EL NACIONAL, LA JORNADA (Mexico) Worldcrunch MEXICO CITY – What if that kidney you needed for a transplant showed up, but the surgeon didn’t? That scenario is too often a reality in Mexico, says Arturo Dib Kuri, the director of the country’s National Transplant Center (CENATRA). Dib Kuri warned that Mexico loses around 20 percent […]
Author: Emily Liedel
KOMMERSANT (Russia) Worldcrunch MOSCOW – The General Prosecutor’s Office has filed a suit to declare the recent anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims,” extremist, which could lead to the blocking of YouTube across all of Russia by November, Kommersant reports. A new law meant to protect children from exposure to information that will “interfere with their […]
MOSCOW – Just this past August, there have been three attacks on Muslims in a small region of Dagestan – two attacks on Imams and one attack on a Shiite mosque. The attack on the mosque was the first attack on Shiites in the Northern Caucasus. It appears that the fight between Sunnis and Shiites, […]
BUENOS AIRES – The train works. And almost every time it leaves from Constitution Station in Buenos Aires, it reaches its destination, Mar del Plata, 410 Kilometers to the south. It works, which means that it functions in the most basic sense of the word: it moves. It repeats the trip every day of the […]
KOMMERSANT, BBC RUSSIA (Russia)

 Worldcrunch MOSCOW – The Russian Supreme Court has ruled that Gay Pride parades are not “homosexual propaganda,” Kommersant reports. Gay and Lesbian activists in Russia had turned to the courts after the Duma passed a law banning all “propaganda,” promoting same-sex relationships, with wording so broad that it could have outlawed […]
-Analysis- SANTIAGO – If Mitt Romney’s Mexican father had been deported or had not been able to enter the United States in July 1912, the Republican candidate would not have been born in Detroit in March 1947, Bain Capital would not have existed and, most probably, the citizens of the state of Massachusetts would not […]
KOMMERSANT (Russia)


 Worldcrunch MOSCOW – There is a widely held misconception in Russia and abroad that Russian parents want their children to emigrate, hoping they will be able to find a better place to settle down outside of Russia. But it turns out, according to a recent survey, only 12% of parents would be happy […]
-Analysis- MOSCOW – The Russia Arctic Coast is one of the dirtiest places on earth. According to the most conservative estimates, the shores of the Arctic Ocean are littered with 4 million tons of industrial and construction waste, part of which is toxic. More than 20,000 pieces of electronics are strewn across the Russian Arctic […]
BRASILIA – There’s a strange section on Walmart Brazil’s website, strange at least for a retailer. It’s not the usual invitation to apply for a job, “Work with us,” but an invitation to make real estate deals with the huge multinational company. “If you own land or a building where it would be possible to […]
EL MUNDO, EL UNIVERSAL (Venezuala) LA NACION (Argentina) Worldcrunch CARACAS – Hugo Chavez is not known for mincing words. But recently, the Venezuelan President has unleashed highly personal attacks against Henrique Capriles Radonski, his opponent in Chavez’s reelection campaign, including some with anti-Semitic undertones. Last week, he called Capriles Radonski ‘jalabola’ and ‘majunche,’ rude terms […]
MEXICO CITY – Alfredo, an Argentine in his 30s who lives in Madrid, swears he will never drink tequila again. His Mexican friends tell him that what he had was not the real tequila, their homeland’s national drink. Still, he insists, with the look of someone who has stared the devil straight in the eyes, […]
MOSCOW – Russia’s federal government, which has instituted its own new public order decrees, is starting to be concerned that the outer regions of the country are cracking down on civil society protests a little too enthusiastically. Regional leaders took part in a meeting last month of vice-governors with the presidential administration to discuss laws […]
MOSCOW – It has been another rough few weeks for religious understanding in Russia. Last week in the North Caucasian region of Dagestan, an influential Islamic cleric was killed in a suicide bomb attack at his home. In addition to Said Afandi Al-Chirkavi, 74, the bomb killed seven others, including the suicide bomber, and the […]
AMERICA ECONOMIA (Chile) SANTIAGO – With the World Cup coming to South America in 2014, the soccer-crazed continent is already worrying who will qualify, and who will be forced to stay at home and watch the others soak up the glory. Well, if you are an Argentinian, Chilean, or Uruguayan, your team is going to […]
MOSCOW – Although the World Health Organization (WHO) has been monitoring the state of health in various countries for the past 60 years, it has never explicitly compared countries with one another. So Bloomberg news, using WHO data as well as other data from the World Bank and the United Nations, put together a rating […]
KOMMERSANT (Russia) LIFE NEWS (Russia) KAZAN – Investigators found the bodies of a 76-year-old retired woman and her 38-year-old daughter in an apartment in Kazan. Both women appeared to have been stabbed to death. Heinous as the crime was, it wouldn’t have bound to generate national press coverage, except for what police found on one […]
KOMMERSANT (Russia) KREMLIN NEWS (Russia) GAZETA.RU (Russia) NEWSRU (Russia) Worldcrunch SMOLENSK – A young mother and political activist, Taisiya Osipova was lucky enough that her case caught the attention of then Russian President Dimitry Medvedev, who came to her defense in January. But so far, at least, that has counted for little. Earlier this week, […]
BUENOS AIRES – The July winter vacation was coming to a close and José’s decision was maturing: he would simply tear down what remained of the “closet” he’d slowly been coming out of. So on July 30, José arrived at the elementary school that he works at in Buenos Aires as “Melisa,” and became the […]
TASHKENT – Fundamental changes are afoot in the relations between the United States and Uzbekistan — and Russia isn’t happy. Until recently, the central Asian country was on the U.S.’s black list of human rights offenders to whom it was forbidden to provide any sort of military technology. But with a special decree, Secretary of […]
KOMMERSANT (Russia) Worldcrunch MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin made official his control of state-controlled corportations and information outlets, including major telecommunications companies. Although Putin has informally had the power to control the top management at these companies, the companies will now formally have to answer to him and his administration, Kommersant reported. The change […]
VSGLYAD, KOMMERSANT FM, KOMMERSANT, NOVAYA GAZETA, ROSBALT.RU (Russia) Worldcrunch MOSCOW – As the three members of Pussy Riot face jail time, the fallout from their case is being felt around Russia, with very diverse – and unexpected – ramifications. Vzglyad reports that there is a commercial war going on over the Pussy Riot brand. The […]
KOMMERSANT, RAPSI (Russia) Worldcrunch Moscow – Five days after the Khamovnichesky District Court handed down a guilty verdict against Russian punk band Pussy Riot, the Court’s website was hacked, RAPSI reports. The hackers struck on Tuesday morning, and used the opportunity to post a sexually suggestive music video of the flamboyantly gay Bulgarian singer Aziz […]
SANTIAGO – In 2009, the European Union agreed to gradually prohibit classic incandescent light bulbs, finishing the process in September 2012. The idea is to replace them with energy efficient light bulbs and kick start sales of green products. At the same time, Argentina was much more radical – at the beginning of 2011 the […]
SAINT PETERSBURG – A well-known art collector buys a painting from a long-time acquaintance, who is also a publisher of books about Russian art. He displays it in an art exhibition, and an art expert happens to see it and recognize it as a fake that she had see before and identified as a forgery […]
EDITORIAL – You can criticize the president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, but you can’t accuse her of lack of integrity. As a young revolutionary she was tortured by Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s, and came out of prison unscathed. When democracy was reestablished, she started a long political career. Her tactics may have changed […]
KOMMERSANT (Russia), KOMMERSANT UKRAINE, ROSBALT (Ukraine) Worldcrunch ODESSA – The second of two men accused of planning a plot against Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadirov, Ilya Pyanzin, filed an appeal on Thursday with the local appeals to court in an attempt to fight extradition to Russia. Adam Osmaev, the man Pyanzin […]