Worldcrunch
MOQATTAM – After stray dogs violently attacked two children in Moqattam last month, their families pressured the local veterinary council to put an end to the problem by poisoning the animals with strychnine — a deadly pesticide. As a lethal product, strychnine should not be deposited at random, as it can also threaten residents’ health. […]
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti was called on to lead a caretaker government. His expertise was welcome, but then the economics professor was bitten by the bug of political ambition…
Vladimir Putin is genuinely convinced that protests against his rule are fomented abroad
IRISH EXAMINER, IRISH INDEPENDENT, IRISH TIMES (Ireland) Worldcrunch DUBLIN – A teen charity funded by the government-backed Irish Health Board has come under scrutiny after publishing tips on how young people can explore having a ménage à trois. Irish Member of Parliament Michelle Mulherin has accused the state-funded organization SpunOut of publishing inappropriate content, including […]
AAP, ABC, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia), TVNZ (New Zealand), IRISH TIMES (Ireland) Worldcrunch CANBERRA – Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard apologized Thursday to two-decades worth of mostly young, unwed mothers who were forced to give up their babies for adoption. From the 1950s to the 1970s, an estimated 150,000 unwed Australian mothers had their babies […]
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST (China), BBC NEWS (UK), Worldcrunch BEIJING – One day after formally appointing Xi Jinping as the country’s new president for the next 10 years, China leaders have named Li Keqiang for a five-year term as premier, the last leg of a well-oiled generational transition of power. Although Xi and Li hail […]
Worldcrunch In elections, there are winners and there are losers. But what happens when the winner cannot actually claim victory? How can the loser manage to hold all the cards? Both Italy and Israel are famous for getting stuck in just these sorts of Byzantine deadlocks, and coincidentally both Mediterranean democracies are swimming in it […]
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 […]
-Essay- We’re all critical of the leaders of our time: Obama let us down, Merkel isn’t Adenauer, and Hollande and Cameron are just pale copies of Monsieur Mitterrand and Lady Thatcher. Meanwhile, in Italy, in front of the disappointing batch of candidates for national elections, nostalgia runs deep for figures of the past from Christian […]
TIMES OF INDIA, OUTLOOK (India), BBC (UK). NEW DELHI – Indian President Pranab Mukherjee has approved a new rape law that would provide harsher punishment for rapists, including the death penalty. The BBC reports the brutal gang rape on a 23-year-old woman in December caused an outrage across the country and sparked a debate about […]
DER SPIEGEL (Germany), THE GUARDIAN (U.K) Worldcrunch BERLIN – This is not your daddy’s “video game.” Privacy activists in Berlin are protesting against surveillance video cameras by destroying and debilitating them, as part of a social game where you earn points for every CCTV taken down. The Guardian spoke to the anonymous creator of the […]
-Editorial- SANTIAGO – In the morning on Jan. 4 in Araucania, a region in southern Chile where the Mapuche people live, a group of masked men attacked and set fire to the house of a local landowner and farmer who had spent years litigating with indigenous groups. The landowner, Werner Luchsinger and his wife were […]
AP, XINHUA (China) Worldcrunch ZHENXIONG – Chinese authorities have offered a rare apology after cremating the remains of 46 victims of last Friday’s deadly landslide, before even consulting with their families. The AP reports that Hu Jianpu, deputy dead of Zhenxiong county in China’s Yunnan province, told state broadcaster CCTV “We did that because we […]
EFE, GRANMA, PRENSA LATINA (Cuba) Worldcrunch HAVANA- Effective from midnight local time on January 14, thanks to a new reform by the Cuban government, Cuban citizens are now allowed to apply for passports, without having to apply for special exit visas. Photo: Rindo75 via Wikipedia First announced in October, these new regulations include an extended […]
-Essay- BEIJING – Lately there seems to be a refreshing breeze blowing through China, which might even change the very essence of our “national conditions.” What are these Chinese “national conditions” anyway? They are many things – each uniquely Chinese. For instance, our tradition of “official-orientated consciousness.” We are accustomed to seeing large crowds at […]
OpEd: Prime Minister Mario Monti has announced his resignation, after Silvio Berlusconi sabotages his technical government. Why can’t Italy be a “normal” country?
ROME – For a foreigner who doesn’t understand the Byzantinism of Italian politics, it will seem paradoxical: as of yesterday, the majority that has kept Mario Monti’s government in place is suddenly hanging by a thread, even as the main economic packages were approved by the legislature. And now, elections could be right around the […]
-Essay- PARIS – If we ask the French what they don’t understand about the U.S. elections, we are spoiled for choices. Having seen French commentary on the Obama-Romney duel, the most pointed area of incomprehension is “what it means to be an American Republican.” We just can’t seem to wrap our French brains around this […]