Worldcrunch
–OpEd– SANTIAGO – After four long years in court, the 10 Chilean pharmaceutical executives prosecuted for colluding to raise the prices of 222 medicines can breathe easy. These business leaders from the companies Salco-Brand, Ahumada and Cruz Verde were in fact convicted, but the sentence amounted to a meager fine — the equivalent of $445,000 […]
For the past six months, the Chinese media has been reporting that rice grown in the south-central Hunan Province contains unacceptable levels of cadmium, a carcinogenic heavy metal. Last month, an inspection of samples in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, revealed that more than half the batches of cadmium-tainted rice came from three rice mills in the […]
BBC (UK), BOSTON GLOBE, NBC NEWS, NEW YORK TIMES, REUTERS (U.S.) Worldcrunch WASHINGTON D.C.– President Barack Obama announced Wednesday night that acting head of the Internal Revenus Service (IRS), the nation’s central tax-collecting agency, had been forced to resign after it emerged that the agency improperly targeted certain groups. A special report released on Tuesday […]
New bill would require artists and others in the “creative” fields to prove they are competent, and active in their roles.
XINHUA, GLOBAL TIMES (China), AFP Worldcrunch WUXI – Zhang Yimou, one of China’s top film directors is being investigated over claims he has fathered seven children, the Chinese media reported on Thursday. The Wuxi City Population and Family Planning Commission, in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province, is investigating the Xi’an-born director, after it has come to […]
LIBERATION, LE PARISIEN, LES ECHOS (France) Worldcrunch PARIS – French President Francois Hollande’s government faces its first confidence vote Wednesday over its handling of the country’s finances as a government heavyweight resigns over allegations of tax fraud. The confidence vote was called by the opposition Union for a Popular Movement party (UMP). While it is […]
Why has Washington stayed so quiet about South Korean allegations of secret North Korean bank accounts?
CHANNEL ONE, KOMMERSANT (Russia), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch MOSCOW – One of Moscow’s Bolshoi ballet leading soloists has confessed to being the mastermind behind an acid attack that nearly blinded the company’s director, Sergei Filin in January. According to a statement released by the Moscow police, Pavel Dmitrichenko, 28, was arrested together with two accomplices: […]
DIE WELT (Germany), THE LOCAL (Sweden) Worldcrunch BERLIN – Among the many questions raised by Europe’s spreading horsemeat scandal is what to do with all the products of questionable provenance. Most major supermarkets have simply dumped out loads of horse-tainted “beef” lasagna, and the like. What a waste! But all’s not lost. A spokeswoman for […]
Worldcrunch Maybe it was inevitable that Europe’s worst false-advertising scandal in memory would wind up hoofing through the front door of the Old Continent’s best-marketed, most clean-scrubbed, low-cost brand of home furnishings and other you-can-count-on-us modern life supplies. Yes, that’s right: horsemeat in IKEA’s scrumptiously affordable Swedish meatballs. Outrage is bound to follow, but those […]
Horsemeat in our pure processed delights! Are we innocent victims or willing suckers of the consumer marketing machine?
AFP (France), BBC (Uk), LE MONDE (France) Worldcrunch Nestlé, the world” biggest food company, is now riding straight into the center of the growing horsemeat scandal. A spokesman has confirmed 1% presence of horse DNA in two of its beef products sold in Europe, Buitoni Beef Ravioli and Beef Tortellini, reports BBC. The Swiss-based food […]
MUNICH – Horsemeat passed off as beef – across Europe, the food scandal continues to make headlines. On the food circuit in Munich, at Kaspar Wörle’s horsemeat butcher shop, it hasn’t caused much of a stir – except for the fact that the phone has been ringing uninterruptedly since the scandal broke. “People want information,” […]
Worldcrunch PARIS – Call it “Horsegate” or just a really bad case of un-authentic Italian food, but the story of horse meat winding up in one of Europe’s most popular brands of “all beef” frozen lasagne has been galloping on for four days. We have Romanian meat in question? And also e-questrian. You see where […]
Documents reveal how American intelligence officers turned a secret training center for Polish security forces into one of the controversial “black site” prisons for terrorism suspects.
THE INDEPENDENT, THE GUARDIAN, THE DAILY MAIL, BBC (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON – British government food officials have warned the public not to eat frozen beef lasagna sold by the Findus brand after tests showed they contained up to 100% horsemeat. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has ordered all British companies to test their processed beef […]
NEW YORK TIMES, REUTERS, ATLANTIC WIRE (US) Worldcrunch BEIJING –The New York Times says that it has been repeatedly targeted by Chinese cyber-attacks over the past four months, following a report the newspaper had published detailing allegations of hidden wealth of China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. The American Newspaper claimed that these hacking attempts failed. […]
BEIJING – Since 2010, China’s number one state-owned newspaper, the People’s Daily, has published quite a number of commentaries concerning hot-button social issues. We are very pleased and applaud this. In general, these commentaries have a higher purpose and discuss national issues with sharpness. Recently, though, the People’s Daily published a commentary written by Bai […]
BEIJING TIMES (CHINA) CHINA TIMES (Taiwan) Worldcrunch BEIJING – Over the last few days, China’s blogosphere has been heating up with spicy rumors that could stretch all the way back to Silicon Valley: a female director of the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC) has been accused of accepting gigolos as bribes from an American […]
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch MUNICH – New details have emerged Friday of a vast police raid this week against Deutsche Bank in an ongoing tax evasion case. Some 500 state prosecutors, tax and crime investigators were involved in the Wednesday raids on Deutsche Bank offices in Frankfurt and branches in Berlin and Düsseldorf. […]
LE FIGARO, FRANCE 24, LIBERATION (France), DAILY TELEGRAPH (UK) Worldcrunch PARIS– French acting legend Gérard Depardieu has come under criticism for reportedly declaring permanent residency in Belgium to duck out on France’s high taxes on the rich. Left-wing newspaper Libération took a shot at the 63-year-old following confirmation that the actor has taken up residence […]
In December 1984, this Indian city suffered what is considered the world’s worst industrial accident ever.
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 […]
Putting the right spin on your words is a science. Obviously, the civil servants who owe a fiduciary duty to the public have an urgent need to master this subject. And it helps to shift the blame on someone else, a child, a spouse, or a convenient foreigner will do. Two weeks ago Yang Dacai, […]
RIO DE JANEIRO – 10 employees from the Rio 2016 Olympic Committee were fired for stealing confidential information from their counterparts at the London committee during the Games this past summer. This is the first scandal involving the next Olympics, which is still three years and 11 months away. The two committees of the British […]
BBC, CHANNEL 4 NEWS, THE GUARDIAN (UK), EUROPE 1, LIBERATION (France), NEW YORK DAILY NEWS (USA) Worldcrunch PARIS – A French court has blocked the future publication by a French magazine of the now infamous topless photos of Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, reports the BBC. The court order prevents French magazine Closer’s publisher, […]
Worldcrunch YEDIOTH AHRONOTH (Israel), LA STAMPA (Italy), THE IRISH TIMES (Ireland) JERUSALEM – The appointment of Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto as Papal Nuncio to Israel last week has sparked controversy in Jerusalem after it emerged that he was linked to the pedophile priests scandal that hit the Irish Catholic Church in 2005.. The country’s biggest-circulation daily […]