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Author: Bertrand Hauger
Bertrand Hauger is a graduate of La Sorbonne Nouvelle school of bilingual journalism, and joined Worldcrunch after working briefly as a reporter in a local newspaper in his native eastern France. He now serves as Worldcrunch’s deputy editor-in-chief and director of content.
TURKISH TROOPS HIT AGAIN IN DEADLY ATTACK Photo: Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua/ZUMA A Turkish military convoy in southern Turkey was targeted by a roadside bomb this morning, an attack that killed at least six soldiers and wounded another, Hürriyet reports. It came just hours after a car bomb in Ankara also targeted military personnel yesterday, killing 28 […]
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February 18
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El Nino Forces Water Rationing In Medellin
MEDELLIN — Colombian meteorologists blame weather phenomenon El Niño for unprecedented weather changes, bringing both extreme drought and rapid evaporation of water to the South American country. Water supplier Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM) has announced that citizens in the Colombian city must reduce their water consumption by 10% if local water supplies are to […]
FRANKFURT — It’s a Thursday morning on the No. 39 bus in Frankfurt, Germany. Suddenly, a migrant woman with an accent begins to complain loudly and aggressively about a woman wearing a niqab. “I don’t feel safe next to her,” she says to no one in particular. The other passengers remain silent, though one eventually […]
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February 17
Plan Colombia was never the aid program touted by leaders in Washington and Bogota. But it proved to be excellent business for arms dealers and other shady characters.
“WAR CRIMES” ON SYRIAN HOSPITALS, SCHOOLS France and Turkey have denounced the bombing of five hospitals and two schools in Syria, labeling them as war crimes, the BBC reports. At least 50 people were killed by yesterday’s strikes in the Aleppo and Idlib provinces, the UN has said. Different warring parties are blaming one another. […]
PRE-CEASEFIRE, SYRIA FIGHTING ESCALATES Fighting has intensified in Syria just days after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov announced that an agreed ceasefire would begin by the end of this week. According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital 70 […]
“If War Comes Tomorrow,” read this week’s edition of Moscow-based magazine The New Times, quoting the title of a famous 1938 Russian propaganda movie on a very Soviet-looking cover, as it wonders what the consequences a new “big war” would be for Russia. The weekly magazine focuses on the dangers of what it calls “the […]
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February 15
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February 14
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February 13
“Trump Tells All,” reads the cover of this week’s edition of French right-wing magazine Valeurs Actuelles, which nabbed an exclusive interview with real estate mogul and 2016 Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump. “If I’d been at the Bataclan or one of the cafés, I would have opened fire,” Trump told the French magazine, when asked […]
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The Most Powerful Room In The World
A lot of history happened in this room, the United Nations Security Council Chamber in New York. When I went there, the Big Five and the 10 other members had just voted on resolutions about arms embargo in Rwanda, sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro and humanitarian aid in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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February 12
RUSSIA PROPOSES SYRIA CEASEFIRE Russia has proposed a ceasefire in Syria starting March 1, but U.S. officials responded that it should start immediately, AP reports. Washington officials belief that Moscow, which has been aiding Syrian government troops with airstrikes, is buying itself time to “crush moderate rebel groups,” AP reports. The proposal is expected to […]
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February 11
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February 10
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Upon Reflection
The surface of Emerald Lake, in Canada’s Yoho National Park, was so still that it took me a couple of seconds to figure out whether this slide was upside-down when I came across it last week.
SEVERAL KILLED IN GERMAN TRAIN CRASH At least eight people were killed and more than 150 injured this morning when two passenger trains collided near the southern German town of Bad Aibling, Süddeutsche Zeitung reports. According to the train operator Meridian, both trains had partially derailed. Emergency teams reportedly freed all casualties by midday. “The […]
Fed up of waiting for Brussels to act, countries in Eastern Europe and the Balkans are building an anti-migrant fortress bloc with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán as the architect.
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February 9
TWO SURVIVORS FOUND AMID TAIWAN RUBBLE Photo: Zhang Guojun/Xinhua Taiwan rescuers have found two survivors in the rubble after Saturday’s magnitude 6.7 quake in which at least 37 people were killed, Xinhua reports. The two rescued victims were both found today, the beginning of the Chinese New Year. One of them, a woman, was found […]
The Denver Post, Feb. 8, 2016 “What a rush!” the punny front page of Monday’s Denver Post reads featuring a picture of outside linebacker Von Miller whose rushing of the Carolina Panthers quarterback helped the Denver Broncos to a defensive-minded 24-10 win to claim the team’s third Super Bowl title. “Denver’s dominant defense” was key […]
In the past year, the greater Los Angeles area has seen a surge in the number of Chinese buyers interested in the area’s real estate — in particular, those mega-properties valued above the $15 million mark. The trend has been confirmed by both L.A.”s high-end real estate brokerage firm, John Aaroe Group, which has recently […]
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February 8
German behavioral scientist Johannes Siebert is on a Pentagon team researching the motives of ISIS followers. Not all are driven by religion, and some even see themselves as humanitarians.
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February 7
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February 6
HAMBURG — Few will deny that the influx of migrants in recent months, mostly coming from Syria and other Arab countries, has shaken up German society. Reactions have ranged from pride in Germany’s ability to welcome refugees to outrage at the New Year’s Eve attacks against women by mobs of mostly North African men. But […]
SYRIANS FLEE ALEPPO AMID FIGHTING Up to 70,000 Syrians may be heading north to Turkey as a consequence of heavy fighting near the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the figure was more likely around 40,000. “Now 10,000 new refugees are waiting in […]
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February 5
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One Way To Drink It
Drinking from a traditional Catalan porró wine pitcher is rather challenging: Imagine drinking wine from a watering can, and your lips are never supposed to touch the pitcher … ¡Salud!
SYRIA TALKS COLLAPSE Opposing sides in the Syrian conflict have accused each other of being responsible for the collapse of peace talks in Geneva yesterday. French French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that the Syrian government’s offensive near Aleppo, backed by Russia, had “torpedoed the peace efforts.” The head of the Syrian delegation, Bashar al-Jaafari, […]
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February 4
PARIS — When Iranian President Hassan Rouhani made his momentous visit to Paris last week, an unlikely resident of the French capital was watching his every move. Farah Pahlavi, the 77-year-old widow of the Shah of Iran, told the Persian-language Kayhan newspaper she noted the irony “sitting hundreds of meters’ away from the Elysée palace […]
JAPAN THREATENS NORTH KOREA TO SHOOT DOWN ROCKET Japan deployed destroyers in the Sea of Japan and missile batteries on land today, warning it would shoot down a satellite set to be launched soon by North Korea, The Japan Times reports. Pyongyang told United Nations agencies yesterday it would launch an “earth observation satellite” some […]
A new study shows income and asset inequality in China has reached epic proportions, with the top undertaxed and the bottom at grave social risk because of a lack of civil protection.
Die Tageszeitung, Feb. 3, 2016 “Right is the New Center,” writes Berlin-based daily Die Tageszeitung on the front page of its Wednesday edition, with a picture of a garden gnome giving the middle finger. The German daily, known for its tongue-in-cheek humor, features an analysis of a new political force to be reckoned with in […]