Worldcrunch
SATKHIRA – In the district of Padmapukur, a few dozen kilometers from the Bay of Bengal, tin shacks balance delicately on scraps of land coming out of the sea, like makeshift boats lost in the middle of the ocean. Only children, women, old people and the severly handicapped still live in the homes scattered along […]
BUSINESS DAY LIVE, MAIL & GUARDIAN, NEWS 24 (South Africa), THE GUARDIAN (UK) REUTERS Worldcrunch PRETORIA – Oscar Pistorius released a statement to a packed courtroom Tuesday denying he murdered his girlfriend, saying he was “desperately trying to protect Reeva” from what he thought was an intruder in his home when he fatally shot her […]
ISTANBUL – The treasure of Troy is back. The collection of golden jewelry from the ancient city, which had been stolen during the 19th century, was handed back to Turkey by the University of Pennsylvania last September. The precious jewelry – known as the “Troy gold” – had been looted after the first excavations of […]
LATEST ON UKRAINE BEIRUT HIT BY DEADLY BLAST At least six people have died and over 100 were left injured after twin explosions hit South Beirut, near the Kuwaiti embassy and the Iranian Cultural Chancellery, Al Arabiya reports. The southern part of the Lebanese capital, a Hezbollah stronghold, has been the target of many attacks […]
DIE WELT (Germany), TIMES OF ISRAEL (Israel) Worldcrunch BERLIN – What does a German tourist do in Bali when his wallet gets stolen? He goes right away for help to the German consulate in Denpasar, the capital of the Indonesian island. But an Israeli in the same bind has a problem: Indonesia does not recognize […]
EL UNIVERSO, EL COMERCIO, LA HORA (Ecuador) Worldcrunch QUITO – Incumbent Rafael Correa has been reelected to a second term as President of Ecuador, handily defeating his opponents with more than 56% of the vote to avoid the need for a runoff. By early Monday, with more than 11 million ballots cast, the National Electoral […]
THAILAND PM TO BE CHARGEDThailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will be charged with neglect of duty, which could see her lose her post if found guilty, AFP quotes an anti-graft panel as saying. The country’s Anti-Corruption Commission accuses the PM of having ignored its warnings concerning a rice farm subsidy scheme that guaranteed farmers above-market […]
LA PRENSA, NEWS24 (Venezuela) Worldcrunch CARACAS– President Hugo Chavez tweeted early Monday that he is now back in Venezuela as Vice President Nicolas Maduro confirmed it to a local TV station at 2:30am local time, says News24. Chavez profusely thanked Raul and Fidel Castro, and all Cubans, for “so much love” during his time there. […]
BERLIN – Europeans are in a virtual state of paralysis about the future, frozen by a fear that – were they to turn away from Brussels – the result would be a rise of reactionary nationalism. Not surprisingly, these new chauvinisms are perfectly suited for some political agendas – on all sides of the ideological […]
ISLAMIST GROUP KILLS 106 IN NIGERIA Fighters with the Islamist group Boko Haram killed 106 people over the weekend in a small Christian village in northeastern Nigeria, bringing the death toll over the last few weeks close to 300, newspaper Punch reports. According to witnesses, the gunmen gathered a group of men and shot them […]
Worldcrunch The Venezuelan government has posted the first photographs of President Hugo Chavez since his cancer surgery more than two months ago in Cuba. In the images you can see Chavez lying down, surrounded by his two daughters, with signs of a tracheal breathing tube. (source: Venezuelan government) There has been much speculation about the […]
ANKARA – Huda lived in Mezza, a rich neighborhood of Damascus. Her husband, Sami, used to monitor the resistance movement for the regime from the Syrian capital. His daily reports weren’t supposed to harm anyone. His cooperation with the military and the police put food on the table. One day about a year ago, he […]
MUNICH – It’s all so simple in the 1998 Disney movie Mulan. The heroine disguised as a boy joins the Chinese military to fight the enemy – armies of shadowy, faceless Huns that darken the horizon. Classic good versus evil. Martin Münch says he knows who the bad guys are, and that he’s one of […]
BEELD, MAIL & GUARDIAN (Africa), THE GUARDIAN (UK), REUTERS, NEW YORK TIMES (US) Worldcrunch PRETORIA – A sobbing Oscar Pistorius appeared in court Friday, as the South African double-amputee Olympic runner was formally charged with the murder of his model girlfriend. Appearing in front of the central magistrate’s court this morning, Pistorius broke down in […]
AFP, EYE WITNESS NEWS, NEWS24 (South Africa), REUTERS Worldcrunch PRETORIA– Oscar Pistorius, the South African double amputee who broke barriers for the disabled by competing in the London Olympics, has been charged on suspicion of killing his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his home early Thursday. South African police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Katlego Mogale said: […]
DIE WELT (Germany) AL ARABIYA (U.A.E) Worldcrunch BERLIN – Call it the, “high-five heard “round the world.” The simple sporty gesture, exchanged between German Parliament Member Claudia Roth and Alireza Sheikhattar, the Iranian Ambassador to Germany, has set off a wave of controversy. Through a spokeswoman, Roth, co-chair of Germany’s Green Party, said she reacted […]
OVER 70 PEOPLE EXECUTED IN CONGOArmed groups executed more than 70 men and women in villages in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo between late January and early February, AFP quotes the UN mission MONUSCO as saying. According to the organization, most of the people were killed with machetes in a bid “to spread […]
PRISTINA – Before General Xavier Bout de Marnhac can walk up to the second floor of the Gagi restaurant in the center of Kosovo’s capital, his security escort must inspect the premises. This is standard procedure. The French general, whom we were meeting only a few hours before he was leaving Kosovo, is the outgoing […]
More than an Israeli or American air strike, or the economic effects of sanctions, the powers-that-be in Tehran face a deeper risk rising from within Iranian society.
HAARETZ, YNET (Israel), ABC (Australia), NYT (USA) Worldcrunch TEL-AVIV – Australian TV network ABC has uncovered evidence that strongly suggests that Israel“s mysterious “Prisoner X” was, in fact, an Australian citizen with ties to the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. The Prisoner X case is considered as one of the most sensitive secrets of Israel’s […]
DEADLY CLASHES IN VENEZUELAAt least three people were shot dead and more than 25 were injured in mass youth protests in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas yesterday, during which demonstrators denounced the government’s economic measures and the crackdown on the country’s media, newspaper El Universal reports. AFGHANISTAN RELEASES 65 ‘DANGEROUS’ PRISONERSAfghanistan released 65 prisoners accused […]
EL TIEMPO, EL UNIVERSAL, UNIVISION, EL COMBIANO, EL TIEMPO (Colombia), XINHUA (China) Worldcrunch BOGOTA – As peace talks continue in Cuba between FARC rebels and the Colombian government, and even though the rebels agreed to release three hostages, the past few days in Colombia have been anything but peaceful. This week a FARC bomb killed […]
LOS ANGELES TIMES, NEW YORK TIMES, CNN, AP (USA) Worldcrunch LOS ANGELES – After a seven-day manhunt that ended in a shootout and a forest standoff, renegade ex-LAPD officer Christopher J. Dorner was apparently killed in a cabin as it burned down around him. San Bernadino County sheriff’s spokeswoman told the AP that charred human […]
THE AUSTRALIAN, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, ABC NEWS (Australia) Worldcrunch CANBERRA – Australia’s lower house of Parliament unanimously passed a historic bill on Wednesday recognizing Aboriginals as the first inhabitants of Australia. Parliament voted in favor of an act of recognition which commits Australia to changing its Constitution to acknowledge indigenous Australians, reports the Australian. Prime […]
SYRIA: EVACUATIONS, SANCTIONS, ARCHEOLOGY THREE-DAY MOURNING AFTER PLANE CRASH IN ALGERIA Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika declared three days of mourning after yesterday’s plane crash in which at least 77 people died, website Algerie Focus reports. The crash appears to have been caused by bad weather. TWO CRACKS FOUND NEAR RADIOACTIVE WATER TANKS AT FUKUSHIMA Two […]
KCNA (North Korea), REUTERS Worldcrunch North Korea has confirmed it “successfully” conducted a third nuclear test at a northeastern underground test site, in defiance to UN Security Council’s orders to shut down its atomic activity. “It was confirmed that the nuclear test that was carried out at a high level in a safe and perfect […]
STUTTGART – The man who called himself Ryan Davis was playing a strange game. He moved in Neo-Nazi circles, and at the beginning of the new century he created a German chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in the city of Schwäbisch-Hall in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg. But for years he also provided […]
NIAMEY – The small restaurant sits on the corner of two sandy streets in Niger’s capital city, Niamey. It is here, at Le Toulousain, that two Frenchmen were kidnapped by AQIM (Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb) on Jan. 7, 2011. The two young hostages – an aid worker and his friend – were killed during […]
Worldcrunch 1. ARGENTINA “Benedict XVI resigns because of waning energy” – Clarin 2. CHINA “Pope announces resignation” – Apple Daily 3. USA New York Times 4. FRANCE “Pope resigns. Benedict XVI doesn’t have “enough energy” to lead the Church. He will be stepping down on Feb. 28.” – Libération 5. ITALY “Pope announces: I will […]
CHINA AND TAIWAN MEET FOR HISTORIC GOVERNMENT TALKS Representatives of the China and Taiwan governments met today in the Eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, the first face-to-face meeting of cross-strait officials since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, which saw the separation of the two states. While no official agenda was released […]
BBC NEWS (UK), TIMES OF INDIA, HINDUSTAN TIMES (India) Worldcrunch ALLAHABAD – At least 36 pilgrims on their way back from the world’s largest religious festival in northern India have died in a stampede late Sunday. The death toll may rise again, as dozens of other injured were in a critical condition after the stampede […]
SECOND ROUND OF SYRIAN PEACE TALKS BEGIN The Syrian government and opposition representatives are meeting in Geneva for the second round of peace negotiations, during which Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi is expected to meet separately with both delegations, AFP reports. The talks come as civilians from the besieged city of Homs were evacuated during […]
TOKYO – While he was Prime Minister of Japan from September 2009 to June 2010, Yukio Hatoyama did not demonstrate a particularly acute political vision. But when he visited Beijing recently, he showed common sense shared by many Japanese but seldom seen in their leaders – he admitted that there was a “territorial disagreement” between […]
LA REPUBBLICA (Italy) Worldcrunch NAPLES– They say if you want to enjoy Italian theater, just walk out the front door. That goes 20 times over in the endlessly colorful southern city of Naples. Just such teatro di strada is all here in this amateur video (below), as a man unsuccessfully tries a U-turn in a […]
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.
BBC, AP Worldcrunch BAGHDAD – A series of car bombings in Iraq on Friday have left at least two dozen dead and scores injured. The targets of the attacks, which included a double bombing at a market in northern Baghdad that killed as many as 14, appear to be Shia population, reports the BBC. Officials […]
President Kirchner lets loose on Twitter…
AL MONITOR, NEW YORK TIMES (U.S.), JERUSALEM POST (Israel), THE GLOBE AND MAIL (Canada) Worldcrunch SOFIA– The case of five Israeli tourists killed in a July bombing in Bulgaria is anything but closed. The Bulgarian government’s findings this week that the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was responsible for the bombing, which also killed the Bulgarian […]
FRANCE 24 (France), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), REUTERS Worldcrunch Tunisia’s ruling Islamic Ennahda party has rejected Prime Minister Hamdi Jebali’s proposal to dissolve the government in a bid to restore calm after the killing of opposition leader Chokri Belaid in Tunis. Hours after Wednesday morning’s assassination, which sent protesters onto the streets across Tunisia, Jebali had […]
SYRIA WILL ATTEND 2ND ROUND OF GENEVA 2Syrian state television announced that the government will participate in the second round of the Geneva 2 peace conference, due to start Feb. 10, quoting Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad. The announcement came as a first group of 200 civilians is about to be evacuated from the city […]