Worldcrunch
ISRAELIS KILL PALESTINIAN TODDLER An 18-month-old Palestinian boy was burned to death overnight when Israeli settlers set his family’s home in the West Bank city of Duma ablaze, Haaretz reports. The toddler’s mother, father and 4-year-old brother were seriously injured in the attack, which occurred at 4 am. The two masked attackers painted Hebrew graffiti […]
Photo: Natsuki Sakai/ZUMA GREECE APPROVES BAILOUT, BUT TSIPRAS IN TROUBLE Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras won a bittersweet approval late yesterday of a package of tough measures — including an increase in sales tax and a pension shakeup — that will make a third bailout of the ailing country possible. But 38 members of his […]
Governments around the world — democracies and dictatorships alike — often change school textbooks and courses to fit their own agendas. From US history to Syrian schoolchildren, here are some textbook controversies in the news recently: EGYPT: TEXTBOOK REVOLUTION Egyptian news site Mada Masr reports that the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and […]
Though French bread and pastries have become popular across Asia, French chains have had trouble breaking in. Now one Korean boulangerie is opening up in Paris.
And apps could kill it forever …
When a country acknowledges atrocities it has committed, it implies a mix of democratic culture and confidence that is more the exception than the rule.
FUEL SHORTAGES HIT AID AGENCIES IN YEMEN Aid agencies working amid airstrikes in Yemen have warned that they might have to halt their efforts due to fuel shortages, thus preventing them from helping hospitals and carrying humanitarian aid to millions of people, Reuters reports. Airstrikes from the Saudi-led coalition meanwhile continue to hit Houthi rebels’ […]
DEADLINE PASSES BUT IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS CONTINUETehran and the six world powers gathered in Lausanne, Switzerland failed to reach an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program before yesterday evening’s deadline but talks have resumed this morning for a seventh consecutive day. According to Iranian news agency Tasnim, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was hopeful the leaders could […]
MARSEILLE — Have you met Pepper? This four-feet-tall emotion-reading robot is expected to hit stores soon in Tokyo, where technology lovers will be able to acquire one for the equivalent of $1,650. The child-faced robot, the latest invention of French start-up Aldebaran, was created to “live alongside humans.” But household chores such as vacuuming or […]
TURIN — How many times have you shopped at a market and found yourself admiring a bag or wallet, wondering whether it was really made by the famous brand displayed on its label? Thanks to the camera on your smartphone and a forthcoming app, it soon will be possible to verify, in real time, whether […]
Japan has slipped into recession, the ultimate mark of failure of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ambitious but misguided efforts to turn around the nation’s economy.
The recent purchase of the Waldorf Astoria by a Chinese company recalls Japanese companies’ buying sprees 30 years ago. And that didn’t end well.
Plans for a new, 80,000-seat stadium to host to 2020 Tokyo Games has been met with fierce criticism from prominent Japanese architects – on both aesthetic and ecological grounds.
Like manufacturers globally, the world’s largest carmaker uses robots to help build its cars. But they are “trained” by a small group of human experts the brand nurtures to be the very best.
The Saudi Embassy in Tokyo is closely following the case of a Saudi citizen studying in the country, recently arrested for breaking four 300 year-old Buddha statues at a temple in the capital. The embassy has reportedly condemned the statues’ destruction as “contrary to the principles of Islam,” and has reached out to the temple’s […]
If you’re here searching for the secret to eternal life forget it, we’re not there yet. But in the meantime, here’s some supercentenarians from around the world with their own secrets to a long life. Some might surprise you!
As President Obama arrives on an Asian tour, yet another sign that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to undo Japan’s pacifist policies that are a vestige of World War II.
KAMAISHI — Tsukayo Ito lost everything in the tsunami three years ago. Since the 2011 disaster, the 88-year-old geisha has been living in a settlement of containers in Kamaishi. On the walls of her tiny living room are the few photos that could be salvaged from the rubble. She has almost no possessions, but still […]
STOCKHOLM — Some say Japanese-born Yoko Tawada who has adopted Germany as her home is a writer with a split cultural personality. After 30 years, she still struggles to reconcile the differences. “Like two personalities, they don’t want to be one,” she says. “They didn’t want to tell one story. I couldn’t put them together. It’s impossible.” In Sweden to launch her 23rd book, The Naked Eye, the award-winning author says the story has links to her own experience traveling by train from Japan to Germany. “I came to Europe by the Trans-Siberian Railway,” she says. “It is a slow […]
Japanese artist Hiroshi Sunairi has a personal connection with Hiroshima. Apart from growing up in the city, his mother and grandmother were exposed to radiation when the atomic bomb dropped on the city in 1945. Many years later, while working with the Hiroshima museum, Sunairi attended a lecture by botanist Chikara Horiguchi who spoke about Hibaku trees, some of the so-called “silent survivors’ of that fateful day. “I was really moved by his work and philosophy. He talks about trees and nature not having an ideology, but they can symbolize a lot of things if we think about them alongside […]
In Suo-Oshima, nearly half the residents are over the age of 65. Increasingly, the city’s destiny looks to be a sign of what’s to come across a Japan that is aging far too fast.
Is shooting dolphins for gastronomic delectation really worse than the way livestock are treated before becoming supermarket steak? A debate reaches from Japan to South America.
Yakuza, Japan’s notorious crime syndicate, is trying to emerge from two decades of economic stagnation, and is betting on the much-discussed stimulus from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
TOKYO — The mackerel comes from Iceland, the salmon from Norway or Chile, and the king crab is from Russia. Less than half of the 2,000 tons of fish and seafood that passes through Tsukiji Market is caught in Japanese nets. The world’s largest fish market is a bustling trading center, with its early-morning auctions […]
Instead of actually forging relationships, or continuing those they have already, Japanese people are hiring actors to play the roles of loved ones.
Among those saying noteworthy and/or newsworthy things of late are Iran’s Supreme leader, EU Commission’s No. 2, and India’s lameduck leader…
A quick roundup of who has been saying what around the world…
TOKYO — Since the beginning of 2013, as many as 3,500 people have died on Japanese roads. Some 52% of these victims were aged over 65, representing a high mortality rate of 6 per 100,000 in an age category that is progressively becoming the dominant generation — in the aging archipelago, 1 out of 4 […]
Odd and cruel episodes from police blotters around the world…
IWAKI — Our meeting with one of the “liquidators” of Fukushima’s power plant takes place in a discreet location, out of sight. Talking to journalists is risky, and the man’s nervous employers could use it as a pretext to fire him. “It’s the same thing for workplace accidents — there’s a collective solidarity,” he says. […]
Animal-related crime was making news around the world this week, including 30 lizards in a Japanese suitcase and two tons of elephant tusks in Vietnam. Take a tour of Crime Int’l… (photo: iisg)
Sept. 12, 2014 SYRIA AND ALLIES OPPOSE U.S. ISIS PLANSyrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government and its allies Russia and Iran reacted negatively to U.S. President Barack Obama’s plans to launch airstrikes against ISIS in Syria, warning that such a move would violate international law if done outside the UN or without Assad’s approval, The Guardian […]
Sept. 11, 2014 OBAMA OUTLINES ANTI-ISIS STRATEGYOn the eve of today’s 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attacks, President Barack Obama vowed to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Mideast’s ISIS terror group, also known as ISIL. Saying he had authorized air strikes against the jihadist group in Syria and the deployment […]
China currently has just one-fifth the number of robots as Japan, and just one-third as many as the United States, but as manufacturing there grows, the country is poised for big bot growth.
REUTERS, ABC, WALL STREET JOURNAL Worldcrunch TOKYO — Radiation readings near tanks holding toxic waters at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant have jumped to a new high, according to Japan’s nuclear regulator, as the government prepares to step in to help contain leaks. According to Reuters, this new rise in the radiation levels and […]
One writer outlines what German Chancellor Angela Merkel is doing right; and sees potential deep flaws in the economic policies of Japan’s Shinzo Abe.
LE TEMPS (Switzerland) Worldcrunch BASEL – The nuclear accident of Fukushima is already leading to a surge in the number of cases of thyroid cancer, according to research being presented this week in Switzerland by Japanese scientist Toshihide Tsuda. The Swiss daily Le Temps reports that Tsuda, professor of environmental epidemiology at the University of […]
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 […]