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.
MUNICH — Pharmaceutical companies know that doctors more frequently prescribe medicine produced by companies whose sales representatives visit them regularly. That very logic means that these same companies are also busy trying to “recruit” future doctors across Germany, according to a recent survey of German medical school deans and some 1,100 med students. The study, […]
Three are gone.
Amalienborg, the winter home of the Danish royal family, consists of four identical palaces situated around an octagonal square. Looking at more recent photos from Wikipedia, it’s unclear whether the same guard is still standing watch nearly five decades later!
In Tehran, concern is growing that tensions between Western capitals and Moscow over the showdown in Ukraine could undermine progress on resolving Iran’s own standoff with the West over its nuclear program. Several political observers worried about the possible weakening of Russian influence should it face sanctions or diplomatic isolation concerning in response to its […]
“Peking Opera” bears little resemblance to the works of Verdi and Wagner. Though this traditional Chinese art form does feature music and singing, it combines them with dance, acrobatics, and mime. As you can see, it is a very lively and colorful performance, which draws from deep within the country’s myths and folklore – and […]
I was 19 when I took this picture of my mother, father and younger cousin enjoying a sunny day in Chaignay, Bourgogne — my ancestors’ village, in eastern France. One year later, I would take (and pass) my driver’s license test in that Peugeot 201 you see in the background. I had nicknamed the car […]
Though reports say Peru has surpassed Colombia as world’s top source of cocaine, it has not faced the same kind of violence. Is Lima turning a blind eye toward drug trafficking?
On the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, this kid was helping his street-vendor dad to sell fruit bats — to be eaten as a supposed cure for asthma. The bats are now on the endangered species list, and the government has recently taken steps to put an end to their sale.
From Poland to Western Europe and beyond, Ukrainian democracy needs cash to flourish. There may not be a third chance.
The central Portugese town of Batalha was built to celebrate the Kingdom of Portugal’s victory over King John I of Castile’s army at the Battle (Batalha) of Aljubarrota in 1385. Things had calmed down 578 years later, although a different kind of “invasion” was happening, as in many other places we’d visit. The town is […]
A German-Spanish startup has created technology it says is so effective turning light into energy that it can also utilize moonbeams and office building windows.
When we toured India almost exactly 20 years ago, we got to see some pretty desolate hamlets — especially near the Pakistan border, in Rajasthan’s Thar Desert. Despite the region’s ruthless aridity, the nomadic and sedentary tribes living there have a rich (and colorful!) culture.
The media criticism heaped on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has prevented an objective assessment of the protesters, who may not be quite as democratic as they’re portrayed.
BEIJING — China’s central government has imposed new requirements to severely limit the population in the country’s “mega-cities.” In the booming capital, whose population has topped 20 million, the focus has been on using economic regulations to stem the rising number of inhabitants. “Controlling the population by controlling business categories” is one of the key […]
The number of HIV infections in Iran has increased nine-fold over the past 12 years, and in stark contrast with previous decades, most infections were now through sexual intercourse not use of infected needles, the country’s official IRNA news agency reported on Feb. 26. A lecturer at Tehran’s Medical Science University, Mohammad Hossein Ayati, told […]
Even in the middle of April, when Venice is consumed with its annual carnival stravaganza, priests remained dignified and serious. Unless these two were actually Venetians in disguise, walking past the Doge’s Palace on their way to the festival?
Saqqara, some 30 kilometers south of modern-day Cairo, served as the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. The burial ground features several pyramids, including the world-famous step pyramid of Djoser — the oldest stone building complex known in history, built during the 27th century BC for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser. We were lucky […]
Contrary to what the name suggests, Panama hats are actually made in Ecuador; there are several explanations for the misleading moniker. In Cuenca, in the country’s highlands, we visited a factory where they made these traditional brimmed straw hats, weaving hundreds of plaited leaves together. There are various degrees of quality, but the superfino ones, […]
Polls show most Americans want U.S. ties with Cuba normalized, even as the forces still hold strong among those who prefer the status quo. Time may have come for change.
In the 1950s, the Costa Brava — northeastern Spain’s coastal region — was identified by the Spanish government and local entrepreneurs as suitable for substantial development as a holiday destination. In the 1960s, though, we were still able to catch a glimpse of how peaceful life was, before they basically covered everything in concrete.
The battle at hand on the streets of Caracas and beyond may be more fractured than it first appears.
A German court case’s impending verdict is poised to create a controversial precedent in this aging country, where a child is asked to finance elder care for a father who had cut him out of his life.
On the road from Batna to Laghouat, we overtook these Berbers with their camels slowly making their way through the Aurès — an eastern continuation of the Atlas Mountains — in northeastern Algeria. It was in this region that the Algerian War of Independence was started by Berber freedom fighters in 1954.
A bit of a mystery, this one: The pond, with its water lilies, looks nothing like a rice paddy field — which is what you would expect in southern China. So what are they all looking for, bent over like that? My back hurts just looking at this picture.
Post-Gaddafi Libya is a mix of newfound freedom and political instability. The latest news includes worries of an impending coup d”état after a top general suggested that the way forward for the country was to suspend Parliament. Still, Libyans celebrated – or at least were free to acknowledge – the third anniversary of their 2011 […]
The singular story of a Somali restaurateur who left the sweet life in the UK to return to his war-ravaged homeland, where he has survived multiple attacks on his restaurant.
Lake Atitlan, in the Guatemalan highlands, is surrounded by villages in which Mayan culture is still prevalent, and traditional dress is still worn. This old woman, winding yarn on her doorstep, is wearing a hat made with a long band of embroidered textile rolled tighlty aound her head. The weavers in the villages nearby produce […]
NEW YORK — There is no German-style “works council” for employees at Volkswagen USA. Then, last week, 1,500 workers of the Volkswagen Chattanooga Assembly Plant, in Tennessee, voted by secret ballot against being represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW). Without membership of that union, setting up a works council is not possible under American […]
In 1972, Germany was divided in two — between the Soviet-occupied German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the east and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in the west. Being on the “good side” of the fence, we were able to drive there and see the ominous Iron Curtain with its barbed wire and threatening miradors. […]
Torn T-shirts, dead remote controls and jammed DVD players aren’t necessarily doomed for the junk heap. Sustainability is the watchword at these special German locales.
These unfriendly marine iguanas, found only on Ecuador’s uninhabited Galapagos Islands, are actually quite harmless: They are vegetarian and dive into the water to feed on seaweed. But they don’t like to be disturbed, and should you go too close, you expose yourself to powerful bouts of spitting …
This picture made me smile when I rediscovered it — not so much for the image of these strolling Danish sailors, but for the slide that came up just before: two ducks, similarly side-by-side, heads in the water and bottoms up. (When your last name is Mallard, you see ducks wherever you go.)
A round-up of news around the world, with numbers that caught our eye.
I couldn’t necessarily see what this painter found so picturesque in that particular scene. But the light was nice, and it was considerably less crowded than the touristy Kremlin or Saint Basil’s Cathedral … As for my choice of when and what to shoot, I’ve always enjoyed taking photographs from both on and off the […]
The tiny estacion in Aguas Calientes was the closest you could get to the famous Machu Picchu site when you didn’t feel like walking the 80 kilometers from Cusco on the Camino Inca (the Inca Trail). With just a few trains per day, merchants would set up shop on the tracks, moving their wares temporarily […]
Iran’s top atomic official says the country would not “retreat” over its nuclear technology and could reverse its commitments to suspend high-level uranium enrichment “within hours” if the West violated its own pledges, the official IRNA agency reported. Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, was speaking Monday to a gathering of Iranian […]
Pure happiness was radiating from this old man, whom we met during a trip in southern China. I don’t remember why he was so cheerful — but we learned a Chinese proverb somewhere in our travels: “If you are not a fish, how can you know if the fish are happy?”
False visions of political concepts thrive in Argentina, where dictatorships past and spin doctors present employ their own forms of double speak.
A popular street food in the mountainous regions of Ecuador is hornado — a slice of roasted pig usually served with potatoes. If that doesn’t make your mouth water, you can still settle for a bottle of Coke. We’ve found the ubiquitous brand even in the most remote corners of the world.
MAKHACHKALA — A woman is standing near the police cordons, looking into the dark space where the Golden Empire restaurant stood until a few moments earlier. First came the grenades, and then a car exploded in front of the entrance. All that’s left now is debris. When the woman repeatedly tries calling her sister, a […]