The twin problems of the economic crisis and university studies taking longer than expected have conspired to force many young adults to return home to their parents. Problem is, sometimes they bring their partners too.
Author: Worldcrunch
TEHRAN — Emerging after years of sanctions, Iran appears almost single-mindedly eager to boost its economic growth. Thus a photo op this week of the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei planting and watering a tree, and cited as telling “all” Iranians to care for “green spaces,” was a minor newsstand surprise Wednesday around the […]
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On Horseback — Video Quote Of The Day
Sanders Surprises, Queen On Brexit, 5th Beatle Dies
Wanted in two countries for his actions to save endangered marine wildlife, the Sea Shepherd founder is now under the unofficial protective custody of France, where he manages an extreme conservation group that makes Greenpeace look like pikers.
Thirty years after the Chernobyl catastrophe and five years after Fukushima, scientists have had a chance to quantify their impact.
CAIRO — International Women’s Day is celebrated around the world on March 8. Egypt celebrates Egyptian Women’s Day on March 16, and March 9 marks the infamous day when members of the Armed Forces performed virginity tests on female protestors detained in Tahrir Square in 2011 — a crime no one has been held accountable […]
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Run In The Snow — Video Quote Of The Day
Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was detained as part of a widespread corruption scandal at state oil giant Petrobras. But the probe could actually prove to be the spark to help him succeed Dilma Rousseff.
“BREAKTHROUGH” MIGRANT DEAL European leaders and Turkish officials have reached an agreement in principle that German Chancellor Angela Merkel described as a “breakthrough if it becomes reality.” The deal, whose final details still need to be settled, would see Turkey take back migrants who have traveled from Turkey to Greece but don’t meet criteria for […]
NANTERRE — He’s got Palmyra on his mind. Sitting as his desk in the judicial police office in Nanterre, near Paris, Ludovic Ehrhart is staring at his holiday pictures: four black-and-white snapshots of the ancient Syrian city. He put them up last summer, just after ISIS started to destroy it. He’s been to Palmyra twice, […]
Take 5 — Donald Trump’s Alter Egos, International par Worldcrunch
N. KOREA’S NUKE THREAT North Korea has threatened to launch “indiscriminate” nuclear strikes against South Korea and the U.S. as the latter kicks off its annual military drill in the Korean Peninsula today. “If we push the buttons to annihilate the enemies right now, all bases of provocations will be reduced to a sea of […]
-Analysis- BEIJING — China has always been clear about its “firm opposition” to North Korea“s development of a nuclear weapons program. But as the international community’s negotiation over the issue has stalled, Pyongyang continues to develop its nuclear technology. It is a provocation that leaves China little room for diplomatic maneuver. China has carried out […]
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Willkommen!
These two slightly creepy characters made of hay bales welcomed us on the very picturesque Black Forest Hochstrasse scenic route.
The earthquake and subequent nuclear diaster in Fukushima were no doubt devastating, but Japan still struggles to quantify the number of deaths linked to them.
Restaurant, cell phone and clothes: People usually buy what others appear to want, so companies use the illusion of low supply to create new demand. But there are paradoxes to human instincts and desires.
The French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean is a place of green experimentation, but economic and climate realities make sustainability a huge challenge.
PARIS — Employees everywhere, here’s one more good reason to grumble: Your boss will probably outlive you. A new study from France’s national statistics bureau (INSEE) quantifies what many might have suspected, also in light of noted correlations between wealth and life expectancy. But the latest French study, which echos similar findings from other countries […]
When a feminist argues that male courtship rituals toward women are a form of gender subjugation, a Portuguese journalist takes his own kind of offense on behalf of the male sex.
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Nuke Rhetoric, GOP v. Trump, Joan’s Ring
KIM JONG-UN RAMPS UP NUCLEAR THREAT Raising his belligerent rhetoric again, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered the national military to prepare its nuclear warheads “to be fired at any moment,” Pyongyang’s state-run news agency KCNA reported today. The comments were made as Kim supervised military exercises involving newly developed rocket launchers that were […]
At 79, Frank Serpico, the former New York police whistleblower immortalized by Al Pacino is still a rebel at heart, as cranky and idealistic as ever.
The streets of Mexico’s capital are littered with plastic and styrofoam, the constant remnants of an irresponsible culture of consumption, an essayist writes. If we can’t change simple habits only we can control, no summit or government in
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When Japan Embraces Pure Swedish Living
More than a handful of Japanese have taken the idea of cultural fusion to the next level. Tucked in the hills about 30 kilometers from Sapporo City, Japan, and some 8,000 kilometers away from Stockholm, a small village called Sweden Hills is home to some 2,000 Japanese residents who live in Swedish-style houses, Svenska Dagbladet […]
European rocket company Arianespace doesn’t get the attention of Elon Musk’s U.S.-based upstart SpaceX, but its approach may be better equipped for the long haul.
KABUL — Here at Pol-e Sokhta, in a spot in western Kabul where hundreds of drug addicts gather each day, Afghan government workers have become a regular presence. The government workers have been given the mission to round up the city’s drug users and move them to a former NATO base, less than 10 kilometers away. The Afghan ministries of counter-narcotics, public health and economy have joined together in the initiative to provide treatment for drug addicts at the camp. Salamat Azimi, Minister of Counter Narcotics, says the state has the means to treat thousands of drug addicts, and will […]
TRUMP AND HILLARY SCORE BIG ON SUPER TUESDAY Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton moved closer to a presidential face-to-face, with each winning seven of the 11 states holding primaries on the so-called Super Tuesday. Trump took home Republican primary wins in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia, while Clinton won Democratic contests in […]
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Rock Concert
Before it became one of Slovenia“s top attractions, Postojna Cave welcomed the likes of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph and Benito Mussolini: Orchestras entertained them, making the most of the outstanding acoustics of the cave’s “Concert Hall” chamber.
SALLA — On the door of the tourism bureau in Salla, Finland, there’s a poster proudly informing visitors that they are “in the middle of nowhere.” That much is indisputable: Salla is a dark, remote place, lost in the middle of hundreds of miles of Laponian pine forests and covered in a thick mantle of […]
The internationally brokered ceasefire had a rocky start. While the first 24 hours passed relatively quietly, Russian and Syrian government air strikes picked up again on Sunday, with airplanes targeting towns and villages controlled by the Free Syrian Ar
SUPER TUESDAY IS HERE Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are heading into the most important day of the campaign to date hoping to consolidate their leads as respective party favorites. It’s primary day in 12 different states, most of them southern, where Clinton is expected to benefit from support among minorities, CNN notes. SYRIAN TRUCE […]
Utrinski Vesnik, March 1, 2016 “Tear gas and stones at the border near Gevgelija,” writes Skopje-based daily Utrinski Vesnik on its Tuesday front page, a day after refugees clashed with police at the Greek-Macedonian border. On Monday, Macedonian police fired tear gas at a crowd of migrants, some of whom were reportedly throwing stones at […]
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So Long, Aleppo Souks
When we drove from France to Syria in 1972, Hafez al-Assad — Bashar’s father, who ran the country until 2000 — had been in power for two years. You can see his portrait hanging behind this old pots and pans seller in one of the Old City of Aleppo’s covered souks. I imagine all of […]
DESPITE VIOLATIONS, SYRIA TRUCE STANDS Saudi Arabia accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and its ally Russia of “ceasefire violations” yesterday, Al Arabiya reports. “We are discussing this with (the 17-nation) Syria Support Group,” co-chaired by Russia and the United States, said Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. Despite the accusations of 15 ceasefire breaches of […]
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High Power
I like the juxtaposition between this minaret and the improbable electrical entanglement in the foreground: Clearly, you needed to have faith to believe the whole thing was going to hold up.
LUNEL — Tac trimmed his beard and cut his hair short. He also stopped wearing his long prayer shirt. After the Paris attacks in November, he thought, the police were bound to come looking for him. Even his family had gotten into the habit of calling him “Daesh” (acronym for ISIS) as a joke about […]
PARIS — Generational and gender debates rumbling inside the U.S. Democratic primary are setting off sparks as far away as Mexico and Australia. In an open letter to young women backing Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, the Sydney Morning Herald‘s Julie Szego scolds such millenials for suffering from wide-eyed naïveté. “From the ‘safe spaces’ on […]
While You Slept IRAN VOTES Polls have opened throughout Iran as the country votes for two assemblies in the most important election since the 2013 presidential campaign that ushered in the reformist Hassan Rouhani. Voters will cast ballots for the unicameral “Islamic” parliament (Majles) and the Assembly of Experts (Majles-e khobregan), a body of clerics […]
-Analysis- LA PAZ — As of Sunday, Bolivia is once again divided in two. It had taken President Evo Morales almost a decade to build a consensus around him, a consensus that had enabled him to be re-elected for a third five-year term in 2014 with 61% of the vote. But his failure this week […]
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Southern Terminus
This is the “world famous conch train,” as it was — and still is — advertised, at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys.