NBC NEWS (USA) Worldcrunch ISTANBUL – NBC News’ chief correspondent Richard Engel and members of his production team were freed from captors in Syria after a firefight at a checkpoint on Monday, NBC News said early Tuesday. “After being kidnapped and held for five days inside Syria by an unknown group, NBC News Chief Foreign […]
Category: Geopolitics
Exclusive investigation: The terror network in Syria includes dozens of European members, and wants to get its hands on Assad’s stockpile of chemical weapons.
KOMMERSANT (Russia), REUTERS MOSCOW – The crackdowns against Kremlin opponents continue. Just this past weekend, police detained four opposition leaders and tried to ban a rally demanding an end to Vladimir Putin’s rule, Reuters reports. Still, last week, a decision that got much less attention could take Russia one important step toward a more open, […]
GUNFIRE CONTINUES IN SOUTH SUDAN Heavy gunfire continued last night and this morning in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, one day after President Salva Kiir announced he had defeated an attempted coup by military members loyal to one of his rivals, AFP reports. According to government officials, 26 people have died and another 140 have been […]
AL JAZEERA (Qatar), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch KABUL – At least 10 young girls have been killed and two others injured in a landmine explosion in eastern Afghanistan, officials say. The explosion occurred Monday morning in the Charparhar district, in the eastern province of Nangarhar, reports Al Jazeera. The girls were collecting firewood outside the […]
MOSCOW – When Vladimir Putin took office as President for the third time, he sent the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a document outlining the philosophy that would guide his approach to international relations for the next five years. Only recently released, the document is very revealing, showing that Putin’s worldview, and his idea about Russia’s […]
DAILY YOMUIRI, JAPAN TIMES, ASAHI SHIMBUN, (Japan) SKY NEWS (UK), WALL STREET JOURNAL (USA) Worldcrunch TOKYO– After three years in the opposition, the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) crushed the left-wing Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in this Sunday’s House of Representatives election, reports the Daily Yomiuri. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda suffered a harsh defeat […]
As he did last year, Charles Landow draws highlights from a range of democracy and development indexes for this year-end edition of Missing Pieces. The UN Human Development Index and the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Index of Democracy are not included this time because they were not published in 2012. Enjoy the reading and the holiday […]
KIRKUK – Fifty kilometers out of Kirkuk, an oil city in Northern Iraq, the main road from Baghdad is already lined with tanks, artillery, Humvees and patrolling soldiers. Life has returned to the military barracks and checkpoints from the Saddam Hussein era that locals had thought were left behind for good. Tents have also been […]
PARIS – World leaders expressed their shock and condolences to U.S. President Barack Obama and the victims of Friday’s mass school shooting in Connecticut that left 27 people dead, including 20 children… AUSTRALIAPrime Minister Julia Gillard: “We share America’s shock at this senseless and incomprehensible act of evil.” U.K.Prime Minister David Cameron: “I was shocked […]
So far Benedict XVI’s new @Pontifex on Twitter has avoided controversial topics.
GOMA – Following the withdrawal of the M23 rebel troops that for 12 days occupied the eastern city of Goma, locals remain cautious and fearful, despite reassurances from government authorities. Meanwhile, those who had supported the M23 are keeping a low profile. The M23 rebels took control of Goma, the capital of the North Kivu […]
Russia worries the Patriot missiles set to be deployed by the West to the Turkish-Syrian border could actually be moved to any part of Turkey.
XINHUA (China), AL JAZEERA (Qatar) Worldcrunch CHENGPING – Twenty-two school children and a villager were injured in a knife attack at the outside a primary school in central China’s Henan Province Friday morning, reports Xinhua. A police officer said the attack occured in the village of Chengping in the province of Henan, shortly before 8 […]
CAIRO – On December 5, violent clashes raged for hours between supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi, after the latter attacked a sit-in outside the presidential palace by protesters rejecting the constitutional declaration and a snap referendum. A total of 49 people were captured, beaten and kept overnight in makeshift holding cells as their […]
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Soccer Night Of Shame In Brazil
GLOBO ESPORTE, FOLHA DE S.P. (Brazil), FOX SPORTS, THE WASHINGTON POST (USA) SAO PAULO – With less than two years before the kick-off of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, things are not looking good for Brazilian soccer. Local team Sao Paulo FC were crowned the winners of the Copa Sudamericana final Wednesday, after Argentinan […]
BERLIN – Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s former Prime Minister who harbors ambitions to return to his old job, has had a year to adjust reality to his private world view. And now he’s letting fellow Italians and Europeans know how he thinks. The widening of the Italo-German government bond “spread” shortly before his government fell last […]
NHK, ASAHI SHIMBUN (Japan), XINHUA (China) Worldcrunch The Japanese government accused China of violating its airspace Thursday morning, after Chinese maritime surveillance planes flew near the islands disputed by the two powers. China’s Xinhua news agency confirms that Chinese planes were sent to patrol the territorial waters surrounding the disputed Diaoyu Islands (Senkaku in Japanese) […]
THE CANBERRA TIMES (Australia) Worldcrunch CANBERRA – Though still holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has declared his intention to run for the Senate in his native Australia, and to launch a WikiLeaks party early next year, reports the Canberra Times. Photo – Mataparda/espenmoe In an exclusive interview with […]
AL AHRAM, MASRAWY (Egypt) Worldcrunch CAIRO – The very first Egyptians, those residing abroad, began casting their ballots Wednesday to say “yes” or “no” for the country’s new Constitution. They will have until Saturday to either send their voting card by post or present themselves in the voting bureaus in voting offices in their respective […]
Worldcrunch VATICAN CITY – It’s been a long time coming, but Pope Benedict XVI has finally graced the world with his first few tweets. Two weeks after establishing his Twitter handle, @Pontifex (Latin for “Pope”) in eight different languages, he finally sent out some 140-character blessings Wednesday morning : Dear friends, I am pleased to […]
UKRAINE “WANTS TO SIGN EU DEAL,” ASHTON SAYS SYRIAN OPPOSITION LEADER FORCED OUT BY ISLAMISTS ACCIDENTAL EXPLOSION NEAR U.S. EMBASSY IN KABUL A powerful explosion that hit an arms depot near the U.S. embassy in Kabul early this morning was apparently accidental, alleviating fears of an attack, Reuters reports. According to Afghan officials, nobody was […]
ABC NEWS, CNN (USA), BBC NEWS (UK), Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama has recognized the leading Syrian opposition coalition as the legitimate representative of the country’s people. “We’ve made a decision that the Syrian Opposition Coalition is now inclusive enough, is reflective and representative enough of the Syrian population that we consider them […]
KCNA (North Korea), THE KOREA HERALD (South Korea), NHK (Japan) Worldcrunch North Korea’s state-run news agency has announced the country has successfully put a satellite into orbit Wednesday. Pyongyang says the three-stage, long-range rocket was successfully launched off the west coast of North Korea Wednesday morning, after its previous attempts failed earlier this year. “The […]
AL AHRAM (Egypt), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch CAIRO – As the calm reigns over Tahrir square, cyber activists are multiplying their calls for Tuesday’s protests that will start at 4 P.M. in Cairo and later in other cities, according to tweets under the hashtag #Tuesday’s_mobilization. Protesters in front of the presidential palace. Photo Gigi Ibrahim Al […]
SOWETAN, THE MAIL & GUARDIAN (South Africa) Worldcrunch South Africa’s former president and national hero Nelson Mandela is being treated for a lung infection. After much speculation, South African officials finally revealed Tuesday why Nelson Mandela, aged 94, was initially admitted to hospital in the nation’s capital Pretoria on Saturday. President Jacob Zuma’s office released […]
REUTERS, BBC NEWS (UK), WALL STREET JOURNAL (USA) Worldcrunch BAMAKO – Mali“s Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra announced his resignation on Tuesday, hours after being arrested by soldiers while trying to leave for France, reports Reuters. Diarra addressed the nation on national television saying: “Our country is living through a period of crisis. Men and […]
PARIS – Everyone was expecting Mahmoud Abbas. Serious rumors claimed that, given his success at the UN, the president of the Palestinian Authority would head for Gaza, where he hasn’t set foot since 2007, when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a coup. In the end, the surprise came from Khaled Meshaal, Hamas’s exiled […]
BUENOS AIRES – When Nicolás Maduro was named president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, in January of 2006, Cilia Flores – his “life partner” – hung amulets above all the doors. “They are to ward off the bad vibes,” Flores said in an interview. She was right to worry. Maduro’s gradual rise within the governing […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch BERLIN – A forensic analysis of the psychiatric and psychological profiles of 78 German Catholic priests accused of child abuse between 2000 and 2010 shows that only nine were pedophiles. Four showed homosexual tendencies towards adolescent boys. Of the remaining 65, 54% were heterosexuals, 37% were homosexual, and nine were bisexual. […]
BBC MUNDO (UK), EL NACIONAL, EL UNIVERSAL (Venezuela) Worldcrunch CARACAS– On Monday, the Venezuelan Minister for Communication and Information, Ernesto Villegas, tweeted that Hugo Chávez has returned to Cuba for a new operation for his cancer according to Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional. BBC Mundo reports that despite a year and a half of treatment that […]
MANDELA MEMORIAL TODAY • Mourners gathered for former South African leader Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in rainy Soweto today. • In his remarks at the memorial, President Barack Obama characterized Mandela as “a giant of history, who moved a nation toward justice, and in the process moved billions around the world.” • Notably, and in […]
MASRAWY (Egypt), AL JAZEERA (Qatar) Worldcrunch CAIRO – Attempting to tame the wave of rage that erupted last week in the capital, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi continued his weekend maneuvering into the early hours of Monday morning, imposing and quickly rescinding a new consumption tax. On Saturday, Morsi announced he would annul the constitutional declaration […]
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW, NINE NETWORK (Australia) Worldcrunch SYDNEY – The two Australian radio DJs who conducted the controversial prank call to the hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge was staying, have broken their silence for the first time since the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha on Friday. Radio DJs Mel Greig and […]
CAIRO – After clashes one night this week near the presidential palace, I went to a mosque near the palace. I knew it would be open, as it was time for the dawn prayer. I immediately recognized people from the Muslim Brotherhood, especially when I saw my neighbor from our town on the outskirts of […]
ROME – For a foreigner who doesn’t understand the Byzantinism of Italian politics, it will seem paradoxical: as of yesterday, the majority that has kept Mario Monti’s government in place is suddenly hanging by a thread, even as the main economic packages were approved by the legislature. And now, elections could be right around the […]
AL JAZEERA (Qatar), BBC NEWS (UK), CNN (USA) Worldcrunch GAZA CITY – Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal set foot in Gaza on Friday, ending 45 years of exile from the Palestinian Territories, reports Al Jazeera. After passing across the Egyptian border at Rafah, Meshaal knelt on the ground to offer a prayer of thanks and was […]
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Israel And Germany, It’s Complicated
BERLIN – Benjamin Netanyahu tried to be a polite guest. That’s why, when he visited the Federal Chancellery, he was careful to play down his disappointment with Angela Merkel. But the Israeli Prime Minister only made it worse. He said: “I think Chancellor Merkel was of the opinion that this vote would in some way […]
ASSABAH (Tunisia), FRANCE 24-ARABE (France), Worldcrunch TUNIS – With protests mounting against the Islamist-led government, Tunisia’s leading labor union called Friday for the first general strike since the fall of the Ben Ali regime nearly two years ago. Slated for Dec. 13 in the capital of Tunis, Sfax and other major cities, the strike has […]
JAPAN TIMES, NHK (Japan), CNN (USA), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch TOKYO – A powerful earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Japan on Friday evening, triggering a tsunami, reports CNN. The epicentre of the 7.3 magnitude quake was about 245km (150 miles) south-east of Kamiashi at a depth of about 36 kilometers. There have been […]