Across the border from Mali, the former French colony of Mauritania is prime territory for Islamist leaders, as poverty and radical preachers lay the groundwork for Jihad.
Category: Geopolitics
RUSSIAN PRIME MINISTER VISITS CRIMEAIn the highest-level visit from Moscow since Crimea joined the Russian Federation, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev arrived in the region this morning, Ria Novosti reports. He announced that pensions and wages for public workers would be increased and that all residents would benefit from health insurance. Medvedev also explained that […]
MOSCOW – Since February, Russian authorities have been investigating all of the NGOs operating in the country in an attempt to root out any organizations with foreign ties or foreign funding sources. The entire operation risks further alienating Moscow from Europe – particularly from Germany, after Russian authorities cracked down on two German NGOs operating […]
Thousands of young Tunisians who tried to emigrate to Europe after the Arab Spring have disappeared. Their families are desperate to know what happened to them.
KOREA TIMES, YONHAP (South Korea), KCNA, (North Korea), AP, U.S. Military (USA) Worldcrunch SEOUL – Thousands of North Korean students and soldiers turned out for a rally in Pyongyang on Friday to support their leader’s call to arms, adding fuel to rising nuclear-charged tensions with South Korea and the United States, reports the AP. The […]
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…
The South African paralympian, accused of killing his girlfriend, has no immediate plans to travel abroad, his lawyer says.
AFP; MAIL & GUARDIAN, NEWS24 (South Africa); SOWETAN LIVE (Soweto) Worldcrunch JOHANNESBURG – Former South African President Nelson Mandela has been admitted to hospital with a recurrent lung infection. The news was confirmed by current President Jacob Zuma’s office on Thursday morning, according to Cape Town’s News24. Mandela in 2008. Photo by South Africa The […]
UKRAINE’S RIGHT SECTOR FACING BAN Ukraine’s ultranationalist Right Sector group could be banned after 2,000 of its members encircled and threatened to storm the Parliament in Kiev, a source from former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s party told news agency Ria Novosti. The group has increased pressure on Acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov following the death […]
L’EXPRESS, FRANCE 24 (France), BLOOMBERG, REUTERS Worldcrunch PARIS – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met his French counterpart on Wednesday for talks about aid to the Syrian opposition and the situation in Mali, where the United Nations has just recommended a force of UN 11,200 peacekeeping troops. Kerry held breakfast talks in Paris with […]
-Essay- RABAT – A year ago, Tuareg rebels from the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) decided to launch an attack to take back the territory of Azawad in northern Mali that they claim as their native land. They managed to chase Mali military troops from their land, but weren’t able to gain the upper hand […]
IMF AGREES ON LOAN TO UKRAINE The International Monetary Fund announced this morning that it will loan between $14 billion and $18 billion to Ukraine over the next two years. With loans from other partners, the program is expected to free up a total $27 billion for the embattled country. This comes after yesterday’s announcement […]
KIEV CRACKDOWN ON FAR RIGHT Ukrainian police launched a wave of arrests against the far-right nationalist group Right Sector, after members threatened to avenge the death of their leader yesterday, The Moscow Timesreports. According to The Washington Post, a senior member of the group described it as a “counterrevolutionary activity” that they cannot accept. An […]
KIWANJA – On a recent weekday morning, time seemed to be standing still in this town in eastern Congo. A strange atmosphere reigns, with most of the shops and stalls closed and the town’s schools empty. “Bullets can start flying at any time, so we let our students out early,” says a teacher in Kiwanja […]
KCNA (North Korea), THE KOREA TIMES (South Korea), AFP, REUTERS Worldcrunch North Korea announced on Tuesday that it had put its artillery and rocket units into “combat posture,” and threatened to attack South Korea and U.S. bases in Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. mainland. The Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army released a statement […]
ADKRONOS, AGI, CORRIERE DELLA SERA, LA REPUBBLICA, LA STAMPA (Italy), AP Worldcrunch ROME – Italy’s highest court has overturned the acquittal of American exchange student Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the 2007 murder of Knox’s roommate Meredith Kercher. La Repubblica reports that the judges in Italy’s Court of Cassation ruled Tuesday […]
The two world powers and BRICS nations enjoy friendly relations, and both have an interest in expanding economic and political links. Still, there is another big player always looming.
Mexico’s New President Peña Nieto’s has pushed through a sweeping reform of the telecoms and TV sector, which could undo the monopoly that turned Carlos Slim into the world’s richest man.
UKRAINE AND RUSSIA OFFICIALS MEET Ukraine’s Acting Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Deshchytsia met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of a nuclear meeting in The Hague, Netherlands, Itar-Tass reports. This is the first bilateral meeting between Ukrainian and Russian officials in recent weeks, and a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said this was […]
EL PAIS (Spain), DIE WELT (Germany), BBC MUNDO Worldcrunch MADRID – After publishing a column comparing German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Adolf Hitler, Spanish daily El Pais has now retracted the piece and apologized following an outcry from Germany and elsewhere in Europe. In the column titled “Germany Against Europe”, economist Juan Torres Lopez wrote: […]
RFI, FRANCE 24 (France), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), AAP (Australia), MAIL&GUARDIAN (South Africa) Worldcrunch BANGUI – After rebels in the Central African Republic ousted President François Bozize, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared Monday that he was “deeply concerned by reports of violations of human rights.” Michel Djotodia, the leader of the Seleka rebels, declared himself president […]
RUSSIAN TROOPS TAKE OVER CRIMEAN NAVAL BASE Russian troops and members of pro-Russian self-defense groups raided and took over a Ukrainian Naval base in Crimea, the third in the last 48 hours, The Kyiv Post reports. After the early morning raid, acting President Olexandr Turchynov said the Ukrainian military units in Crimea had been ordered […]
After jailed rebel leader Ocalan’s call for Kurds to lay down their arms, a closer inspection of his words show real signs of hope to end three decades of bloodshed.
TWITTER Worldcrunch From Friday to Saturday morning, police forces from around the world joined together on social networking site Twitter for a 24 hour tweet-a-thon. The hashtag #poltwt showed tweets about police work, policing issues and perps gone awry from every corner of the globe. Anyone could join the virtual ride-along to see what a […]
With the announcement this week of a historic ceasefire from jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, a look at the feminist side of the Kurdish fight for greater autonomy.
FRANCE 24, LE MONDE, BBC, REUTERS Worldcrunch PARIS –Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been placed under formal investigation over claims his 2007 campaign was funded by “exploiting the weakness” of elderly Liliane Bettencourt, the L’Oréal heiress and France’s richest woman. Le Monde reports that Sarkozy’s supporters in the current center-right opposition called the decision […]
AFP, BBC, IRRAWADDY (Burma), REUTERS Worldcrunch MEIKTILA– Burmese sectarian violence has turned deadly, as angry mobs rioted in the streets and at least five people have been reported killed in the central city of Meiktila. The BBC cites a death toll of 20 by Friday morning, though the Myanmar government has only confirmed five fatalities […]
AL-JAZEERA, HURRIYET, TODAYS ZAMAN (Turkey) Worldcrunch ISTANBUL – Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan has called upon the armed PKK forces to recognize a ceasefire and withdraw from Turkey, reports Hürriyet. In what may turn out to be a historic announcement in the nearly three-decade-long conflict between Kurdish separatists and the Turkish government, Ocalan’s written […]
HAARETZ (Israel), WAFA (Palestine), REUTERS, AP Worldcrunch RAMALLAH – Barack Obama arrived Thursday in Ramallah in the West Bank to meet with Palestinian leaders, on the second day of his visit to the Middle East. The U.S. President met with President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah’s presidential headquarters to emphasize the […]
UKRAINE TO WITHDRAW TROOPS IN CRIMEAThe Ukrainian government announced plans to withdraw its troops from Crimea and relocate 25,000 service personnel and their families. This comes after pro-Russian self-defense groups and Russian troops forced them to leave more military bases yesterday, The Washington Post reports. The announcement seems to contradict a Parliament resolution adopted this […]
YNET, TIMES OF ISRAEL, CHANNEL 2 TV (Israel) Worldcrunch JERUSALEM – Barack Obama landed in Israel on Wednesday for his first trip as U.S. president. He was greeted at Ben Gurion Airport by President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the Times of Israel, President Peres welcomed Obama “with open arms,” saying: […]
PRO-RUSSIAN MILITANTS STORM UKRAINIAN NAVY BASE A group of Crimea’s pro-Russian self-defense militants stormed the headquarters of the Ukrainian navy in Sevastopol, one day after Russia declared the peninsula part of its federation. According to AP, Ukrainian servicemen offered no resistance and calmly left the building. NO SIGN MISSING PLANE ENTERED CHINA China hasn’t found […]
REUTERS, BBC NEWS Worldcrunch BAGHDAD – A spate of car bombs and shootings killed at least 56 people and wounded more than 200 in Baghdad, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein. Reuters reports that several car bombs hit Shi’ite districts of Baghdad on Tuesday […]
CRIMEA OFFICIALLY PART OF RUSSIA Russian President Vladimir Putin officially asked the Russian Parliament for Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to become new members of the Russian Federation and introduced a bill that he urged them to sign following his address. CHINA BEGINS LAND SEARCHES FOR PLANE China has begun land searches for Malaysian […]
AFP, FRANCE 24 (France) Worldcrunch KARACHI – Pakistani security officials said Monday they have arrested a former senior leader of a banned militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) who was allegedly involved in the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, AFP reported. Qari Abdul Hayee, popularly known as Asadullah and from Karachi’s eastern Gulshan-e-Iqbal neighborhood, was […]
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Asmaa, The Last Free Woman Of Gaza
GAZA – They have almost all left: Bachar for Sweden, May for Spain, Imad for Tunisia, Mohamed for Qatar, Assad for Egypt, Adham for Belgium. Moustapha, Asmaa’s brother also left for Belgium, while Mohamed Matar, aka Abou Yazan, the leader of the short-lived March 15 Movement, that tried to bring the Arab Spring to Gaza, […]
THE CRIMEAN MANDATE Crimeans voted overwhelmingly yesterday to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. With a turnout of 83%, the measure won support from 96.77% of voters. MALAYSIA PLANE’S COMMUNICATION SYSTEM DISABLED MANUALLY The co-pilot of missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 issued his last message to air traffic control after part of the […]
Why has Washington stayed so quiet about South Korean allegations of secret North Korean bank accounts?
ALEPPO – For nearly three months, a rumor has been spreading through Aleppo: whoever faces hardship, however small, can go to a hearing of the “Committee for the promotion of good deeds and support of the oppressed.” There, in this northern neighborhood of the country’s largest city, members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) are […]