FOLHA DE SAO PAULO (Brazil) Worldcrunch BRASILIA – Francisco Everardo Oliviera Silva – better known as Tiririca (Grumpy) – was elected to the Brazilian Parliament in 2010 with the highest number of votes. He had campaigned on the slogan “Vote Tiririca, it can’t get any worse.” Now he says he has lost hope for politics […]
Author: Marion Girault-Rime
“This is the saddest moment in my 45-year career as a psychiatrist…” Dr. Allen Frances wrote this in a December blog post on the Psychology Today website. The reason was the approval by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) of the new edition of psychiatry’s bible – Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM […]
BBC 2 (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON – In the first episode of the new installment of Top Gear, on BBC Two, Jeremy Clarkson tries to build a car that is “even smaller than the famous Peel P50.” Peel P50. Photo mrflip Rising to the challenge, as always, Clarkson tests his tiny invention in London’s suburb of […]
Egypt and Syria are edging toward failed state status, while the West asks how all the hope has faded so fast.
Categories
Will Plastic Bags Ever Disappear?
A technological marvel, the plastic bag has become a symbol of humankind’s ecological footprint. Laws and habits are decreasing their use, but the alternative is sometimes worse.
OpEd: Same-sex civil unions have been defeated in Poland’s Parliament, thanks to a hard-right minority inside the ruling party. History tells us this will not stand.
Both men and women must change their attitudes
Feel free to read this article later…!
BERLIN – In the musical “My Fair Lady,” Professor Henry Higgins expresses outrage at the “cold-blooded murder of the English tongue.” The guilty parties are the Scots, the Irish, the Welsh – and of course Eliza Doolittle, the Cockney flower girl from London with whom the linguistic purist falls in love. If Americans escape his […]
I’ve been dreadknapped!? And they didn’t even take my wallet.
BEIJING – Since 2010, China’s number one state-owned newspaper, the People’s Daily, has published quite a number of commentaries concerning hot-button social issues. We are very pleased and applaud this. In general, these commentaries have a higher purpose and discuss national issues with sharpness. Recently, though, the People’s Daily published a commentary written by Bai […]
SOUTH METROPOLITAN DAILY (China) Worldcrunch LIANJIANG – A Chinese centenarian woke up after being dead for 16 hours, reports the South Metropolitan Daily. Peng Xiuhua, a 101-year-old woman from Shenshuidong Village in China’s southeastern Guangdong Province, had been living alone since the death of her husband 11 years ago. She had taken a fall two […]
FOLHA DE S.PAULO, O GLOBO, ZERO HORA (Brazil) Worldcrunch SANTA MARIA – At least 245 people were killed early Sunday in a fire that swept through a popular nightclub in the city of Santa Maria, in the Southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, reports O Globo. The fire broke out at around 2 a.m. […]
ISTANBUL – Turkey has finally passed a hotly-debated law that will allow Kurdish criminal defendants to speak their mother tongue in court. The drama leading up to Thursday’s vote is a reminder of how complicated — and charged — the broader “Kurdish Question” continues to be in Turkey. The final round of debate on pitting […]
SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, DER SPIEGEL (Germany) Worldcrunch BERLIN – The German military looks eager to get in the drone business. According to Der Spiegel Germany’s coalition government is planning to rapidly equip the country’s defense forces with armed combat drones, saying they would provide a “credible deterrent” to enemies and thus offer greater security. The government […]
Awash in cash, the Swiss National Bank has been making major direct investment in the private sector and the bond market. It’s a frightening level of financial sway.
BERLIN – Chinese censors have made some significant changes to several parts of the latest James Bond film “Skyfall.” One scene, showing a French hitman killing a Chinese guard in a Shanghai skyscraper, was cut out entirely. So was a mention of prostitution in Macau. Other changes are reflected in the subtitles. In the original […]
CAIRO – While still both recognizing the ongoing struggle for freedom and social justice, the Muslim Brotherhood and its political party on one side and the opposition on the other will mark the second anniversary of the Jan. 25 Egyptian revolution in two very different ways. As the Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party […]
AFP, WALL STREET JOURNAL, JAPAN TIMES (Japan) Worldcrunch TOKYO – Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said during a meeting that elderly people should “hurry up and die.” Taro Aso. Photo Sebastian Derungs “Heaven forbid if you are forced to live on when you want to die. You cannot sleep well when you think it’s all […]
In his native Germany, Mr “Dotcom” is called by his real name, Kim Schmitz; but Germans joined with the rest of the world to see the roll-out of his new outsized Internet file-sharing site.
BERLIN – Can we draw conclusions about another person’s character traits based on their facial or body features? We have a tendency to base ourselves on outer appearance when forming first impressions of other people. Studies have shown that the shape of a face plays a role in our perception of how trustworthy somebody is. […]
Her eyes tear up when I come into the room although the word “daughter” holds no meaning for her anymore. When friends and relatives ask me “How’s your mother?,” they are not referring to the woman I used to relate to in that role, but to a whole other person behind an invisible wall. I […]
Some skeptics, though, wonder whether all the enthusiasm for the developing world has created a sort of emerging market “bubble”.
THE AUSTRALIAN, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, QUEENSLAND INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL RESEARCH (Australia) Worldcrunch BRISBANE – Australian researchers believe they have found a way to halt the HIV virus from developing into AIDS. Researchers from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research say they have found a “light switch” protein within the HIV virus that can be effectively […]
SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG (Germany) Worldcrunch GROSS RIDSENOW – The recent theft of a 600-kilogram, 500-year-old chapel bell (estimated value 20,000 euros) from a cemetery in Gross Ridsenow in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is one of an increasing number of bell thefts in Germany. What attracts thieves to the bells is quick money, according to the Suddeutsche […]
KAISERSLAUTERN – It’s been more than two years since 21 people were killed and more than 500 injured in the Duisburg Love Parade, a tragedy that shocked Germany and reopened wider questions about how to control large crowds. In an article published in the EPJ Data Science journal, physicist Dirk Helbing of the Swiss Federal […]
Located near the Berlin zoo, the address is the first in Germany for the famed US luxury hotel brand.
The target year is 2020, and the subject on the minds of many world economists: the Chinese consumer. In a report published last month, “Consuming China: How to get ready for the next stage,” McKinsey & Company predict that consumption will replace investment as the driving force of China’s GDP growth. Meanwhile, Dong Tao, Asia […]
LE MONDE, LIBERATION, FRANCE 24 (France) Worldcrunch BAMAKO – France has launched a military intervention in Mali, with President François Hollande declaring that the “terrorist groups, drug traffickers and extremists” in the northern part of the country “show a brutality that threatens us all.” In the declaration late Friday, Hollande added that the operation would […]
DAILY YOMUIRI, KYODO (Japan), DOW JONES NEWSWIRES, AFP Worldcrunch TOKYO – The Japanese government has formally approved a massive 20.2 trillion yen ($227 billion) stimulus package during a cabinet meeting on Friday morning, reports the Daily Yomuiri. The national government will spend 10.3 trillion yen ($116 billion), with nearly the same amount kicked in by […]
BEIJING – In the history of Eastern and Western art, the aesthetic standards for painting have been more or less the same. The most esteemed paintings were large scenes with people in them. They can be broken down into the two categories, of either historical or religious nature. The classic scene of Christ being taken […]
DIE WELT (Germany), PNAS (USA) Worldcrunch PISA – Take a guess how many types of medication you have in your medicine chest. Fifty? A few hundred? Medication is a banality in our day – but things looked very different 2000 years ago when there were no pharmaceutical giants and mass production facilities. Hippocrates had to […]
ASAHI SHIMBUN (Japan), KICKSTARTER (UK) Worldcrunch TOKYO – Japan is a country known for its cutting-edge science and technology. Walkmans, videocassette recorders, Compact Discs, Blue-Ray, digital cameras, flat panel tvs – you name it, it was invented in Japan. But this new Japanese invention will – literally – blow your tail off. The “Tailly,” according […]
MUNICH – Wearing a bright checked shirt, the man is strikingly tall, fit, with very short brown hair and brown eyes. He smiles a lot. Right now he’s looking for a suitable female partner – not in cafés or bars as such a search might have been conducted just a few short years ago, but […]
URBAN TIMES, XINHUA (China), MING PAO (Hong Kong) Worldcrunch BEIJING – A top Chinese official announced on Monday that China would put an end to its controversial “Reeducation Through Labor” system. According to the Urban Times, addressing a meeting in Beijing, new Political and Legal Affairs Committee head Meng Jianzhu, said: “the use of Reeducation […]
THE AGE, AAP, THE MERCURY, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia) Worldcrunch As wildfires rage across eastern and southern Australia, authorities warn that persistent record temperatures could spark the country’s worst fire catastrophe in recorded history over the coming days. With at least 100 people unaccounted for, people are being told to be diligent amid warnings that […]
-Essay- BEIJING – There has been a succession of dynasties in China’s long history, but Chinese culture has always followed the same basic ideology. This ideology is composed of ideas from three sources: the Book of Changes, Confucianism, and Taoism. Today, if we want to export the soft power of Chinese culture, we must first […]
International security experts are watching Nigeria “s radical Islamist movement Boko Haram with concern. The militant group has destabilized northern Nigeria and attracted the attention of other jihadist groups, including al-Qaeda affiliates gaining strength in neighboring northern Mali. Boko Haram is highly diffuse. It has an important Islamic revival dimension, but also has political and […]
SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG (Germany) Worldcrunch Süddeutsche Zeitung has seen the draft of an amendment to German legislation that would for the first time legalize exporting German nuclear waste. While the change would impose tight conditions on such transfers and official agreements with the countries providing disposal sites, environmentalists are equating the amendment to a “burst dam.” […]
THE INDIAN EXPRESS, THE TIMES OF INDIA, ASIAN AGE (India) AFP Worldcrunch NEW DELHI – Eighteen days after the violent gang rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student set off a worldwide outcry, police filed charges in court against the five men arrested in the case, reported the Indian Express. The young woman, who was brutally […]