AL QUDS (Palestine), AL SABAH (Palestine), MASRAWY (Egypt), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), HAARETZ (Israel) Worldcrunch NEW YORK – Newspaper headlines around the Arab world Friday hailed the results of a historic UN vote that grants Palestine entry to the international body as a non-member observer State. After a request submitted by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, […]
Author: Marion Girault-Rime
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia) Worldcrunch When you see red water on an Australian beach… you immediately think “shark attack!” Sydney’s most famous beach, Bondi beach, and neighboring Clovelly beach were closed on Tuesday after the water turned bright red. On Wednesday, 10 other Sydney beaches were closed according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Photo: Bondi […]
MUNICH – In his Munich art gallery, Daniel Blau has an exhibition called Death and Disaster, which features German and American war photographs. Whether to view these photographs as documents or art depends on one’s perspective. The pictures bear witness not only to death and destruction but also to the power of imagery as a […]
BRASÍLIA – Brazil’s indigenous people increasingly live an urban existence. Televisions, DVDs, refrigerators, gas ovens and cellphones are all consumption goods that have been integrated into the daily lives of many tribes. And the dream for young Brazilian native people: going to university. These are among the findings from a survey conducted by Datafolha and […]
-OpEd- BERLIN – The resignation of David Petraeus as head of the CIA means that we can once again play that great political guessing game that measures the gap between what’s being said and the real reasons behind what’s happened. It is apparent yet again that moving out of public office is almost as difficult […]
-Analysis- NEW YORK – Not long ago, China replaced the United States as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet. And now the International Energy Agency (IEA) is predicting two things: the first is that the U.S. will be the world’s biggest oil producer in the next 10 years. The second is that […]
BEIJING – Men conquer women by conquering the world; women conquer the world by conquering men. This ancient Western proverb is often cited by Chinese in reference to Cleopatra, and her conquest of Julius Caesar. In 2000, I was responsible for covering the story of Cheng Kejie, the former vice chairman of the National People’s […]
MACAU DAILY TIMES (Macau), CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY (Taiwan) Worldcrunch MACAU – Not far from Hong Kong, a small island off the coast of southern China attracts 28 million visitors a year. The tourists, hailing mostly from Mainland China, come here to gamble. It is the only place in China where gambling is legal, and with […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch A Europe-wide study produced by the GfK research group for Swiss insurance company Zurich Versicherung has found that worry, stress and anxiety about the future affect young Europeans to such an extent that many of them can’t sleep at night. Asleep in school. Photo: Mc Quinn In September, reports Die Welt, […]
PARIS – She has always wanted this kind of assignment. As far back as she can remember, Mireille Ballestrazzi, 58, has dreamed of a job where “adventure and exercising responsibility” would come together. In many ways, it has already been her mission for the past 30 years inside the French police force. But now things […]
BEIJING – First you have to get through the police cordons, four or five of them. Tourists on their way to the Forbidden City are asked to remove their hats and open their coats for inspection. On the steps of the Great Hall of the People, a Tibetan woman in traditional dress and other delegates […]
JERUSALEM POST, HAARETZ, IDF (Israel), AL-AYYAM (Palestinian Territory), CNN (USA) Worldcrunch Israeli politicians were divided on Monday over the possibility of military ground operations in the Gaza Strip, as rockets rained down on Israel for the third day in a row, reported the Jerusalem Post. Opposition leader Shelly Yacimovich told Army Radio she was against […]
SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, DEUTSCHE WELLE (Germany) Worldcrunch The European Court of Human Rights has upheld a German ban on a poster campaign by (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) in Germany, reports Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The campaign used gruesome Nazi concentration camp imagery to evoke the suffering of factory-farmed animals today. The decision said that limiting […]
-Editorial- MUNICH – Obama’s victory is not a shining victory. The president stays president. But Americans did not re-elect Barack Obama because they thought his first four years were so grand and convincing. America’s voters were perfectly prepared to fire him – they just weren’t ready to vote Mitt Romney in to replace him. The […]
SINA NEWS, E-TODAY (China) Worldcrunch BEIJING – A Chinese man recently divorced and sued his wife for giving him an ugly daughter. Not only did he win the case, his ex-wife was sentenced to pay him 750,000 Yuan ($120,000) in compensation, reported Sina News. According to the report, Feng Jian, the indignant husband, was shocked […]
PARIS – Happy Election Day, America! Happy American Election Day, World! Still undecided? Still hungry for poll numbers?? Still there??? Worldcrunch is here to help. In particular, with our news partners from around the world, we have kept a close eye on how non-Americans have been covering the U.S. campaign: from the Italian correspondent trying […]
CAIRO – The economic stagnation of the past year and a half has taken a toll on many businesses, but a fleet of Islamic investment banks in Egypt sees opportunity in the emerging new order. Ridge Islamic Capital, one such investment bank, has found a niche in the finance sector and made plans to capitalize […]
XINHUA (China), NEW YORK TIMES, AP (USA), RADIO AUSTRALIA, (Australia) Worldcrunch BEIJING – China is mobilizing its security apparatus and tightening its grip over the public space ahead of the 18th Communist Party Congress, which begins on Nov. 8. A volunteer security force of 1.4 million people has been assembled for the congress. Workers and […]
MUNICH – When is a man a man? The business world has an answer to that: when he works full-time and is focused on his career advancement. To explore this a little further, we met up at a café in downtown Munich with Norbert Meier (not his real name) who by that definition is only […]
If we had been sitting on a stage instead of his home, I’d have had to block my credit card – because mentalist Christoph Kuch just told me what my PIN number is – and that it’s a MasterCard. All he had asked me to do was to think about the number as I answered […]
MUNICH – According to exclusive information obtained by Süddeutsche Zeitung, the German, French, Italian, Spanish and Moroccan governments are pushing forward their green power “Desertec” project. Electricity produced by a solar thermal plant in Morocco, which would cost 600 million euros to build, would supply Europe with renewable energy. The planned power plant site is […]
CAIRO – Five male members of an atheist group congregate in one of Cairo’s crowded downtown bars, sipping beer and Pepsi as they discuss their thoughts on religion, sex, science, culture, politics and Egypt’s new ruling regime. The group, which also shares idea on an atheist website, has been holding weekly meetings since Mohamed Morsi […]
CNN, NBC NEWS, NYT (USA), BBC (UK), INSTAGRAM Worldcrunch As superstorm Sandy continues to wreak its deadly destruction over the Northeast, here are the latest developments, by the numbers: • 16: number of reported deaths caused by the storm in the U.S. • 68: number of lives claimed outside the U.S., including 51 in Haiti […]
The German publishing giant has completed a mega merger of its Random House publisher with Penguin books. And it isn’t done yet.
KABUL – There was a day when executions took place in Kabul’s Ghazi Stadium, and until 11 years ago it was a place where the Taliban punished renegades with public amputations. But for the past few weeks all you could hear in this part of the Afghan capital was the sound of chatter, dancing, celebration […]
XINHUA (China), WALL STREET JOURNAL (US) Worldcrunch BEIJING – Disgraced politician Bo Xilai has been formally expelled from China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), and stripped of his legal immunity according to Chinese state media. Xinhua news agency reported that the NPC had removed Bo from his post last month, but only made […]
A new study finds plastic debris on the floor of the once pristine Arctic Ocean, the latest sign of environmental damage of global waste.
BERLIN – The euro zone has granted Athens two more years to rein in its debt, Süddeutsche Zeitung has learned. Euro zone leaders have agreed to give Greece until 2016 instead of 2014 to push deficits down under to 3% of GDP. Deadlines for the implementation of employment and energy reforms and the selling of […]
A real-life experiment is playing out in front of computer screens all over the world, as millions of people regularly consume porn. Scientists, who have begun to study the potential consequences, are divided. One person to have addressed the issue very openly is advertising maven Cindy Gallop. In 2009, during a TED conference in Monterrey, […]
MOGADISHU – General Barisse’s men are in the pick-up trucks, one next to the other, holding their weapons, looking around. They do not fidget, a military patience having descended upon them: they simply wait. They have been waiting for food, pay, the enemy’s attack — in this, they also wait for the end of a […]
UMOJA – In a wooden hut in Archer’s Post, a small settlement in Kenya, three men of the Samburu tribe are drinking tea. The eldest is wrapped in a red-and-white checked cloth; the other two wear shirts and jeans. Nothing much going on, so they are happy to talk. Question: Why should only men have […]
IT SECURITY RESEARCH GROUP (Germany), HONEYNET PROJET Worldcrunch A red dot is an attack on a computer, a yellow dot is a “honeypot,” a system set to record incoming cyber attacks. On the bottom of the screen, a box tells you where the attacks are coming from (Friday was mostly Eastern Europe). You are not […]
-Analysis- In September, China’s National Development and Reform Commission announced that China’s highways would be toll-free during the Golden Week national holiday. To boost domestic tourism, certain local governments, such as in Jiangsu Province, also passed a decree banning price hikes on tourist attractions during the eight-day holiday break, which this year combined the Mid-Autumn […]
For many researchers, one measure of intelligence is the ratio of brain size to body weight. But that would mean that the tiny mammal known as the shrew would be capable of great intellectual accomplishments, which it is not presently known for. Why is this? A human brain weighs 1.3 to 1.5 kilos (2.9 to […]
WASHINGTON POST, LOS ANGELES TIMES (USA) Worldcrunch NEW YORK – President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney took a break from the presidential race on Thursday night to trade jokes and roast each other at charity dinner, reports the Washington Post. Every four years, the Alfred E. Smith Dinner, the Catholic Archdiocese of New […]
Tanja Nijmeijer joined the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) when she was barely out of her teens. Now, at 34, the Dutch woman is negotiating for the Marxist rebels in the peace talks with the Colombian government that began this week in Oslo. With her long, dark-blonde hair, brown doe-eyes and engaging smile, Nijmeijer […]
MEXICO CITY – More blood and more death. Mexico’s drug wars seem to be getting crueler and more sadistic by the year. Of all the players involved, probably no one is more responsible for the increasing violence than Miguel Angel Treviño, a.k.a. ‘Z-40,’ who has just taken over control of the notorious Los Zetas cartel […]
AMSTERDAM – A filthy hotel room and food poisoning are definitely up there on the list of things that can ruin a trip. But for the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel in Amsterdam, they are part of the sales pitch — proud to be dubbed the “worst hotel in the world.” The low-cost establishment has enjoyed […]
ROSENHEIM – German authorities don’t believe his parents are dead, nor do they buy the stories about living on the streets as a child. And so Mohamed Kamara, an 18-year-old asylum seeker from Sierra Leone, is now due to be deported. His integration in Germany has been exemplary, and his therapist is convinced that he […]
-Editorial- BEIJING – Just like the former extrajudicial “Custody and Repatriation” procedure for moving beggars and homeless people out of Chinese cities, the Re-education Through Labor (RTL) camp system has long been criticized. There is now a general consensus that the unjustified administrative procedures of the labor camp system should be reformed. After years of […]