THE NEW YORK TIMES, BBC, REUTERS Worldcrunch SEATTLE — Microsoft has announced plans to purchase Nokia’s mobile phone business for $7.2 billion, a move by Microsoft to catch up to competitors Samsung and Apple on the mobile business. Nokia shares jumped by 45% on news of the deal. According to the BBC, the purchase is […]
Author: Patrick Randall
HAIFA – His pack is ready: spare clothing, two clean uniforms, his combat boots and a charger for his smartphone. If he is called, Haim Halévy, a 32-year-old from Haifa, will only have a few hours to join his field regiment stationed on the Golan Heights. The fateful phone call may arrive today, tomorrow, in […]
Properties of Saudi princes, the sultan of Brunei, billionaires from Qatar and Asia, and a few of the wealthiest people in France, Parisian palaces-turned-hotels are a high-rolling industry.
WASHINGTON POST Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – The U.S. commando raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden was guided from space by a fleet of satellites, according to a top-secret U.S. intelligence documents revealed Friday by the Washington Post. As the May 2011 mission unfolded, the satellites aimed dozens of receivers over Pakistan to collect electronic […]
Here are some of the songs topping the charts from music hot spots around the world. This week, Worldcrunch listened to Johnny Cash and especially to his “Ring of Fire”. September 12 will mark the tenth anniversary of the ledgendary American singer’s death. “Ring of Fire” was written by Johnny Cash’s wife June Carter and […]
GENEVA – The other day, someone posted a photo of a Coca-Cola bottle named Jonas on my Facebook wall. I was honored, though I couldn’t quite say why: was it because of the object itself, even though until then, I had been mostly annoyed by the new global marketing campaign where Coca-Cola replaced its logo […]
LE MONDE Worldcrunch PARIS – It seems France’s love affair with taxing its citizens has reached a new high: the French Treasury sought full income tax payments from a 37-year-old convicted drug dealer for the sum he’d earned selling cannabis. According to Le Monde, two weeks before Farid, a former drug-dealer, got out of prison […]
After the chemical attacks, military intervention is a question of humanity, but also of realpolitik. That does not, however, mean it will resolve the situation in Syria.
Though Kurdish Syrians have largely avoided any involvement in the country’s civil war, they are now caught in the middle and fleeing in droves. A visit to the refugee camp in Iraq.
BBC, NEW YORK TIMES, AL JAZEERA, AFP Worldcrunch DAMASCUS – As the United States appeared to toughen its stance against Syria, United Nations inspectors were forced Tuesday to postpone their investigation into the sites of the alleged chemical attacks in the suburbs of Damascus, according to the AFP. The Syrian Foreign Affairs Minister Walid Muallem […]
AL JAZEERA, BBC, NEW YORK TIMES, LE MONDE (France), IZVESTIYA (Russia) Worldcrunch DAMASCUS – As pressure mounted for a strong Western response against the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, United Nations inspectors were heading Monday to the site of last week’s suspected chemical attack in the outskirts of the Syrian capital. Both the Syrian […]
Here are some of the songs topping the charts from music hot spots around the world. Worldcrunch’s pick of the week is The Clash’s “Bankrobber.” The band’s frontman, Joe Strummer, who died in December 2002, would have been 61 this week. The song chronicles the life of the narrator’s father, who “loved to steal your […]
TIMES OF INDIA, BBC Worldcrunch MUMBAI — Police in India have arrested one man and are searching for four others after an Indian photojournalist was gang-raped in Mumbai Thursday. According to the Times of India, the man arrested has confessed to his involvement in the crime and has provided information to identify the four others. […]
New York Times, China Daily, BBC Worldcrunch JINAN — The trial of Bo Xilai, the disgraced former Communist official accused of corruption, bribery and abuse of power, began Thursday morning in the eastern provincial capital of Jinan, according to China Daily. One of the most serious charges against him relates to his wife’s role in […]
BBC, REUTERS, AL JAZEERA Worldcrunch TOKYO – The Japanese nuclear agency upgraded the severity level of a toxic leak at the Fukushima nuclear power plant from 1 to 3 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (0 to 7). The raising of the toxic level Wednesday marks the first time Japan has issued such a warning […]
AL JAZEERA, REUTERS, BBC Worldcrunch CAIRO – Egyptian authorities escalated their crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood by arresting Mohamed Badie, the Islamist organization’s top leader, state media reported on Tuesday. The 70-year-old was detained at a residential apartment in Nasr City in northeast Cairo “after information came to the security apparatus locating his place of […]
If fast food is a symbol of the world’s Western domination, then their franchises are like lone scouts inspecting the area before the rest of the army arrives. To satisfy their traveling Western customers or to gain new ones, the biggest fast-food chains have, sometimes unintentionally, set up shop in some of the most remote, […]
BBC, Al Jazeera Worldcrunch CAIRO – At least 24 Egyptian police officers were killed Monday morning in an ambush attack in the Sinai peninsula, as the open conflict between state authorities and Islamists opponents deepens further following the deadliest week in recent memory. According to Al Jazeera, two police minibuses were driving through a village […]
Since the army’s assault on Muslim Brotherhood began, Egypt’s non-Muslim minority, the Copts, have been killed and their churches and buildings burned by radicals in the Brotherhood.
Here are some of the songs topping the charts from music hot spots around the world. Worldcrunch’s pick of the week is Wu-Tang Clan’s “Tearz,” a nod to the hip-hop group’s flagship debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), which came out 20 years ago. “Tearz” is a sample of 60s soul singer Wendy Rene […]
BBC, AL JAZEERA, NEW YORK TIMES Worldcrunch BEIRUT – A previously unknown Sunni group has claimed responsibility for Thursday’s car-bomb explosion in a southern Beirut neighborhood, one of Lebanon’s bloodiest attacks in recent memory and the clearest sign to date that the conflict in neighboring Syria is crossing the border. As the death toll climbed […]
For most vacationers this summer, it was a choice of beach, countryside or cultural capitals. Of course the world is also full of places where most people would never consider spending a holiday. But leave it to the tourism industry to cash in on the strange and creepy too. Take a look. “Sailing stones” in […]
John Kerry has convinced Israeli and Palestinian leaders that the region’s upheaval requires them to at least search for a solution. Whether they find it is another question.
LOS ANGELES TIMES, REUTERS Worldcrunch SAN FRANCISCO – California billionaire Elon Musk has unveiled the design of his Hyperloop, a $6 billion would-be high-speed transport system powered by solar energy. The network of crash-proof capsules could become “a fifth mode of transport after planes, trains, cars and boats,” Musk declared in a blog post. Hyperloop […]
CAIRO – What has become of Tahrir Square? It is of course still right there, in the center of Cairo, just off the banks of the Nile, the eternal Egyptian Museum, the Nile Hilton hotel (under seemingly endless restoration) and the Mogamma — the huge Stalinist building that serves as permanent headquarters for the Egyptian […]
AP, BBC Worldcrunch MANILA – The season’s most powerful typhoon hit the north of the Philippine islands early Monday morning, leaving one person dead, with at least 23 others missing, according to the Associated Press. Typhoon Utor brought winds of up to 130 mph and torrential rains to the country’s main island of Luzon, toppling […]
The legacy of the 44th president of the United States is in peril, as he is seen as weak-willed with an unfocused foreign policy. Is it 1979 all over again?
How do well-known foreign brands react when unscrupulous profiteers swipe their Chinese names?
Here are some of the songs topping the charts from music hot spots around the world. Our pick of the week is a 70s’ funk classic: Sly & the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin” On, which was re-released as a new deluxe edition on July 30th. Roll up your sleeves, put those sunglasses on […]
AL JAZEERA (Qatar), AFP Worldcrunch QUETTA — An attack on a Sunni Muslim mosque in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta has left at least 10 people dead and another 30 wounded, just one day after a suicide bomber killed at least 37 people in the same city. Friday’s attack in the capital of Balochistan […]
Categories
The Game Changer For China’s Toymakers
The European Union has implemented a stringent new set of toy safety regulations, which could leave some Chinese manufacturers on the losing end.
“We knew there would be a price to pay for democracy. But no one imagined it would cost so much.”
BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch SANA’A – Yemen said on Wednesday it had foiled an al-Qaeda plot to blow up oil pipelines and seize some of the country’s main ports. Security remains tight – and hundreds of armoured vehicles have been deployed to protect key targets. Both the U.S. and UK have withdrawn diplomatic staff from […]
His political career began as a struggle against racist oppression and continued until achieving his country’s independence. But the newly re-elected leader, 89, is epitomized by violence and corruption.
NEW YORK TIMES (USA) Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – Nineteen American diplomatic outposts across the Middle East and North Africa will remain closed this week, the State Department said Sunday, despite what officials said was no new information about terrorist plots that they believe are in the works. One day after President Obama’s top national security aides […]
DA LAT — It’s 30°C (or 86°F) on the high plateaus of Lam Dong in the southern central part of Vietnam. Hanoi is two-and-a-half hours away by car, and the damp heat envelops the coffee trees, their supple branches fanning out and loaded with green coffee cherries. As the second-largest global coffee producer, Vietnam lags […]
Here are the songs topping the charts from some music hot spots around the world. Worldcrunch’s pick of the week is Franz Ferdinand’s new single, Right Thoughts. The Scottish band’s new album, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, is set to be released on August 26th.
THE AUSTRALIAN (Australia) Worldcrunch DARWIN – A mining company convicted in a landmark ruling of desecrating an Aboriginal sacred site has apologised after being fined $150,000 for the damage. In the first successful prosecution by a government authority of a mining company for desecration under Australian law, OM Manganese was found to have caused a […]
Categories
Zimbabwe Election “Compromised”
BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch This week’s election in Zimbabwe was “seriously compromised” with up to a million people prevented from voting, the country’s largest observer group said Thursday. Most of those turned away were in urban areas, where support for Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is strong, said the Zimbabwe Election Support Network. It noted that […]