WorldcrunchBertrand 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.
O “COMPLETE STRATEGY” YET FOR ISIS “We don’t yet have a complete strategy because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis as well, about how recruitment takes place, how training takes place,” President Barack Obama told the G7 summit yesterday, speaking of U.S. efforts to combat the ISIS terror organization. His comments come […]
 Die Welt, June 9, 2015 “G7 agrees to ambitious climate goals,” reads the front page of German daily Die Welt“s Tuesday edition. The Group of Seven talks have ended in the German mountain resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen with a photo op worthy of the Sound of Music (which was filmed in the nearby Austrian Alps). […]
In Northern China“s Shanxi Province, the Xuankong Temple, also known as Hanging Temple, clings precariously to a sheer precipice, some 75 meters above the ground. It’s not as dangerous as it looks, though: The temple hangs thanks to oak crossbeams fitted into the cliff — the supporting beams below were put there merely for dramatic […]
Those who believe that the FIFA scandal is an exceptional case among international organizations should think again. The poison is called “global governance.”
The government’s failure to address crime, corruption and declining living standards risks true social upheaval. But Enrique Pena Nieto just sits on the ball.
Meet Alondra Metaute, a 38-year-old woman who wants to shake up a sleepy Colombian town.
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CHINA BLAMED FOR U.S. DATA BREACH Chinese hackers recruited by their government are being accused of breaching the computer system of the federal Office of Personnel Management in December, The Washington Post reports. The personal data of as many as four million federal employees, including their banking records and credit card information, has been affected. […]
South China Morning Post, June 5, 2015 Tens of thousands of people held a candlelight vigil Thursday night in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to mark the 26th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the student-led demonstrations in which hundreds — thousands, according to some estimates — are believed to have died. The Hong […]
In Brazil, you can buy delicious pineapples at roadside stalls pretty much everywhere. And we did.
SCORES DIE IN GHANA GAS STATION BLAST At least 96 people were killed in an explosion at a gas station in Ghana’s capital Accra last night, The Accra City Times reports. Local radio station JOYFM put the death toll at more than 100. Most of the victims had sought shelter at the gas station as […]
During the summer months, the Ceremonial Guard performs the “Changing of the Guard” ceremony on the lawns of Ottawa’s Parliament Hill. The uniforms are very similar to those of the British Queen’s Guards, and are just one feature of the Canadian capital that surprised me in how much it looked and felt like capitals back […]
TOLL OF CHINESE SHIPWRECK CLIMBS Photo: Stringer/Cpressphoto/ZUMA Hopes of finding survivors of China’s shipwreck were fading Wednesday, after a total 14 survivors were rescued from the Eastern Star, the cruise ship carrying 456 that sank Monday night in China’s Yangtze River after a storm hit. So far, 19 bodies have been recovered, leaving more than […]
Rescue efforts continued into Wednesday as a total 14 survivors were rescued from the Eastern Star, the cruise ship carrying 456 that sank Monday night in China’s Yangtze River. So far, 19 bodies have been recovered, leaving more than 420 people unaccounted for, most of whom are by now feared dead. The boat, which departed […]
The tanning pits at Fes” Chouara tannery look like a giant painter’s palette. But the tanning process requires that hides be first soaked in a mixture of cow urine, quicklime, water, and salt. The stench is such that tour guides will often provide visitors with sprigs of fresh mint to help them face the odor.
SYDNEY — Recently in this city’s trendy Darling Harbor district, a new high-end housing project of 581 apartments sold out in just five hours. One third of these flats — costing from 800,000 Australian dollars ($611,000) for a one-bedroom unit to more than 10 million ($7.6 million) for a luxury penthouse loft — were sold […]
HUNDREDS MISSING AFTER CHINA SHIPWRECK At least 400 people were missing this morning after a Chinese ship carrying 458 passengers and crew was hit by an apparent cyclone and sank in the Yangtze River late yesterday, Chinese news agency Xinhua reports. So far, there are only 15 to 18 survivors, and just five bodies recovered, […]
Ethnos, June 2, 2015 “Dramatic night in Berlin & Athens,” reads the front page of Athens-based newspaper Ethnos“ Tuesday edition, as the heads of IMF and ECB unexpectedly joined late-night talks on the Greek debt crisis in Berlin. French President Francois Hollande and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who were scheduled to meet German Chancellor […]
Traveling by car for more than 50 years, you develop some habits: One of them was that for lunch, we’d wander off the beaten path and picnic somewhere nice. Too bad this stone table we call dolmen, in the South of France, was a little bit too tall for us.
NSA’S SPYING POWERS EXPIRE Key parts of the U.S. Patriot Act that allow the National Security Agency to collect citizen data in bulk have expired after the Senate failed to reach a deal before last night’s midnight renewal deadline. Sen. Rand Paul, who strongly opposes the NSA’s carte blanche spying powers, was triumphant, The Hill […]
Over the years, we saw Prague transition from austere Soviet Czechoslovakia to the more tourist-friendly Czech Republic. I took this picture of my wife in the Old Town Square — one of Europe’s most beautiful squares — just about eight months before the dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
FIFA TO VOTE DESPITE SCANDAL The FIFA congress opened this morning as expected, and the 209 members will decide later today whether to give a record fifth term to embattled President Sepp Blatter amid the media storm resulting from a massive corruption scandal that also threatens to entangle Nike. According to The Guardian, the 79-year-old […]
Twenty-eight years ago, my wife and I entered the future: Not only did we travel by plane for the first time, but we got to visit Spaceship Earth, in Disney World“s EPCOT Center. The time machine-themed narration played during the ride, penned by science fiction author Ray Bradbury, was narrated by the news broadcaster Walter […]
WILL BLATTER SURVIVE AS FIFA PRESIDENT? The world of sports continued to reel today after the arrests of seven top FIFA officials on corruption charges, with the fate of the international soccer body’s longtime chief Sepp Blatter hanging in the balance. The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and others are calling for the postponement […]
Walking under Mycenae’s Lion Gate and its monumental lintel, you understand why they call its construction the work of “Cyclopean masonry.” How else but with the strength of giants could such imposing blocks of stone be lifted 3,300 years ago?
COLOGNE — Germany’s leading car insurance company, HUK Coburg, may be set to join the automobile coverage revolution. Beginning next year, the company will offer its customers so-called “telematics tariffs,” which feature lower premiums for those who agree to have their driving behavior remotely monitored via a special high-tech black box in their cars. The […]
I’ve already shared a first glimpse of the lush gardens of Suzhou, the “Venice of China” on the country’s east coast. Here’s another shot of the city’s “Lingering Garden,” which boasts more than 500 valuable penjing specimens, the miniature trees comparable to the Japanese bonsai.
IRAQ BEGINS ANBAR LIBERATION OPERATION Iraq announced the start of a military operation today aimed at liberating the western Anbar province from ISIS terrorists, Reuters reports. The first city expected to be targeted is Ramadi, the capital city of the province that fell to the terrorist organization on May 17, Al Jazeera reports. Iraqi forces […]
The Dehiwala Zoo in Sri Lanka is one of the oldest zoos in Asia. It used to be a sanctuary for orphaned baby elephants, but when we visited it, the huge nursery — actually the largest herd of captive elephants in the world — had moved to nearby Pinnawala . There were only a couple […]
The return to office of Chile’s first woman President has been a veritable disaster. It is only partly her own making.
CAIRO — When the Egyptian regime carried out the hanging of six defendants last week in the Arab Sharkas case, it was sending a clear message to former President Mohamed Morsi a day after a Cairo court sentenced the former leader and another 106 people to death. Such is the interpretation of events in the […]
ISIS KILLS CIVILIANS IN PALMYRA ISIS has killed about 400 civilians in Palmyra since overtaking the Syrian city last Wednesday, Syrian state TV reports. Activists also say that as many as 300 Syrian soldiers and people loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have been hunted down and killed, Al Jazeera reports. $7 BILLION Today marks the […]
Driving on the “good side” of the fence, in a then-divided Germany, I was able to take a look at the infamous Iron Curtain. The sand below the fence wasn’t there to make landings easier for those fleeing from East to West Germany. No, it made it easier for border patrols to track them down.
The two members of Electro Velvet, this year’s Eurovision contestant for the United Kingdom, seem like fun people. Alex Larke for instance always wears odd socks, while Bianca Nicholas can do a pretty decent impression of Christina Aguilera. None of which will help them win the contest, but hey, at least they have something else […]
ISIS TAKES FULL CONTROL OF SYRIA-IRAQ BORDER CROSSINGS Terrorist group ISIS continues to gain territory, and its latest victory against the Syrian army on the Syria-Iraq border puts its militants in complete control of the border crossings between the two countries, and more than half of Syrian territory, The Independent reports, citing The Syrian Observatory […]
In the first half of the 20th century, French cabaret singer Maurice Chevalier was a huge star in the United States, eventually earning the right to put his footprints and handprints in the concrete blocks on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame. A fluent English speaker — unlike me, unfortunately — he always put on […]
ANCIENT SYRIAN CITY FALLS TO ISIS After days of fighting, “Palmyra’s fate is now in the hands of IS,” the Lebanese newspaper L’Orient Le Jour writes on Thursday’s front page. Coalition forces thought a few days ago that they had managed to beat back the ISIS terror group from the ancient Syrian city, but the […]
It was a day off for these Italian nuns, who were chatting on the deck of a ferry headed to Elba, the Mediterranean island 20 kilometers off the coast of Tuscany.
-OpEd SANTIAGO — Over the past half-century, two fundamental social changes have taken place in the United States around the issue of race. One was the end of segregation laws that explicitly discriminated against African-Americans, and the other was the decline in racial prejudices. Polls show that such racist sentiments among individuals persist today in […]
Munich considers a different kind of police sweep of the city streets.