Worldcrunch
ROME – Refuse from the shacks float by in the river’s brown, putrid water. There is mud everywhere and the acrid smell of burning plastic lingers in the air. Chickens crow and dogs bark, rusty chain-links act as fencing and a gate. It looks like Manila, but this is Rome. Welcome to the “City of […]
Worldcrunch CARACAS – An animated video has been released by ViVe, the cultural TV channel owned by the Venezuelan government, depicting Hugo Chavez passing into immortality. The short video shows El Comandante being welcomed into the afterlife by famous Latin American heroes of the past that it felt best represented Chavez’s political ideals. From right […]
AP (USA), BBC, THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch NICOSIA – Cyprus has no intention of leaving the euro zone, President Nicos Anastasiades said in a press conference on Friday. “In no way will we experiment with the future of our country,” declared President Anastasiades. He said the situation of the country had been “contained” following its […]
EL PAIS (Spain); TELESUR (Venezuela); REUTERS Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – Late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez never tired of accusing the U.S. government of all types of nefarious deeds. His hand-picked successor, acting president Nicolas Maduro, is keeping up the tradition. First, days after Chavez’s death, Maduro accused Washington of somehow infecting “El Comandante” with his fatal […]
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti was called on to lead a caretaker government. His expertise was welcome, but then the economics professor was bitten by the bug of political ambition…
The South African paralympian, accused of killing his girlfriend, has no immediate plans to travel abroad, his lawyer says.
BBC, REUTERS, TWITTER Worldcrunch NICOSIA – Banks in Cyprus have reopened Thursday after a two-week closure as the government was forced to accept a strict European Union rescue package to avoid bankrupcy. As discussions between the EU and the International Monetary Fund took place, eventually culminating in Sunday night’s late bailout deal, the doors had […]
AFP; MAIL & GUARDIAN, NEWS24 (South Africa); SOWETAN LIVE (Soweto) Worldcrunch JOHANNESBURG – Former South African President Nelson Mandela has been admitted to hospital with a recurrent lung infection. The news was confirmed by current President Jacob Zuma’s office on Thursday morning, according to Cape Town’s News24. Mandela in 2008. Photo by South Africa The […]
Worldcrunch VATICAN CITY – Hardly a day passes that we’re not witness to a new example of how truly humble a man the new Pope is. He paid his own hotel bill just hours after being chosen pontiff; he opts for the simple white cassock and his trusty black shoes instead of elaborate capes and […]
CORRIERE DELLA SERA, LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch VERCELLI – This northern Italian city is more than 2,000 kilometers away from Chernobyl, so it’s almost impossible to imagine how the very same radioactive particles ended up here — or in the innards of 27 wild boars. Caesium-137 is a radioactive isotope, formed by nuclear fission on […]
WASHINGTON POST (U.S.), BBC, SKY NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch LOS ANGELES – In his first speech since resigning in November, former CIA director David Petraeus has apologized to those he says he let down with the extramarital affair that lead to one of the most sudden and dramatic public falls from grace in recent memory. In […]
You can ride Rome’s public bus and subway system by validating your biglietto of His Holiness from his balcony pose.
ADKRONOS, AGI, CORRIERE DELLA SERA, LA REPUBBLICA, LA STAMPA (Italy), AP Worldcrunch ROME – Italy’s highest court has overturned the acquittal of American exchange student Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the 2007 murder of Knox’s roommate Meredith Kercher. La Repubblica reports that the judges in Italy’s Court of Cassation ruled Tuesday […]
IRISH EXAMINER, IRISH INDEPENDENT, IRISH TIMES (Ireland) Worldcrunch DUBLIN – A teen charity funded by the government-backed Irish Health Board has come under scrutiny after publishing tips on how young people can explore having a ménage à trois. Irish Member of Parliament Michelle Mulherin has accused the state-funded organization SpunOut of publishing inappropriate content, including […]
LA CAPITAL, LA GACETA, LA NACION, LA RAZON (Argentina) Worldcrunch SANTA FE – The Argentinian province of Sante Fe will be handing out a million Viagra tablets – free of charge – but only after Easter is over, according to La Gaceta. “They’ll be available but of course there will be necessary controls so that […]
EL PAIS (Spain), DIE WELT (Germany), BBC MUNDO Worldcrunch MADRID – After publishing a column comparing German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Adolf Hitler, Spanish daily El Pais has now retracted the piece and apologized following an outcry from Germany and elsewhere in Europe. In the column titled “Germany Against Europe”, economist Juan Torres Lopez wrote: […]
This is the good kind of cheesy…
After jailed rebel leader Ocalan’s call for Kurds to lay down their arms, a closer inspection of his words show real signs of hope to end three decades of bloodshed.
TWITTER Worldcrunch From Friday to Saturday morning, police forces from around the world joined together on social networking site Twitter for a 24 hour tweet-a-thon. The hashtag #poltwt showed tweets about police work, policing issues and perps gone awry from every corner of the globe. Anyone could join the virtual ride-along to see what a […]
Worldcrunch VATICAN CITY – Humility is inarguably the defining feature of the first 10 days of the new papacy: We have seen it in the words, gestures and symbols of Pope Francis. But on Friday, we may have the image that captures it best. La Stampa notes that the Argentine pontiff celebrated mass for the […]
NICOSIA – Cyprus is in a state of shock. The banks have been closed for days and somehow, the country has to raise 5.8 billion euros to qualify for the bailout package proposed by euro zone finance ministers. The initial rejection by the Cypriot parliament to the controversial bank account levy plan, has left this […]
AFP, BBC, IRRAWADDY (Burma), REUTERS Worldcrunch MEIKTILA– Burmese sectarian violence has turned deadly, as angry mobs rioted in the streets and at least five people have been reported killed in the central city of Meiktila. The BBC cites a death toll of 20 by Friday morning, though the Myanmar government has only confirmed five fatalities […]
LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch ROME– Workers restoring Rome’s historic Palazzo Venezia have discovered what they are calling Benito Mussolini’s 12th and most secret bunker, reports La Stampa. There are no records or mentions of this bunker, which was abandoned and left incomplete. City superintendent Anna Imponente and architect Carlo Serafini made the discovery after they […]
Out of the Cold War archives, a chilling family tale from a divided Germany.
AL-JAZEERA, HURRIYET, TODAYS ZAMAN (Turkey) Worldcrunch ISTANBUL – Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan has called upon the armed PKK forces to recognize a ceasefire and withdraw from Turkey, reports Hürriyet. In what may turn out to be a historic announcement in the nearly three-decade-long conflict between Kurdish separatists and the Turkish government, Ocalan’s written […]
AAP, ABC, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia), TVNZ (New Zealand), IRISH TIMES (Ireland) Worldcrunch CANBERRA – Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard apologized Thursday to two-decades worth of mostly young, unwed mothers who were forced to give up their babies for adoption. From the 1950s to the 1970s, an estimated 150,000 unwed Australian mothers had their babies […]
CLARIN, LA NACION (Argentina), BBC MUNDO Worldcrunch VATICAN CITY– Pope Francis will meet Argentinian Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, the Vatican confirmed late Wednesday, as questions linger about the new pontiff’s role during Argentina’s military dictatorship. Pérez Esquivel, who won the 1980 Peace Prize for his defense of Human Rights during the dictatorship, […]
LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch VATICAN CITY – A book by Pope Francis and the Chief Rabbi of Buenos Aires will be translated and published into English on May 7. “Sobre El Cielo y La Terra” (On Heaven and Earth) was written as a series of conversations between then Archbishop of Buenos Aires Cardinal Jorge Mario […]
Worldcrunch MOUNTAIN VIEW – Google has made it easier to search for GIFs and other animations on their Google image search engine. Enter your search term into Google images, click the search tools button and under Any Type, click animations on the drop down menu – voilà! In celebration of this, here are some of […]
LA STAMPA, LIBERO QUOTIDIANO (Italy) Worldcrunch MILAN – Fido has an appointment with the vet but your boss just scheduled a last-minute meeting? No worries, let Pet Taxi take care of it for you, says La Stampa. Pet Taxi is an initiative started by Farmina Pet Food in collaboration with SCIVAC (Society of Italian Vets) […]
KOREA TIMES, YONHAP, KOREA INFORMATION SECURITY AGENCY (South Korea), AP Worldcrunch SEOUL – Two banks and three major broadcasting stations in South Korea went into shutdown mode on Wednesday in what is a suspected hacking from North Korea. According to Korean news agency Yonhap, three broadcasters, three banks and two insurance firms reported to the […]
LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch VENICE– You no speeka the English? Well then, signori, you will not be welcome at Italy’s prestigious Ca’ Foscari and Bocconi universities. La Stampa reports that Ca” Foscari, a 145-year-old public university in Venice, and Bocconi, the private Milan business and economics university, are requiring that all students enrolling for the […]
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE (U.S.), CLARIN (Argentina), VATICAN RADIO (Vatican) Worldcrunch VATICAN CITY– The inauguration of Pope Francis took place Tuesday morning in St. Peter’s Square before a sea of simple faithful and heads of state from around the world. Babies were kissed, flags were flown, and the Vatican rolled out its open-top white papal jeep. […]
TURIN – Have you ever wanted to take a stroll in Yosemite National Park? Or discover the South Omo Valley in Ethiopia? How about Cappadocia in Turkey? Now you can explore all of these sites from the comfort of your living room thanks to Trail Me Up, a sort of Google Street View, where you […]
They are neither anti-religious rebels nor feminist iconoclasts, but three nuns and a Catholic theologian. Here’s how they think Pope Francis should face the female question.
LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch VATICAN CITY– Pope Francis is his name, and Church watchers all seem to agree that this is a signal that a central them of the new papacy will be caring for the needy – needy humans, that is. But history also tells us that the inspiration for the Pope’s name, St. […]
They were just 12, and her father didn’t approve of their childhood love. Sixty-five years later, she watched him step onto St. Peter’s balcony as Pope Francis.
Worldcrunch ROME– What do get when you mix a rugby match and a marathon with the patron saint of Ireland and an Argentine Pope? Endless eternal city traffic jams, for sure. Holy chaos? Well, we’ll see. Here is the once-in-a-lifetime agenda for Rome this Sunday. MARATHON milky.way There are an estimated 100,000 people — including […]
-Analysis- VATICAN CITY – As it turned out, there was a hidden candidate right there in front of us. This explains the rapidity of the conclave, which was almost as fast as the one that elected Joseph Ratzinger eight years ago. When he took the floor last week during the pre-conclave General Congregation meetings, sources […]
Worldcrunch Masses of Catholics and non-Catholics alike tuned in for the announcement and appearance of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the 266th Supreme Roman Pontiff. It was a singular media moment that was watched, listened to, shared, tweeted — and won’t soon be forgotten. There is still much to learn about the 76-year-old Argentine, and […]