What the facial evolution of children’s toys tells us about our conflict-driven society.
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Why So Angry Mister Lego?
Tag: children
In Germany, efforts are on to increase the number of male teachers. Here’s the tale of a veteran of the war in Afghanistan who wound up on very different terrain.
Underage workers wind up digging for gold, and too often dying in the process. Family traditions are part of why no one is ever held responsible.
MUNICH – People notice you when you’re with a baby – and not only when it’s screaming its lungs out in the supermarket. Just being pregnant earns a woman kudos for having a special kind of radiance. Once the child is born of course parental beauty is not usually the thing others remark on – […]
A Muslim-American writer recounts the days after the Boston Marathon attack. No doubt, parents in the UK are having similar conversations right now.
A dark history is reopened after Green leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit won a Prize for “exemplary democratic disposition.” Digging into his and others’ past finds shocking acceptance of pedophilia.
Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – As the list of 2012’s most popular baby names in the U.S. was unveiled this week, it appeared that King and Messiah were among the fastest growing names for boys, said the AP. Major was another fast-rising name. Last week, however, New Zealand released its annual list of banned baby names and […]
School life can be pretty merciless. Kids have an astonishing repertoire of nasty things they inflict on other kids. But what factors play a role in which kids are the victims and which the perpetrators? Why do some wind up on the receiving end of the nastiness, and others become the ones meting it out? […]
MINSK – At the age of nine he has already met a pope and a few presidents. He likes guns and carries around a gold-plated pistol he was given by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Wearing his mini-uniform, he attends military parades and takes part in high-level meetings. Meet Kolya, the youngest son of Belarusian […]
AP, BBC, THE IRRAWADDY (Burma); REUTERS Worldcrunch RANGOON – Thirteen children were killed in a fire at an Islamic building housing orphans in Burma’s biggest city early Tuesday morning. Sectarian violence has shaken Burma, also known as Myanmar, during the past week and the authorities were quick to blame the blaze on an accidental electrical […]
DISASI – As the little coffin leaves the hospital morgue in this western Congolese town, there is total silence. Yves Ibama was 14 years old when he was taken from his parents suddenly, after a short illness. On Buzala Avenue, in the densely populated town of Disasi where the wake is being held, everyone is […]
Those who managed to survive the March 11, 2011 disaster that killed nearly 19,000 have suffered from both physical and social fallout.
NEW DELHI – Mukesh is standing barefoot in front of the computer embedded in the wall, deep in concentration. He’s trying to guide the little arrow of the mouse onto the number eight because the talking machine asked him how old he was. This is the first time that he has come to the “Hole […]
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It’s Toddlers And Tiaras, European-Style
A casting call for kids in the Swiss Alps offers a somewhat softer image than the all-or-nothing American children’s paegants.
PARIS – Temptations for children take many forms: video games, computers, TV, tablets. According to French audience measurement company Mediametrie, children between four and 14 spend more than two hours in front of the TV every day. On Jan. 22, the French Academy of Sciences issued a warning about children watching television or movies from […]
MUNICH – It is shortly past 10 a.m. in a Munich middle school and Tammy is lying on the floor, muzzle tucked between his paws, stomach rising and falling gently as he breathes in and out, apparently asleep. Occasionally, when Salma leafs through the pages of her book, the dog’s eyes blink open then shut […]
MOSCOW – According to Anton Zharov, a lawyer specializing in adoption, the proposals coming out of the Duma (Parliament) to solve Russia’s orphan problem are like a printer that has gone insane. “You can’t solve Russia’s orphan problem in one year or in three years. Instead of talking to specialists and trying to establish a […]
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 […]
PARIS – In the U.S., they are called the helicopter parents. These are the hyper-moms and uber-dads who hover relentlessly over their children, transforming themselves into personal assistants on the weekends: driving them to baseball or dance practice, Chinese lessons, screaming at the math teacher who had the nerve to give little darling a B […]
-Essay- BEIJING – Recently, a fire killed seven children in a private orphanage in the Eastern Chinese town of Lankao. The woman who runs the Henan province orphanage, Yuan Lihai, called “Loving Mother” by locals, became a controversial figure overnight, even though she has cared for more than 100 abandoned children over the past 20 […]
XINHUA (China) Worldcrunch ZHENGZHOU – A fire that broke out in a private orphanage in China’s central Henan province has killed seven children, according to local government officials. Four children were pronounced dead at the scene while three died in the ambulance. Another child is receiving treatment in a local hospital. Rescuers did not know […]
HÜRRIYET (Turkey) Worldcrunch ISTANBUL – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on his nation’s families to have at least three children, Turkey’s daily Hurriyet reports. Erdogan used a speech to declare that the strength of a nation lies within its families, which must be fortified with more children. “One or two children means […]
NUREMBERG – Paul wanted glitter on his Christmas tree ornament; at his age – six – he doesn’t think glitter is too girly. His dad took in the request and patiently started applying the glitter to the wet paint of the ornament they’re making together. “What does an angel look like?” a little boy at […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch The Verbraucherzentrale Hamburg, a Hamburg-based consumer association, has accused food company of marketing scams, particularly free online games for children, reports Die Welt. “Many parents have complained about the games, which are usually on sites advertising very sugary and high fat products,” says the organization’s nutrition expert Silke Schwartau. “Unlike adults, […]
-Essay- BERLIN – My five-year-old son Finn goes to an American kindergarten – a place just like Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Bethlehem in Pennsylvania is about as far from Philadelphia as Newtown is from New York – in their own way, both are typical U.S. East Coast towns. Finn’s school even looks […]
XINHUA (China), AL JAZEERA (Qatar) Worldcrunch CHENGPING – Twenty-two school children and a villager were injured in a knife attack at the outside a primary school in central China’s Henan Province Friday morning, reports Xinhua. A police officer said the attack occured in the village of Chengping in the province of Henan, shortly before 8 […]
Children’s privacy is of particular concern in Europe, even as US tech giants line up to oppose any new laws that could force Internet “de-indexing.”
KIGALI – In Rwanda, children born out of wedlock often say they’d rather be orphans. “At least orphans receive some help from charities,” explains one 20-year-old high school student, named “ML.” Hiding behind the school, crying, this “illegitimate child” wonders what sin she has committed to deserve to be so mistreated — even by her […]
CAIXIN MEDIA (China) Worldcrunch HAMBURG– Accusations that China has been stealing other countries’ intellectual property are nothing new — and increasingly annoying to Chinese officials. Here’s how one described the situation at a conference last week in Germany: “China just wants a child. China would have liked to adopt one, but you won’t give it […]
BERLIN – It is a scientific theory of longevity that has the whiff of homemade pie: people live longer thanks to the grandmothers who help raise them. Though first put forth more than a half-century ago, the “grandmother hypothesis” has gotten renewed attention with a recent study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society […]
GELSENKIRCHEN – It was just a few days before summer break that nine-year-old Lisa Bahlhaus (not her real name) came home in tears. The teacher had announced that after the school holidays the whole class would be presenting a play, and she’d assigned roles. Of all the kids, only Lisa didn’t get a role. The […]
TAP (Tunisia), RT (Russia), AFRIK.COM Worldcrunch TUNIS – Tunisia’s Ministry of Women and Family Affairs has filed a complaint against Kaws Kouzah (“Rainbow”), an Arabic-language children’s magazine that published disturbingly detailed instructions of how to make a Molotov cocktail, Tunisia’s news agency TAP reports. The article, published under the “Knowledge Garden” section of the #302 […]
GOMA – In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mothers of disabled children, rather than being given the help they need, are typically blamed for the disability — and often literally chased out of their homes. Lingering local superstitions say that a mother is somehow responsible for her child’s health problems — and the consequences […]
KOMMERSANT (Russia)


 Worldcrunch MOSCOW – There is a widely held misconception in Russia and abroad that Russian parents want their children to emigrate, hoping they will be able to find a better place to settle down outside of Russia. But it turns out, according to a recent survey, only 12% of parents would be happy […]
A shockwave, an explosion, a fire. The boat lets in water and topples over, passengers hang on to life boats or jump into the waves. Few circumstances have the tragic intensity of a shipwreck, which takes mere seconds to throw human beings into life-threatening situations, where the cruelest of decisions have to be made: who […]
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (USA), THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch Russian authorities have charged members of an Islamic sect with child abuse after discovering underground cells near Kazan in Tatarstan where a self-proclaimed prophet and his followers kept one to 17-year-olds for nearly a decade without heat or sunlight. The Guardian reports that prosecutors have opened a […]