Worldcrunch
Around the world, famous and regular folk alike are mourning Nelson Mandela, as South Africa prepares for a 10-day commemoration. Here’s a selection of reactions from heads of state to a certain former heavyweight champ to the people of his nation, to as the world says goodbye to the father of South African democracy and […]
OLBIA — Twelve hours notice. Forty-four centimeters of rain in 90 minutes. Sixteen dead, including four children. And, now, a fax alert. The blame game has begun in Sardinia after the tragic Cyclone Cleopatra hit the island earlier this week. Antonio Sanò, head of the weather website ilmeteo.it, said that Monday’s storm had been forecast […]
TACLOBAN — The pictures emerging from the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan last weekend show utter devastation. Experts will say that no two natural disasters are ever the same, yet it can often be useful to learn from reactions to past calamities. United Nations agencies were quick to announce the call for funds to support the […]
Technological advances and ethical questions have forced societies to constantly redraw the thin line between life and death. (Happy Dia de Muertos!)
MUMBAI — At the height of the Mumbai rush hour, boarding a train is about as easy as finding a comfortable position in a rugby scrum. On the overcrowded platform, those wearing glasses carefully tuck them away in their cases before taking a deep breath and pushing into the compact crowd of passengers until they […]
JOBAR — Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighter Abu Ali stood grinning and waving at me with his right hand. Two of his middle fingers were missing. “Look at me, I’m like a Ninja Turtle now,” he said, dry humor intact. It had been three months since I last saw Abu Ali, who used to fight on the front lines of Jobar, a rebel-held district in the eastern city limits of Damascus. “My rifle exploded,” he said, beginning the story of his last few months, of how he lost his fingers, preparing his extra-sweet tea. “This was back in June, while […]
AP Worldcrunch MOGADISHU – An Ethiopian Air Force cargo plane crash-landed at Mogadishu’s seaside airport on Friday, killing four people on board, the African Union said. Two crew members were rescued by emergency personnel and are being treated in the African Union military hospital near the base, said Mahamat Saleh Annadif, an African Union representative […]
CNN (USA) Worldcrunch LOS ANGELES– Actress Karen Black’s long and public battle with cancer has ended with her death, her agent said Thursday. Black, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role in the 1970 film Five Easy Pieces, was 74. Black took her fight to overcome her illness to a crowd-funding website earlier […]
Two environmentalists are killed on average every week as land struggles intensify violence against green activists worldwide.
The daughter of a couple kidnapped during Argentina’s Dirty War chastizes the country’s leader for appointing a suspected war criminal as army head.
XINHUA (China) Worldcrunch SHANGHAI – Over 10 people in Shanghai have died of heatstroke in the east China city’s unprecedented summer heat, local health officials said Tuesday. The Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control & Prevention said the persisting high temperatures this summer have caused a spike in the number of heliosis patients in the […]
Seven months after a student was brutally gang-raped and killed on a public bus in New Delhi, India has new legislation and an established women’s movement — but is it enough?
BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch AVELLINO – A bus has plunged off a viaduct in southern Italy on Sunday night, leaving at least 38 people dead, rescue services say. The bus hit several vehicles before smashing through a parapet and toppling down a steep slope near the town of Avellino, in the Campania region. At least […]
BDNEWS24 (Bangladesh), AFP Worldcrunch DHAKA – A Bangladeshi war crime tribunal Wednesday sentenced to death a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist party. Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, 65, who was accused of mass killing and torture during the 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan, was found guilty of five charges including abduction and […]
WARSAW – Plasdopake is produced in Whitchurch, Hampshire, a small town 90 kilometers west of London. Plasdopake is a chemical solution that contains 18% formaldehyde. It is perfect for embalming the bodies of people who have died young – it gives them a fresh and natural look, making them look alive in their coffin. Obviously, […]
Worldcrunch CARACAS – An animated video has been released by ViVe, the cultural TV channel owned by the Venezuelan government, depicting Hugo Chavez passing into immortality. The short video shows El Comandante being welcomed into the afterlife by famous Latin American heroes of the past that it felt best represented Chavez’s political ideals. From right […]
BEIJING – Over the past three years, a growing number of high-ranking officials in China have committed suicide, according to data from the Legal Weekly journal. In just the last two months alone, three officials — Qi Xiaolin, Deputy Secretary of Guangzhou’s Municipal Public Security Bureau, Zhang Wanxiong, Vice-President of Liangzhou Court of Justice in […]
AP, NEW YORK POST (U.S.) Worldcrunch NEW YORK– Former New York Mayor Ed Koch died early Friday at the age of 88. A spokesperson said that Koch, who ran NYC city hall through most of the 1980s, died of congestive heart failure. PATRICK J. CASHIN & US NAVY In and out of the hospital for […]
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. […]
CORRIERE FIORENTINO, LA STAMPA, LA REPUBBLICA (Italy) Worldcrunch ROME – Meet Tommy and Toldo, two Italian pets deeply attached to their owners. In fact, they’re still searching for them, months after they died. Tommy is a German Shepard who lives in the town of San Donaci in the southern region of Puglia. He goes to […]
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 […]
-Editorial- If there is one thing that both government supporters and the opposition in Venezuela can agree on: daily life in is an endless series of unnecessary frustrations. Here are just a couple of recent examples: problems with the ports delayed the arrival of Christmas trees – which are imported from Canada – raising the […]
FOLHA DE S. PAULO, O GLOBO (Brazil) Worldcrunch RIO DE JANEIRO – Oscar Niemeyer, a Brazilian national icon and one of the most celebrated architects of the 20th century, died on Wednesday in a Rio de Janeiro hospital. He was 104. Niemeyer rose to international fame as the architect of the main government buildings in […]
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 […]
GENEVA – Marie-Gisèle Sandoz lives by herself, and has no children or siblings. When the retiree decided it was time to make a will, it didn’t take long to decide who would be the benificiaries: three-quarters of her assets will go to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature. “Ecology has always been an interest of […]
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 […]