Worldcrunch
CAIRO — Ironically enough, the roads to the Cairo premier of Sherief Elkatsha’s traffic-centered documentary Cairo Drive weren’t at all crowded. The special screening at the recent Zawya cinema happened on arguably one of the coldest days the capital has ever seen.
On Sept. 3, 1967, traffic in Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right. Our daughter Cécile was understandably puzzled by the overlapping lane markings on the road, just a couple of months before the big change — and frankly, I find it somewhat of a miracle that no […]
Another so-so summit on the climate, and another set of tepid, if not useless, commitments to curb emissions. If the governments can’t get it together, the people must act on their own.
The so-called congestion charges that have been levied in London and other major cities are being closely considered in the Chinese capital, which has serious pollution and traffic issues.
The fact that people are buying cars is touted as a good sign for the economy, which you can think about while you’re stuck in traffic or breathing in rising pollution.
NAKHON PATHOM — Why did the thousands ducks cross the road? Drivers and pedestrians in Nakhon Pathom, in the central Bang Len district, were trying to find an explanation to the stampeding, quacking duck-nami that took them by surprise Saturday. It is captured below on the video below that will strike true fear in anyone […]
I remember being mesmerized by Shanghai at night — maybe even more than by Las Vegas. Twenty years ago, the Chinese city also seemed to be at the vanguard of technology. That’s where I saw people using cell phones in the street for the first time.
Putting the ‘organized’ in organized crime, necessary for Argentina’s efficient distribution of illegal drugs. And of course there are plenty of corrupt politicians and police along the way.
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 […]
MOSCOW — Since the first traffic camera was installed in Moscow in 2008, a new kind of traffic violation has been born — license-plate camouflage. The cameras capture license plate numbers, which is how drivers who break traffic laws are identified. Tickets are then sent by mail. More than 60% of traffic tickets are now […]
As war has made regular work scarce, Ayham has trafficked in anything that has a buyer. But lately he says the face of the black market has started to change.
LE MONDE Worldcrunch PARIS – It seems France’s love affair with taxing its citizens has reached a new high: the French Treasury sought full income tax payments from a 37-year-old convicted drug dealer for the sum he’d earned selling cannabis. According to Le Monde, two weeks before Farid, a former drug-dealer, got out of prison […]
-OpEd- BEIJING – Since late last year the way Chinese people cross the road has been receiving particular attention. Dubbed Chinese-style Of Crossing The Road, this phenomenon refers to the behavior of Chinese pedestrians, who cross an intersection not based on red and green lights, but on whether or not there are enough pedestrians to […]
Editor’s note: Following Beijing, the municipality of Guangzhou introduced passenger car purchasing restrictions last June in order to ease the traffic pressure. Each month a free lottery system is used to decide the lucky ones who get to buy cars. Another parallel system allows people to pay more by bidding for a car license. Public […]
O GLOBO, FOLHA DE S. PAULO (Brazil) Worldcrunch CAMPINAS – A Brazilian transvestite has been arrested at Viracopos International Airport for allegedly trying to smuggle drugs he’d packed into an extra-large prosthetic posterior, reports Folha de S. Paulo. According to police in this southeastern Brazilian city, the suspect was due to embark on a Lisbon-bound […]
MOSCOW – With winter coming, and the end of this year’s bicycling season, it is worth looking at Russian cities’ relationship with two-wheel transportation. First of all, the number of people choosing to get around by bike has actually become noticeable. In response, Moscow’s city government has started to think seriously for the first time […]
MOSCOW – The traffic jams in Russia’s capital have become world-famous in the last several years, so bad that in 2010 the Federal Government decided to address the problem directly. At the time, then-President Dimitri Medvedev commissioned a plan for the development of Moscow’s transportation system through the year 2020 that aims to get Muscovites […]
DUTCH NEWS (Netherlands), BBC NEWS (UK), DER SPIEGEL (Germany) Worldcrunch Terminal C of Amsterdam’s Schipol airport in the Netherlands was closed on Wednesday after building work uncovered a suspected World War II unexploded bomb, barely a day after authorities in Germany had to detonate a war-era bomb in the heart of Munich. A bomb disposal […]
ULAN BATOR – Over the last decade, Mongols have rapidly begun to concentrate here in its capital, as well as other cities. This trend is accelerating and making Ulan Bator an unbearably crowded place, though still relatively small in comparison with most of China’s major cities. Nevertheless, the impact may be more drastic on a […]