Categories
Future

Facebook v. Google – A New Edge In All-Out War For Digital Advertising

Facebook is the upstart, Google is the grizzled veteran — and still the powerhouse — in the massive battle for online advertising dollars. But when the cash register rings, who gets the credit? That is the billion-dollar question in advertising these days—particularly in Internet advertising, where it’s easy to track clicks and links, but often […]

Categories
Geopolitics

Strange Foam Blankets Australia’s Shoreline – Frothy Fun Or Toxic Risk?

ABC AUSTRALIA, THE BRISBANE TIMES, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia) Worldcrunch SUNSHINE COAST– While some spots in the northern hemisphere are covered in snow, the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia has been covered in something that looks a little bit like it – sea foam. Revellers on the Sunshine Coast lap up yesterday’s foam-tacularbit.ly/WtlLHp #bigwet Pic: […]

Categories
Economy

Wealth Divide: Zeroing In On The ‘One Percent’ Of Chile

The Occupy Movement began on Wall Street by the so-called 99% shut out from economic growth. But Latin America’s income gap mirrors the U.S. In Chile, it is particularly extreme.

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Society

How A Nine-Year-Old Stirred Debate About The N-Word, Past And Present

BERLIN – “I think it totally sucks that you think that word should be left in children’s books. You can’t imagine how it makes me feel to hear or read that word. It’s really really terrible. My Dad is not a ‘negro’ and neither am I.” That was written by nine-year-old Ishema Kane in her […]

Categories
Geopolitics

Camover, The Anti-CCTV Protest Game To Take Down Surveillance Cameras

DER SPIEGEL (Germany), THE GUARDIAN (U.K) Worldcrunch BERLIN – This is not your daddy’s “video game.” Privacy activists in Berlin are protesting against surveillance video cameras by destroying and debilitating them, as part of a social game where you earn points for every CCTV taken down. The Guardian spoke to the anonymous creator of the […]

Categories
Society

From One Mafia To The Next: Tracking The Path Of The Global Drug Trade

Two decades after the Sicilian Mafia killed magistrate hero Giovanni Falcone, crime networks have shifted drug trafficking from bases to Russia, Colombia, Burma…and beyond.

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Geopolitics

Breakaway Mali Islamist Miliant Group Calls For Peace Talks

AFP, FRANCE 24 (France), REUTERS Worldcrunch BAMAKO- Two weeks after the start of the French military intervention in Mali, the Ansar Dine Islamist militant group has split into two, with the dissident faction calling for peace negotiations. The dissident group is calling itself the Islamic Movement of Azawad (MIA) according to France 24. In a […]

Categories
Future

Ears Of Big Brother? Gun Detection System Can Also Listen In On Conversations

Already in place in several cities, the federal Department of Homeland Security may install state-of-the-art acoustic technology in DC that can cover areas of up to 20 square miles.

Categories
Society

WATCH: Dogs Can Teach Humans How To Cross The Street

LA STAMPA (ITALY) Worldcrunch BUCHAREST– A public service campaign in Romania is trying to prevent pedestrian deaths by showing how some stray dogs in Bucharest are street smarter than humans. Say WHAT!? Yes, really. You can scroll to the bottom of the page to see the video. But first, you might want to remember all […]

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Geopolitics

How Sid Vicious Could Help A 75-Year-Old Czech Prince Become President

ABC.AU, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia), REUTERS Worldcrunch PRAGUE – Meet Karel Schwarzenberg, the bow-tied, 75-year-old prince who channels the Sex Pistols and wants to be president of the Czech Republic. Born into a family that owned large amounts of Czech and Austrian lands, the Schwarzenbergs fled when the Communists took over in 1948, writes Reuters. […]

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Geopolitics

Historic New Combat Roles For Women In U.S. Military To Create 230,000 Jobs

AP, CNN, REUTERS, WASHINGTON POST (U.S.) Worldcrunch WASHINGTON- The Pentagon plans to outline details Thursday of a groundbreaking decision to lift a ban on women in front line combat service. This is the second historic reversal of longstanding military bans by outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, following the 2011 repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell […]

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Geopolitics

New Client For Obama Guru Axelrod: Italian PM Mario Monti, In Showdown With Berlusconi

Barack Obama’s longtime campaign guru David Axelrod has a new client: Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. Axelrod slipped into Rome to meet privately with Monti, 69, a political centrist and longtime university professor and European Union Commissioner, who served one year as caretaker Prime Minister. Monti is now in his first campaign for higher office, […]

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Geopolitics

Cameron Paves Way For Referendum That Could Pull Britain Out Of EU

BBC, THE GUARDIAN, THE TELEGRAPH (UK), THE NEW YORK TIMES (USA) Worldcrunch LONDON – UK Prime Minister David Cameron has opened the door to a national referendum to allow voters to decide whether to pull Britain out of the European Union. During a much anticipated speech Wednesday in London, Cameron said that if he is […]

Categories
Food / Travel

Bakery Paradiso: Organic Breadmaker Rises In His Own Sicilian Ghost Town

SANTA RITA – “Don’t let nostalgia screw you…” Alfredo tells the young Totò in the 1988 Italian movie Cinema Paradiso, urging him not to look back, to forget his native Sicily: the “evil earth.” Maurizio Spinello, instead, kneads that very nostalgia into his bread every day, having chosen to stay in his village of 11 […]

Categories
Society

Indigenous Of Chile: Why Discrimination Against Mapuches Still Runs So Deep

-Editorial- SANTIAGO – In the morning on Jan. 4 in Araucania, a region in southern Chile where the Mapuche people live, a group of masked men attacked and set fire to the house of a local landowner and farmer who had spent years litigating with indigenous groups. The landowner, Werner Luchsinger and his wife were […]

Categories
Future

Wanted: Adventurous Female To Give Birth To Neanderthal

DER SPIEGEL (Germany), NEWS.COM.AU (Australia) Worldcrunch BOSTON – George Church, a Harvard School of Medicine genetics professor, believes that he can create a Neanderthal baby. All he needs is an “adventurous female.” George Church at TED 2010. Photo: Life, Synthetic Life! He told German magazine Der Spiegel: “I have already managed to attract enough DNA […]

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Geopolitics

FARC Rebels End Ceasefire With Colombian Government

EL ESPECTADOR, EL MUNDO, EL TIEMPO (Colombia) Worldcrunch BOGOTA- Colombia’s FARC rebels have announced the end of a two-month unilateral ceasefire after the Colombian government refused to join the truce. Photo: FARC flag via Wikipedia The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, declared the ceasefire when peace talks with the government began on Nov. […]

Categories
blog

As Spanish Nears Half A Billion Speakers Worldwide, Its Next Conquest Is Asia

MADRID – Spanish has become the most spoken language in the world after English – in real life as well as on social networking sites. It is the second most used language on Twitter, after English, ahead of Portuguese and Japanese. These findings were presented in Madrid last week by the head of the Cervantes […]

Categories
Eyes on the U.S.

Obama Inauguration: Four More Years, Top 10 History Quiz To Swear By

REUTERS, TELEGRAPH (UK), CNN, SENATE.GOV (USA) Worldcrunch WASHINGTON, D.C. – Barack Obama will be sworn in Monday as the President of The United States for a second time. A swearing-in ceremony, parade and an inaugural ball will mark the event. A private ceremony took place on Sunday because the U.S. Constitution mandates that the president […]

Categories
Eyes on the U.S.

Being Barack – Four More Years At “The Loneliest Job In The World”

Let’s conduct a simple experiment: search on Google for any image of a recent American President — Johnson, Nixon, either father or son Bush, Clinton, Obama — at the moment of their first election victory. Then, search again for an image of the same man a few years later. Each will show the fatigue that […]

Categories
Geopolitics

Lance OWNs up: Yes, I Doped. And I Actually Didn’t Feel Bad About It

BBC, ESPN (U.S.), THE GUARDIAN, THE TELEGRAPH (U.K.) Worldcrunch LOS ANGELES – During an exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey on Thursday night, Lance Armstrong has admitted that he did, in fact, take performance enhancing drugs during all seven Tour de France wins. The BBC callex it the most sophisticated, professional and successful doping program that […]

Categories
Society

When Pets Mourn: Italian Dog And Cat Can’t Say Farewell To Departed Owners

CORRIERE FIORENTINO, LA STAMPA, LA REPUBBLICA (Italy) Worldcrunch ROME – Meet Tommy and Toldo, two Italian pets deeply attached to their owners. In fact, they’re still searching for them, months after they died. Tommy is a German Shepard who lives in the town of San Donaci in the southern region of Puglia. He goes to […]

Categories
Geopolitics

Boeing 787 Flights Grounded Worldwide Amidst Growing Safety Worries

AP, BBC, DAILY YOMIURI, KYODO (Japan) Worldcrunch TOKYO – Amidst continuing safety concerns, airlines and regulators have grounded the majority of Boeing’s flagship 787 Dreamliner planes around the world, reports the BBC. By Thursday, chief air safety agencies in Europe, the United States, Japan and elsewhere had ordered flights halted. The 787 is the newest […]

Categories
Food / Travel

Horse Meat In Burgers? Just Say Neigh

BBC, THE GUARDIAN (U.K.), IRISH INDEPENDENT, IRISH TIMES (Ireland) Worldcrunch DUBLIN– Horse meat has been found in some beef products on sale in the UK and Ireland according to the FSAI (Food Safety Authority Ireland). Although it poses no risk to public health, for many people it is an ethical question. In fact, that’s almost […]

Categories
blog

Helicopter Crashes During London Rush Hour, At Least Two Dead

BBC, SKY NEWS, THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON – A helicopter crashed during London’s morning rush hour on Wednesday, killing two people and wounding 11 others. The incident happened at St George’s Wharf on the River Thames near Vauxhall, in southern London. According to The Guardian the helicopter hit a crane on a building site. […]

Categories
Society

Our Top Ten Alternative Titles For The New Dan Brown Novel

BBC, THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch NEW YORK– Dan Brown, the bestselling author of the Da Vinci Code, is set to release a new novel on May 14. According to The Guardian, Dan Brown’s dapper, tweed-suited symbologist Robert Langdon, the man who cracked The Da Vinci Code and found The Lost Symbol, is about to embark […]

Categories
Economy

Irish Trade Minister: Internet Giants “Not Ethical” In Seeking Tax Havens

THE IRISH TIMES (Ireland), LA STAMPA (Italy), THE NEW YORK TIMES (U.S.A.) Worldcrunch DUBLIN – It’s such a simple system. You buy something and it is sent to you. What you don’t know is that the transaction is done through a company in Luxembourg that pays very little to the Grand Duchy and almost nothing […]

Categories
Geopolitics

Chinese Officials Apologize For Cremating 46 Landslide Victims Without Consent

AP, XINHUA (China) Worldcrunch ZHENXIONG – Chinese authorities have offered a rare apology after cremating the remains of 46 victims of last Friday’s deadly landslide, before even consulting with their families. The AP reports that Hu Jianpu, deputy dead of Zhenxiong county in China’s Yunnan province, told state broadcaster CCTV “We did that because we […]

Categories
Society

Five Things That Happened At The 2013 Golden Globes

Worldcrunch LOS ANGELES – The 70th Golden Globes ceremony took place Sunday night in Los Angeles, bringing together Television and Cinema… surprise and predictability. Here’s what happened: 1. After being snubbed at the Oscar nominations, Ben Affleck’s drama “Argo” about the hostage crisis in Iran, won Best Picture, Drama, (and Director) beating tough competition from […]

Categories
Geopolitics

Cuba Lifts Travel Restrictions, Allows Emigrants To Come Home

EFE, GRANMA, PRENSA LATINA (Cuba) Worldcrunch HAVANA- Effective from midnight local time on January 14, thanks to a new reform by the Cuban government, Cuban citizens are now allowed to apply for passports, without having to apply for special exit visas. Photo: Rindo75 via Wikipedia First announced in October, these new regulations include an extended […]

Categories
Eyes on the U.S.

Don’t Smoke (Or Urinate) In Public: An Italian Lawyer’s Tips For Visitors To The U.S.

Too many travelers ignore some pretty basic American laws that can seem foreign to them. Here’s how it looks to the Italian go-to lawyer in New York for just such cases.

Categories
Society

Violent Fans, Teams, The State: The “Vicious Triangle” Of Argentine Soccer

BUENOS AIRES – The organization of the 1934 World Cup in Italy by Mussolini and the 1936 Olympics in Germany by Hitler helped those governments legitimize their regimes around the globe. Sport in general – and soccer in particular – is a phenomenon that integrates society, promotes values and arouses a large interest amongst very […]

Categories
Future

Mobile-Ready: How Google Has Again Cornered The Market On Search

Thanks to Android boom and strategic mistakes at Microsoft, Bing search is even further behind Google on mobile devices.

Categories
Future

Silk Road: Deep Inside The Internet Hides A Booming Market For Any Kind Of Drug

Behind codes of encryption, the so-called “Deep Web” hosts a vast network of people trading in illegal sales of all sorts, most notably any drug imaginable.

Categories
Geopolitics

Pakistan’s Bloody Thursday: Three Days Of Mourning For More Than 100 Killed

AL JAZEERA, BBC, LAHORE TIMES (Pakistan) Worldcrunch KARACHI/QUETTA/SWAT– Pakistan has declared three days of mourning after a string of bombings killed more than 100 people, while nine others died in separate shootings. Photo: CIA via Wikipedia In the northwest city of Quetta, a suicide bomber entered a snooker club on Thursday that was close to […]

Categories
Geopolitics

New Video Of Frantic Evacuation Of Sinking Italian Cruise Concordia

Just before the first anniversary of the deadly sinking of the Italian cruise ship, La Repubblica daily’s website posts a never-before-seen video of the final desperate moments.

Categories
Geopolitics

Weekend At Hugo’s’? Morbid Humor As Ailing Chavez Misses Inauguration

Worldcrunch CARACAS – Thursday was supposed to be the day Hugo Chavez was inaugurated for a fourth term as Venezuela’s president. But the ceremony has been postponed as he is recovering from a reported “severe” lung infection after his latest cancer surgery in Havana, Cuba. Though Chavez has not been seen in public for more […]

Categories
Food / Travel

Holy City Of Snow: 6 Incredible Photos Of Jerusalem Hit By Rare Winter Storm

JERUSALEM POST, THE TIMES OF ISRAEL (Israel) Worldcrunch JERUSALEM- With Israel’s largest storm in 20 years bringing snow and freezing temperatures to Jerusalem and the mountains in the north and center of Israel on Wednesday night, authorities closed part of the main highway connecting Tel Aviv and the capital for a short time due to […]

Categories
Economy

Spain’s Crisis Hits The Stomach: Steady Drop In Food Spending

CLARIN (Argentina), EL PAIS, EL DIARIO DE LEON (Spain) Worldcrunch MADRID – Unemployment, rising taxes and falling wages have combined to change the calculus for more and more people in Spain. Increasingly, according to new studies, Spanish households are dealing with the economic crisis by reducing the quality and quantity of foods they eat. According […]

Categories
Geopolitics

Venezuelan Assembly Postpones Ailing Chavez’s Inauguration

BBC, EL NACIONAL, EL UNIVERSAL, ULTIMAS NOTICIAS (Venezuela) Worldcrunch CARACAS- After a three-hour debate, the Venezuelan National Assembly has approved the request of President Hugo Chávez to postpone the inauguration for his new term in office, which was scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 10. Photo: Wilson Dias/ABr via Wikipedia According to the BBC, the Venezuelan constitution […]

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