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.
NEW YORK — Because of several successive business trips plus my holiday in the United States, I have been living from one hotel to another for more than two weeks. Obviously I’m also obliged to dine out. What this means in terms of personal finances is that even before paying the hotel or restaurant bills, […]
Over the past two weeks, an alleged corruption scandal has engulfed Turkey. Follow the rapidly changed events in these hectic days as Prime Minister Erdogan fights for his political life.
A controversial French general, colorful British criminal and one of the great leaders of the past century were among those to whom we said Farewell over the past month.
BLAST HITS EAST LEBANONAt least five people were killed and 42 wounded as a car bomb exploded this morning in Hermel, a Hezbollah bastion in eastern Lebanon near the border with Syria, The Daily Star reports. The blast, which appears to have been the work of a suicide bomber, occurred as the trial in absentia […]
December 30, 2014 AIRASIA BODIES, DEBRIS FOUNDThe Indonesian navy has located debris from the AirAsia plane that disappeared early Sunday, retrieving more than 40 bodies from the Java Sea, AFP reports. The news came as a shock to the families of the 162 passengers, who reportedly “began crying hysterically and fainting” after Indonesian television showed […]
Monday, December 29, 2014 AIRASIA PLANE LIKELY AT “BOTTOM OF THE SEA”The head of Indonesia’s search-and-rescue agency has said that AirAsia flight QZ8501, which disappeared yesterday with 162 people on board, is likely “at the bottom of the sea,” CNN reports. Search operations have so far failed to locate the aircraft, which was flying from […]
Photographs of world events from Chile to the Philippines to Paris and Brazil…
BEIJING — That the profitability of a single U.S.-to-China airline route is equivalent to that of three domestic routes and seven times that of transatlantic flights is an open secret within the airline industry. And until recently, U.S. airlines executives could more or less count on this lucrative segment of the business. But for the […]
A Rafsanjani return?The former diplomat and Tehran-based commentator Sabah Zanganeh wrote in an item published Dec. 22 in the reformist daily Aftab-e Yazd that the former president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, considered Iran’s great “pragmatist” politician, could help engineer a rapprochement with regional rival Saudi Arabia, for the “trust” he inspired among Iranian and Saudi officialdom. Zanganeh […]
Social pressure is on to create genuine heroine characters not animated models with impossible body images. But Disney continues its pursuit of pure fantasy.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014 U.S. SUSPECTED IN N. KOREA WEB OUTAGEInternet access has been partly restored in North Korea after the country found itself without any service for more than nine hours. It’s unclear whether it was the result of a coincidental glitch or of a cyber attack, though it comes just days after President […]
SHENYANG — Zhang, who runs a wedding planning service, was doing her best to convince me over the phone to come in to visit what she describes as a “giant reception showroom.” It has been a week since my future mother-in-law put down the deposit for our wedding venue, a newly opened five-star hotel in […]
Monday, December 22, 2014 SOUTH KOREA NUCLEAR PLANTS THREATENEDSouth Korea’s nuclear plant operator has launched a two-day drill to check the safety of the country’s four power plants after a hacker leaked non-critical data and threatened further leaks yesterday, news agency Yonhap reports. It’s unclear whether it was connected to North Korea and the Sony […]
Morsi accused of “espionage”Mohamed Morsi, the former Egyptian president deposed in a military-backed coup this past summer, is facing charges alongside 35 other defendants. The charges? Espionage and aiding terrorism. Morsi was specifically accused of collaborating with the Palestinian political organization Hamas, in an alleged attempt to orchestrate what prosecutors characterize as an Islamist takeover. […]
December 19, 2014 KURDS BEAT ISIS ON MOUNT SINJARKurdish forces have broken a months-long ISIS siege on Mount Sinjar after a two-day offensive backed by U.S. airstrikes. The BBC describes it as the Kurds’ “biggest victory yet” against the terrorist group. Thousands of displaced people had been trapped on the mountain in northwestern Iraq since […]
Listen closelyAn Iranian parliamentarian reminded his colleagues — if they needed reminding — that all their mobile telephones were very likely bugged, Radio Free Europe’s Radio Farda website reported, citing several Iranian newspapers. Tehran Member of Parliament Ali Mottahari told a Dec. 9 student gathering in Tehran that his own office was bugged, with listening […]
TEHRAN — The charm and media savvy of Iran Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif have made him Tehran’s new wonder weapon. And over the last few days, he has put his arsenal to use in visits to four of the six Gulf States on a trust-building tour designed to cement links between the countries. […]
Wednesday, December 17, 2014 PAKISTAN MOURNS DEAD CHILDRENA three-day period of mourning began today in Pakistan, with vigils held in the country’s major cities and funerals in Peshawar, after Tuesday’s Taliban attack on a school in the northwest city that killed 141 people, including 132 children. The army began a series of massive air strikes […]
With Sunday’s election of Michelle Bachelet in Chile, three of Latin America’s most pivotal countries are now led by women. There is symbolic unity, but very different types of leaders.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014 TALIBAN MASSACRES DOZENS IN SCHOOL ATTACKAt least 126 people, including at least 84 children, were killed and another 122 wounded when Taliban gunmen attacked an army-run school in Peshawar, in northern Pakistan, this morning, Dawn reports on its live blog. A rescue operation is still ongoing with more children believed to […]
‘Filial Piety,’ in which children were responsible for caring for the aged, was China’s ancient and efficient retirement system. Modern forces have slowly dismantled it over the past half-century.
What does Mandela’s example mean for Colombia as it seeks to end decades of bloody conflict with leftist guerrillas?
The coldest recorded temperature, a long test for Fukushima rice and other ways to measure the news that counted.
Politics is not driving the past two weeks of police-led protests and looting, it’s the rising cost of living. Now, if the administration of President Cristina Kirchner would just deal with it.
Friday, December 12, 2014 HOUSE PASSES U.S. SPENDING BILLThe U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund most government operations until September 2015, The New York Times reports. But the newspaper notes that the liberal base of the Democrat party formed an “unlikely alliance” with the Tea Party in opposition […]
Thursday, December 11, 2014 HONG KONG POLICE ARRESTS PROTESTERSBailiffs and police officers began a planned clearing operation of Hong Kong’s main protest site this morning, where the Occupy Central movement started more than two months ago. According to the South China Morning Post, dozens of protesters have been arrested, including radical lawmaker “Long Hair” Leung […]
Wednesday, December 10, 2014 CALLS TO PROSECUTE AFTER CIA TORTURE REPORTThe United Nations Human Rights Council has called for the prosecution of U.S. officials “responsible for the criminal conspiracy” unveiled in the summary of a Senate report into the CIA’s post-9/11 interrogation methods, The New York Times reports. Praising the Obama administration for their courage […]
JOHANNESBURG – When Nelson Mandela was sworn in as president 19 years ago, he proclaimed that South Africa was entering “a covenant” to create a society that guaranteed human rights for both blacks and whites, “a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.” Mandela, who died on Thursday at the age of 95, […]
Marriage in Tajikistan, a Central Asian country of 8 million, is celebrated over days and far over budget. A new law tries to change ancient ways for the sake of modern economics.
Tuesday, December 9, 2014 CIA TORTURE REPORT TO BE RELEASED Security has been tightened at U.S. embassies around the world and intelligence agencies have been asked to monitor more closely terrorist communications in anticipation of today’s release of a CIA torture report. The U.S. Senate will release the long-delayed report into the intelligence agency’s brutal […]
Monday, December 8, 2014 ISRAEL ACCUSED OF BOMBING SYRIA Syria has officially asked the United Nations to impose sanctions on Israel after accusing the Israeli military of bombing the international airport in Damascus and another target in the countryside near the Syrian capital. “This direct aggression by Israel was carried out to help the terrorists” […]
STUTTGART — Banbo is the first one to get the idea. The 11-year-old female chimpanzee presses her thumb firmly on the button and changes the channel on the TV set up in her enclosed living space. Fifteen-year-old Liboso is less certain and still sometimes presses her feet against the screen. The rest of the group […]
Your weekly shot of what the Arab world is saying, hearing and sharing.
Colombia marks 20 years since police killed Pablo Escobar, who helped define the nation as the global mecca of violence and drug trafficking. It’s a lot to absorb for one man in particular.
Friday, December 5, 2014 NEW CEASEFIRE ATTEMPT IN UKRAINE The Ukrainian government and pro-Russian rebels in eastern parts of the country agreed yesterday to a new ceasefire starting Dec. 9, under the terms of a deal reached three months ago in Minsk, AFP reports. Under the agreement, Kiev will begin withdrawing heavy weapons from the […]
Thursday, December 4, 2014 NEW YORK PROTESTS GRAND JURY DECISION For the second time in less than two weeks, the presiding grand jury in a high-profile case of a white police officer who’d killed an unarmed black man chose not to bring charges against the officer involved. Protests quickly spread around New York and in […]
Wednesday, December 3, 2014 DID IRAN STRIKE ISIS IN IRAQ? Iran denied claims made by Al Jazeera and confirmed by the Pentagon that Tehran’s warplanes had launched strikes against ISIS in eastern Iran. Reuters reports that the unnamed senior Iranian official also said that “any cooperation in such strikes with America is also out of […]
The roots of the Gross Domestic Product measurement of economic health are in World War II. Even in 1968, RFK had doubts, and now criticism is growing about GDP’s real value.
Protests turn deadly in Thailand, a mesmerizing angle for beach sculpture, extreme jumping and more photos that capture our world the past seven days…