Worldcrunch
Deutsche Bank may have done business to the tune of billions with Iran and other countries, violating U.S. sanctions. Sanctions were imposed on Iran by the international community because of its nuclear weapons program. British bank Standard Chartered, which is said to have violated Iran sanctions, now faces payment of a $340 million settlement after […]
NEW YORK TIMES, LOS ANGELES TIMES, VARIETY, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER (USA) Worldcrunch LOS ANGELES – Tony Scott, the British-born director of high-octane blockbusters like Top Gun and Days of Thunder, jumped to his death from a Los Angeles bridge on Sunday. He was 68, reports the New York Times. NOOOOOOO!!! #TonyScott Why??? Thanks for doing a […]
ABC ONLINE, HERALD SUN, THE AGE (Australia) Worldcrunch CANBERRA -Tony Abbott has become the first opposition leader in nearly 26 years to be thrown out of federal parliament, during a heated question time on school funding, reports ABC News. Tony Abbott today was the first opposition leader to be ejected from parliament in 26 years. […]
Early August, Syria’s rebels kidnapped 48 Iranian pilgrims in Damascus. The rebels claimed their prisoners were not pilgrims but in fact elite Iranian soldiers sent by Teheran to support the Assad government. A murderous sect known as the Assassins had a similar Iran-Syria partnership in the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, the mountainous regions […]
ANALYSIS – The announcement by Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño at a press conference that Ecuador would grant WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asylum met with cries of approval and applause from assembled journalists. As always, whenever the government of Ecuador calls an official press conference, mostly only journalists close to the government are invited. The […]
RIO DE JANERO – The saleswoman smiles ironically while pointing out the best-selling product in Zecabiju, one of the dozen accessory shops in Saara, the most crowded open-air market in Rio. “Suelen’s earring, of course. I didn’t even need to tell you, right?” she says. A long golden earring on the right ear — this […]
OUTLOOK, TIMES OF INDIA, INDIAN EXPRESS, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES (India) Worldcrunch BANGALORE – Thousands of people from India’s northeastern states have fled the southern city of Bangalore amid fears that they will be targeted in attacks. On Thursday the situation at the Bangalore railway station was chaotic, says the Times of India, as thousands of […]
OP-ED – A German newspaper recently published a list of the “ten most dangerous politicians in Europe.” When something bad happens we immediately start looking for someone or something to pin the blame on. It makes no difference if the “bad” thing was the capsizing of a cruise liner, a war that ended in a […]
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, HERALD SUN, THE AUSTRALIAN, (Australia), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch Australia’s High Court of Justice has upheld a new government law on mandatory packaging for cigarettes that remove brand colors and logos from packaging, reports the BBC. The new law mandates that cigarettes be sold in drab olive-green packs and ban all commercial logos. […]
In just three weeks, the final stage of the EU phase-out of incandescent light bulbs will start. The EU campaign began in December 2008 with the EU Commission’s Ecodesign Directive stating that the manufacturing and sale of “light bulbs with low energy efficiency” would be forbidden in member states after a gradual phase-out. The directive […]
JAKARTA GLOBE, ANTARA NEWS (Indonesia), AAP (Australia) Worldcrunch JAKARTA – A new Islamic social networking site will be launched in Indonesia in November, and will offer “better protection” for young Muslims from “harmful content” reports the Jakarta Globe. According to the Indonesian newspaper, the Beta version of the site is currently being tested by 1,000 […]
SKOPJE – Cameras flash on Macedonia Square. There aren’t droves of foreign tourists in Skopje, but the Macedonian diaspora, back in the country on holiday, can’t believe their eyes. A huge mounted warrior is in the center of the capital, brandishing his sword skyward: counting the pedestal, the monument has a respectable height of 24 […]
LE MONDE (France), THE GUARDIAN, DAILY MAIL (UK) Worldcrunch They’re not allowed to drive or to vote, writes Le Monde, but the women of Saudi Arabia will soon have their own city. How to create more job opportunities for woman in gender-segregated society? Build female-only city! gu.com/p/39y2a/tw #SaudiArabia — Guardian World (@guardianworld) August 13, 2012 […]
Recently several authors of a BL fiction website were arrested. The injustice is so glaringly obvious that I can’t stop myself from saying something about this. The so-called BL (Boy’s Love) fiction is a particular interest of a minority of people. The concept comes from Japan: it refers to female-oriented fiction featuring idealized romantic relationships […]
EL PAIS (Spain) Worldcrunch On Tuesday, hundreds of members of the Spanish SAT workers’ union walked out of two supermarkets without paying for the shopping carts they had filled with food. The supermarket raids took place in Andalusia, in southern Spain. “Is this a theft? A symbolic act? An atrocity? An act of violence ?” […]
LA TRIBUNE (France) JERUSALEM – France has prepared a contingency plan to evacuate its citizens from Israel, La Tribunehas learned. According to diplomatic sources, a plan to evacuate the 200,000 French nationals living in Israel has been drafted to prepare for the enventuality of conflict between Iran and Israel. The objective, says the French financial […]
LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR (France), THE DRUM (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON – To protest against strict adverstising rules imposed by the IOC on everything Olympic-related, reports Le Nouvel Observateur, a British website has launched a “Fauxlympics” advertising campaign. People were invited to send in Fauxlympic adverts in four different categories: The Sprint: Guerrilla ads that would be […]
AL ARABIYA (UAE), REUTERS (UK), BBC (UK) – The Free Syrian Army told Al Arabiya on Thursday that Bashar al-Assad’s chief of protocol had defected, amid an escalation of violence across the country. Muhui al-Din Maslamani is reportedly safe in an undisclosed location in Syria. The rebels are also claiming that more defections in the […]
TIMES OF SWAZILAND (Swaziland), REUTERS, MAIL & GUARDIAN, INDEPENDENT (South Africa), AFP (France) Worldcrunch As weeks of protest culminate in an ongoing teachers strike and public enterprises’ workers threaten to down tools en masse this week, reports the Independent, King Mswati III of Swaziland has launched a three-day “people’s parliament” in an attempt to appease […]
AL JAZEERA (Qatar) Worldcrunch MOSCOW – Vladimir Putin, the newly re-elected president of Russia, presents himself as a humble, down to earth man of average means. But rumors about his wealth, and the secrecy surrounding it, have been circulating for years, as far back as his time as deputy mayor of St. Petersburg in the […]
RAFAH – Those living in Rafah have military forces responsible for securing the border at their doorsteps. While this should provide extra protection for the locals, on Sunday, it was the locals who struggled to save the soldiers undergoing a brutal attack. The failure to prevent an attack on a military checkpoint, carried out by […]
The Royal family, the English pound and driving on the left, none of these British characteristics seem to be in synch with the rest of the world. However, the British don’t particularly care what others might think. Their traditions have a special meaning for them. They are the most complicated, most contradictory, and most interesting […]
BRASILIA – At first sight, Brasilia is made exclusively of highways. So either the city is hiding below the carefully trimmed grass, or it is just another Latin American myth. Its inhabitants are also invisible. How do they go from one place to another if there are no sidewalks or walkways? Our bus makes another […]
In Iran, the shortage of poultry has become the symbol of the economic “war” imposed on the Iranian regime by the West to pressure the country into abandoning its nuclear program. Since a new round of European and American-led economic sanctions were enforced on July 1, the price of chicken has soared in Iran, rising […]
PHILIPPINE STAR, PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER (The Philippines), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch Tens of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate the Philippine capital Manila due to severe floods. Ten people were killed on Tuesday in a landslide caused by the torrential rain, reports the Philippine Star. Eight members of a family, including a two-month old […]
THE NEW YORK TIMES (USA), THE TELEGRAPH (UK) Worldcrunch A remote controlled bomb killed at least nine people and wounded three others outside of Kabul early Tuesday morning. An improvised explosive device was detonated underneath a bridge as a crowded bus carrying commuting Afghans drove overhead, northwest of the capital city. The suspect was captured […]
NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 3 NEWS (New Zealand), BBC NEWS (UK), WALL STREET JOURNAL (USA) Worldcrunch WELLINGTON – Mount Tongariro erupted late Monday for the first time in nearly a century, reports the New Zealand Herald. Roads were closed, internal flights were disrupted and nearby residents were advised to stay indoors and disconnect water tanks, reports […]
MOSCOW – Proposed legislation in the Russian Duma (Lower House of Parliament) would forbid all public employees, including government ministers, the President and the Duma MPs themselves, from owning any real estate, stocks or bank accounts outside of Russia. In its current form, public employees found to have property or accounts abroad would be removed […]
QIDONG – At 18-years-old, Li Wei does not look like a dissident. She is mostly focused on her studies in accountancy, her friends – with whom she is always in contact – and chatting with her sister. However, none of that stopped the young girl – who has given us a false name because of […]
LAUSANNE – Inevitably, any question on the importance of science in sports brings up the topic of doping. “We tend to focus on the cheaters and not enough on clean athletes,” says Swiss judo champion Sergei Aschwanden, bronze medalist in Beijing. “What message do we want to send to young athletes? That doping is required […]
MARSEILLE – The Old Port, the historic quarter’s main street known as the Canebière, Notre Dame de la Garde church — these are three must-sees for any tourist in Marseille, France. And everybody visits them. But how about the old quarter known as the Panier? Very few venture there. Even many locals take the long […]
THE COURIER MAIL, PERTH NOW, BRISBANE TIMES (Australia) Qantas has confirmed it has stood down a female captain from duties after she was suspected of drinking before a flight from Sydney to Brisbane last week, reports the Courier Mail. According to the Brisbane Times, the incident occurred as the Qantas aircraft was about to depart […]
LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR (France) Worldcrunch Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt won gold in the Men’s 100 meter final in the London 2012 Olympics on Sunday, becoming only the second sprinter to win two consecutive 100m Olympic races. LONDRES 2012 – Usain BOLT double champion… par VideosMediaStudio Bolt shot to fame during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and […]
ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS, NASA (USA) Worldcrunch PASADENA – The NASA Curiosity robotic exploration vehicle successfully landed on Mars early on Monday morning at 5:30 a.m. GMT, a historic event that prompted relief and excitement within the scientific community. The Curiosity rover will spend the next two years looking for traces of life on the red […]
SANA (Syria), AL ARABIYA (UAE) , FARS (Iran) , BBC (UK) Worldcrunch Here are the latest developments on the Syrian conflict: →Syrian state-run TV announced Monday morning that Prime Minister Riad Hijab had been sacked, amid rumors that he has defected to Jordan. #Syria is controlled by security & army apparatus, PM is just a […]
HAARETZ (Israel), BBC NEWS (UK), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), ASSOCIATED PRESS (US) Worldcrunch JERUSALEM – Israel says it has found the bodies of eight gunmen who attacked a checkpoint on the border with Egypt on Sunday, killing sixteen Egyptian guards, reports BBC News. The attack was launched at around 8pm on a security checkpoint in the […]
LE MONDE (France), LA REPUBBLICA (Italy), THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch PARIS – Do you find yourself cheering like mad for an athlete whose name you just heard for the first time? Are you passionately tuning into sports you never knew you cared about? And though the endless ads and omnipresent sponsors can be a drag, […]
LE TEMPS, APS, THE LOCAL, LE MATIN (Switzerland) Worldcrunch BERN – The Swiss Public Welfare Society (SSUP) has launched a contest to change Switzerland’s national lyrics by August 2015, reports Le Temps. According the newspaper, the association finds the existing lyrics too awkward and outdated — so much so that a majority of Swiss don’t […]
REUTERS, RIA NOVOSTI, ROSCOSMOS (Russian Federation) Worldcrunch MOSCOW – Russia’s Proton rocket failed to bring two satellites into orbit after the launch late on Monday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said. Although the launch itself was a success (see video below), the rocket — carrying two multi-million […]