting from dawn to dusk observed by Muslims around the world. But the holy month, which this year runs from June 6 to July 5, comes with different rules and schedules (and soap operas) that must be integrated into busy modern lives. And yes, there’s an app […]
SPOTLIGHT: BREXIT, VIOLENCE AND EUROPE’S PAST Tributes are pouring in for slain British lawmaker Jo Cox, 41, who was fatally stabbed and shot during a meeting yesterday with constituents in northern England. The mother of two young children, Cox was praised as a big-hearted defender of human rights and refugees and was most recently an […]
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Postcard From The Emperor
The style of mailboxes around the world varies considerably. This opulent one, in eastern Germany, looked like it could have been used by Kaiser Wilhelm II.
-Essay- BERLIN — “No other place recalls so vividly the fragility of democracy in Europe in the 20th century.” On the streets of Berlin, passersby may notice this line etched on a building plaque in German, French and English. It can be found in the finance ministry complex that used to house Nazi Germany’s Ministry […]
-Analysis- PARIS — Little is known about the financing of terror. Where does it come from? What part did it play in the Paris shootings and Brussels bombings? Are we able to fight it effectively? We are, on all counts, poorly equipped to deal with this challenge. In France and our neighboring countries, there is […]
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Painting Glass — Video Quote Of The Day
Tests in a region in Colombia with widespread, recurring and inherited Alzheimer’s may help researchers understand why the disease occurs and has thwarted treatments for so long.
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Extra! Shanghai Disneyland Grand Opening
Dongfang Zaobao, June 16 Chinese daily Dongfang Zaobao featured the grand opening of Shanghai Disneyland on its front page Thursday after the theme park dynasty opened its doors at midnight following five years of construction. The $5.5 billion Shanghai Disney Resort is the American company’s biggest theme park outside of the U.S. Some 10,000 employees […]
For Syrians able to escape the horrors of war, Europe is the preferred destination. But some have ventured farther afield. One 22-year-old refugee landed on Jeju island, a popular honeymoon spot off the coast of South Korea.
Our faithful Peugeot 404 makes a cameo appearance, with the Ribat fortress of Monastir in the background.
Attitude, July 2016 issue Prince William will be on the cover of Attitude, the top British LGBT Lifestyle Magazine for the July issue. The Duke of Cambridge is making history as it is the first time that a member of the Royal Family will appear on the front-page of a gay publication. The prince revealed […]
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Russians Hack DNC, French Violence, Hot Damn
SPOTLIGHT: PALESTINIAN PRISON LETTER “My release is bound to happen, sooner or later … “ The most charismatic living Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, who has been in an Israeli prison since 2002, offered a rare written exchange recently with Le Monde. Some see the 56-year-old, who was sentenced to five life imprisonments in 2004 for […]
-Essay- I am short of breath. My brow is wet with sweat, and my fingertips are tingling. I can’t seem to concentrate. I’m happy, but there’s this idea nagging inside of me that I might lose that very happiness I’m feeling. That is indeed the cause of my anxiety. It’s not the fault of the […]
-Analysis- BUENOS AIRES — A system of financial markets is a way to ensure the ready fluidity of all the assets that constitute economic wealth. Implementing the system requires “financial products,” which are meant to adequately represent that wealth, directly or indirectly. Thus, all the wealth that is “fixed” in the production process enters circulation […]
Let’s be clear, the terror in the Pulse club was not an attack on Western culture in general: It was aimed explicitly at gay people. Most heterosexuals don’t have the slightest idea what this really means.
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Lone Wolves, Bad Nutrition, Berlin Brothel
SPOTLIGHT: LONE WOLVES OF ISIS The Islamic State terror group (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for two terrorist attacks in the past two days: a mass shooting at a gay nightclub early Sunday in Orlando, Florida, and a targeted stabbing of a police officer and his wife near Paris late last night. But while the attacks […]
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Hanging On
If you visit northern China’s Xuankong Temple, the famous “Hanging Temple” built into a cliff some 75 meters above the ground, believe me: You won’t let go of the hand rail.
Chitosan fiber in the making — Photo: U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration At first glance, the thread looks like a run-of-the-mill material. But the glossy white, strong and elastic strand is anything but ordinary. This antibacterial material can stop the flow of blood and dissolves naturally within the human body. It can be used […]
Three of the most contentious questions in American culture and politics — gay rights, gun control and terrorism — collided in a horrific way in an Orlando nightclub early Sunday. It is not entirely clear what inspired Omar Mateen to commit the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, or what might have been done to stop it. But it happened in a gay club, just two weeks shy of the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage, and on a weekend when cities across the country, including Washington, were holding gay pride festivals. It was perpetrated […]
SPOTLIGHT: WHY ORLANDO IS DIFFERENT After every horrific attack on the innocent, the press and public take stock of what has been wrought by turning to the past. And so it is with the cold-blooded killing of 50 people early Sunday in a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. We recall mass shootings in places like Columbine, […]
A day after an attack at a popular gay club in Orlando, Florida killed 50 people and wounded 53, international front pages Monday are mourning the victims of the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. Here’s how newspapers from 10 different countries covered the attack: UNITED STATES New York Times Chicago Tribune NY […]
Other cities ban prostitution from residential areas with schools and playgrounds. Not Berlin. Here, it’s just part of the city’s “poor, but sexy” image.
Registration officials in Iran supect there has been an increase of late in the number of informal and “unregistered” relationships. People are experimenting more with Western-style affairs of the heart, in other words — “shacking up” rather than rushing into marriage. And they’re not even going through the bother of entering a “temporary marriage,” a […]
Abusive husbands are now criminally liable in China, and their victims can seek restraining orders. Rights advocates applaud the new rules, but say that many women are still reluctant to speak out.
Hiroshima-born designer Issey Miyake has spent his career creating garments that challenge sizing conventions and are both practical and beautiful. A French reporter ponders his influence.
SPOTLIGHT: SOCCER & THE STATE OF FRANCE “Everything I know about morality and the obligations of men, I owe it to soccer,” French philosopher Albert Camus once said. And there’s definitely more than sports at play in the Euro 2016 soccer championship that kicks off tonight in France: There are heightened security fears around the […]
-OpEd- Turkey has never been a stranger to terror attacks. But it seems that the spiral of violence we have entered since the June 7, 2015, general election is so severe that it cannot be compared to anything that came before. Worse: There’s no resolution in sight, no sign of an end to this violent […]
Le Parisien, June 10 “It’s time to party!” reads the front page of French daily Le Parisien Friday, which features a photograph of supporters celebrating the opening ceremony of the 2016 UEFA European soccer championship at the Eiffel Tower. The tournament kicks off on Friday with Romania facing France. The latter could do with a […]
BOGOTÁ — For Latin America, the U.S. presidential elections have become a big-screen spectacle that affects the tone and register of local politics, in a region that combines democratic aspirations with an enduring admiration for its northern neighbor. The televised debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy generations ago began a process that has […]
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At The Crossroads Of Continents
The Þingvellir rift valley, in southwestern Iceland, marks the the separation between the Eurasian and North American Plates, clearly visible in the canyon-like Almannagjá fault.
FRIBOURG — The decision came like a bolt from the blue: In July 2007, the canton of Fribourg’s local government decided to hand over the management of asylum claimants to ORS, a private company from Zurich that was active in Germany. And just like that, the Fribourg Red Cross was out, despite its years of […]
China’s National Higher Education Entrance Examination (commonly known as Gaokao) is a two-day, nine-hour, monumentally stressful examination that the country’s 9.4 million graduating high school students took earlier this week. The grade on this test is the only qualification many Chinese universities consider for admittance, so for the many ambitious Chinese students and their families, […]
SPOTLIGHT: MIGRANT RISKS Whether fleeing war or poverty, migrants from Africa and the Middle East continue to risk their lives to reach Europe for what’s been advertised as just one dangerous leap away from a much better life. The latest grim report comes this morning from Morocco where one migrant died attempting to reach the […]
SÃO PAULO — Daniel Okamoto has bad memories of the 2014 World Cup, but not because of Brazil’s historical and humiliating 7-1 defeat to Germany. “My company went virtually bankrupt because of the World Cup,” the businessman says. The firm, Dahouse Events, won a modest bid for a 300,000-real contract ($83,000) to make costumes for […]
Married under Sharia law in their native country, underage refugees pose hard questions for Germany’s legal and child welfare systems. German courts are divided.