The sinking cost of crude has disrupted the Scandanavian country’s national economy. Norwegians now start to ask how wide the hardship will spread.
Author: Worldcrunch
SÃO PAULO — Israel Afonso Lima, a janitor in this Brazilian city, suffers from Down syndrome. But that didn’t stop him, at the age of 36, from deciding to go back to school to learn Brazilian sign language. And it’s for a very good reason: to be able to communicate with his wife, 37-year-old Eliene […]
As a border guard in 1989, Arpad Bella personally opened a portion of the Iron Curtain between Hungary and Austria to a crowd of East German refugees. Today, while migrants rush to the gates of Europe, he sadly watches history run backward.
KABUL — Eyes are always described as a symbol of beauty in art and eastern literature, but the two eyes painted on a wall in Kabul’s Share New neighborhood have literally beautified an ugly security wall. And in this case, eyes are used as a symbol of monitoring corruption. These “we are watching” eyes were created by the ArtLords, a group of young creatives who paint war-torn walls across the city of Kabul. “We have been facing cultural and social problems in Afghanistan, and art has never been used to solve disputes,” says the group’s leader Kabir Mokamel. “Instead force […]
Latin American history in the 20th century is stained with autocrats and human rights violations. But with former victims now elected leaders, why don’t they speak up about political prisoners in Venezuela?
For 25 years, the Sri Lankan military waged war against the Tamil Tiger rebels, killing and displacing thousands of people. Though it ended in 2009, militarization remains and people haven’t been able to reclaim lands.
BEIJING — A few days ago, a video showing Zhou Huzhen, the board chairman of Hebei College of Science and Technology, captured the attention of the Internet. The inevitable existential questions followed: Are Chinese universites bona fide educational institutes? Or are they really there just to maintain the power of the status quo? Zhou Huzhen […]
Only three ministers in Egypt’s 33-member Cabinet are women. But the media is apparently too dazzled by their looks to notice there’s a problem in the first place.
-Analysis- MUNICH — As the Volkswagen scandal continues to unfold, you can either look behind or look ahead. How has this historic German auto giant with 12 brands and 600,000 employees worldwide found itself spiraling downward in a bottomless pit since revelations that it manipulated emission measurements from its diesel models? How was it possible […]
-OpEd- WASHINGTON — I never expected to write these words, but I miss Mitt Romney. On Wednesday, the day the front-runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination was in New Hampshire alleging that Syrian refugees fleeing for their lives may actually be clandestine terrorists, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee was in Washington, talking sense. “Donald Trump will not be the nominee,” Romney told a group of business-school students at Georgetown University. And why won’t Trump, who, when he isn’t besmirching Syrian refugees as terrorists, is maligning Mexican immigrants as rapists, get the nod? Because, Romney said, “when all is said […]
Tensions rise between northern European neighbors. Sweden is second only to Germany for hosting the most refugees, while Denmark is dubbed Hungary of Scandinavia.
Flemming Rose was the man who commissioned caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad for the Jyllands Posten newspaper. He reflects on Islam, free speech and silent fear.
Since the gradual reduction of subsidies from Rome to diocese in the Democratic Republic of Congo, vicars have turned to the faithful to ensure survival of parish churches.
Today’s generation of university students are the children of so-called “helicopter parents,” particularly coddled and worried about in the US. And they can’t seem to cope in the face of adulthood.
TEHRAN — Iran’s Islamic Republic has sought to control morals and public conduct for some 40 years now, and the apparent détente with Western powers won’t be changing anything on this front. Take its ongoing antipathy toward Western — or some would say, virtually all — music. For Iran’s clerics, music and related festivities are […]
MOUNT ALFAF — Seven eagles are swirling in the blue sky above Mar Mattai, Iraq’s oldest monastery. Can they see Mosul? The northern Iraqi city that has been occupied by ISIS since last year is only 20 kilometers away. Perched alongside Mount Alfaf, this orthodox Syriac monastery founded in the 4th century by hermit Matthew […]
The Swiss recently voted for a new national anthem, during the final stage of a public competition organized by the “Société suisse d’utilité publique” (“Swiss Society for the Common Good”) in the northern city of Aarau. Among three final candidates, voters chose a version that kept the melody of the current anthem, the 170-year-old “Swiss […]
-OpEd- BERLIN — German authorities are now trying in every possible way to come up with solutions for sheltering the wave of refugees entering our country. But that has somehow led the state to threaten the suspension basic rights of property and ownership. The federal government does its best to foster optimism. German Chancellor Angela […]
Tomomi Inada may be a more fervent Japanese nationalist than current Prime Minister Abe. She was in Washington this week to meet top officials.
AIX-EN-PROVENCE — Over the past two days, Hervé Pighiera has picked up 118 cigarette butts, 60 cigarette packs, 69 plastic bottles and 7.75 kilos of non-classifiable garbage, including a little dollhouse armchair made of wicker and plastic. Pighiera is on a mission to clean roadsides. On July 12, this smiling fellow in a straw hat, […]
Two Syrian refugees who attempted to swim part of the way to Europe recounted why they wound up making such a dangerous journey.
LAUSANNE — After living together for seven years, Guillaumette Sauvé and Pierre Boizot wed on June 30 in a civil ceremony in Lausanne. They are 62 and 59 respectively, and have both been married twice before. The bride didn’t wear white. And only a few friends were invited. “At first, we weren’t too excited by […]
Jhon Jairo Velasquez Vásquez, known as “Popeye,” was the hitman-of-choice for the legendary drug kingpin. He’s out of jail now, and telling his side of the story.
-Analysis- NEW YORK — In the celebrated sci-fi comedy “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” a supercomputer determines that the answer to life, the Universe, and everything is the number 42. The really difficult task, however, is figuring out what the question was in the first place. Sometimes I feel like interest rate hikes are […]
CERRO DE PASCO — More than 2,000 children in Peru’s Pasco region have blood lead levels far higher than what the World Health Organization says is a safe range for children, and at least 70 of them are suffering from resulting physical illnesses and disabilities, Lima-based daily El Comercio reports. The culprit is mining, and […]
-OpEd- PARIS — It’s a thorny issue that has experts divided. For some, a ground war is a trap and should not even be considered; only well-targeted, reinforced airstrikes will do the job. For others, it’s impossible to slay ISIS without hunting down its jihadists one by one, from street to street, hideout after hideout, […]
Brazilian governments again are guilty of spending too much when exports and revenues were booming. A view from neighboring Argentina, where bad economics is endemic.
Law enforcement agencies that bring cases to court, and the administrators who act as court overseers, have far more power and influence than judges, who are often pressured to render false verdicts. How it works, and why the system needs overhauling.
TEHRAN — The deal between Tehran and the West to curb Iran’s secretive nuclear program in return for an end to crippling economic sanctions isn’t slated to take effect until Oct. 19. But with Western delegations already streaming in and out of Tehran in anticipation of business and investment opportunities, Iran’s Transportation Minister Abbas Akhoundi […]
Though the Egyptian president has authorized the release of some 100 political prisoners, the global human rights organization says thousands more are languishing inside prisons for doing no more than engaging in peaceful protest.
OBAMA AND PUTIN TALK SYRIA Photo: Klimentyev Mikhail/TASS/ZUMA Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin met Monday evening on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York to discuss the Syrian conflict and efforts to end it. “WATER ON MARS” FRONT PAGES Take a look at our collection of front pages from planet Earth […]
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China Reflections: From Mao To Xi
NEW YORK — For some years now, I have been observing China from a distance, never going back to the country that I called my third home for many years. Back then, during my long stays in China, I learned a lot about the country and its culture. In the past, foreigners had to travel […]
There’s a video circulating on the Internet that stunned me stone cold. You see a group of animal rights activists literally tearing a homeless man’s puppy from his arms. You can see the poor guy trying in vain to free himself from the leader of the activist group, while the frightened little pup squeals and […]
The bloody Syrian stalemate unites Russia and the West, in a shared urgency to defeat ISIS. But the Syrian dictator, also an ISIS foe, should not be seen as a lesser evil.
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Separatists Win Catalan Election
La Vanguardia, Sept. 28, 2015 “The ‘yes’ prevails,” the Barcelona-based daily La Vanguardia titled Monday, as pro-independence movements won the absolute majority in regional elections in Catalonia. The landmark victory is seen by separatists as a de facto independence referendum in favor of the northern region breaking away from Spain. The “Junts pel Sí” (“Together […]
Climate change is already starting to affect wine growers, who scientists say will have to use other varieties of grapes and periodically move vineyards, among other interventions.
A showdown over Israel’s choice for ambassador to Brazil, pro-settlements leader Dani Dayan, shows the Netanyahu government may be set to abandon the two-state solution that has promised Palestinians a homeland.
Digging into the intellectual history of Germany and Greece, ancient and otherwise, adds yet another level of irony to Europe’s current struggles.
If and when Colombia’s FARC guerrillas stop fighting and peace comes to Colombia, the socio-economic benefits will be multiple and unstoppable. There is only one choice.
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A Different Kind Of Visa
Travelling on organized tours doesn’t necessarily mean being on auto pilot. When we went to Guatemala, our local guide suggested that, for a bit extra cash, we could take a detour and visit the Mayan site of Copán. Copán is in Honduras. We had no visas. So our guide grabbed two bottles of rum — […]