Worldcrunch
-Essay- When I receive an invitation to brunch or afternoon tea, before committing myself I always ask the hosts if any parents are going to be there with their children. If the answer is yes, I thank them for inviting me, say I’m otherwise engaged – and stay home. I know how things are going […]
BARCELONA – Making headway through the streets of Barcelona, closed to traffic for the occasion, seemed almost impossible. A crowd of children, students, retired people, business owners, and the unemployed coming from every part of Catalonia had joined together to wave yellow-and-red flags and voice their support for the creation of an independent state for […]
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, […]
CNN (USA), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch KABUL – Up to 12 people are reported to have been killed in a suicide bomb attack, which struck a bus near the Afghan capital, report BBC News. A 22-year-woman is believed to have driven a car filled with 300 kg of explosives into a mini […]
MOSCOW – Just this past August, there have been three attacks on Muslims in a small region of Dagestan – two attacks on Imams and one attack on a Shiite mosque. The attack on the mosque was the first attack on Shiites in the Northern Caucasus. It appears that the fight between Sunnis and Shiites, […]
BENGHAZI – At noon, the poster with the Kalashnikov is still hanging under the veranda: “People of Benghazi, return your weapons to Freedom Square from ten in the morning until seven in the evening.” The Minister of the Interior has asked. The Defense Ministry has asked. The Religious Affairs Ministry has asked. There was even […]
NHK, KYODO, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN, THE DAILY YOMIURI (Japan), CHINA DAILY, XINHUA (China), THE STANDARD (Hong Kong), THE GLOBE AND MAIL (Canada) Worldcrunch Around 1,000 Chinese fishing boats are expected to arrive in waters near the Senkaku Islands claimed by China later Monday, reports Kyodo news, in what may be Beijing’s additional countermeasures over Japan’s […]
BBC NEWS (UK), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), LE MONDE (France), THE AUSTRALIAN, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia) Worldcrunch BEIRUT – Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, has called for new protests over the controversial anti-Islam film which has sparked furor in the Muslim world. The religious and political leader called the […]
GEO NEWS (Pakistan), DAINIK BHASKAR (India), AP Worldcrunch Pakistan’s military successfully test fired a missile Monday that is capable of carrying nuclear warheads and has a range of 700km, reports Geo News. A statement from the Inter Services Public Relations announced: “The test consolidates and strengthens Pakistan’s deterrence capability and national security.” The statement described […]
CAIRO – At this very moment, Americans are piling into movie theaters, cheering through their popcorn at the notion of the Islamic prophet as a goat-romancing child molester, and sending “The Innocence of Muslims” to the top of the box office charts. This evil must be stopped at all costs, or at least, “before the […]
LIBERTY TIMES, UNITED DAILY NEWS (Taiwan), BBC Worldcrunch BEIJING– Some 20,000 irate Chinese protesters besieged the Japanese embassy in Beijing on Saturday, venting their anger over the Diaoyu Islands dispute that has created the most combustible conflict between the two Asian powers in memory. The demonstrators climbed trees, burned the Japanese flag, shouted that the […]
ECONOMIC OBSERVER, CHINA.ORG.CN (China) Worldcrunch BEIJING – Last week, Beijing authorities announced that 600,000 temporary residents had left the capital, bringing the total of the city’s migrant population down to 8,258,000 people, reports the Economic Observer. For the past decade, the non-resident population has gone up by nearly 400,000 people each year. In 2007, Beijing’s […]
AL JAZEERA (Qatar), REUTERS, BBC (UK), SANA (Syria) Worldcrunch Anger against the West is spreading throughout the Muslim world as further reports of attacks on the UK, German and US embassies develop Friday afternoon. Following Pope Benedict XVI’s arrival Friday for a three-day trip to Lebanon, anti-Western protests amassed in the country’s second-largest city Tripoli. […]
KOMMERSANT, BBC RUSSIA (Russia)

 Worldcrunch MOSCOW – The Russian Supreme Court has ruled that Gay Pride parades are not “homosexual propaganda,” Kommersant reports. Gay and Lesbian activists in Russia had turned to the courts after the Duma passed a law banning all “propaganda,” promoting same-sex relationships, with wording so broad that it could have outlawed […]
VATICAN CITY – Three years ago, on the eve of Pope Benedict XVI’s departure for the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, it was the murder of Luigi Padovese, the vicar apostolic of Turkey, which loomed over the trip. This time it is the killing of four U.S. diplomats in Benghazi and the uprising across the region […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch Predicting earthquakes, floods, droughts and other assorted disasters is hardly an exact science. Still, as the just published 2012 WorldRiskReport notes, just how badly natural catastrophes hit comes down to how well prepared is the country’s government to respond. In a risk index that includes 173 countries, experts of the Bonn-based […]
BBC, REUTERS (UK), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), CNN (US) Protestors enraged by an anti-Islam film have stormed the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, following similar rounds of violence in Libya and Egypt that had left four American diplomats dead in the Libyan city of Benghazi. The BBC reported Thursday morning that protesters have stormed the embassy’s security […]
DE TELEGRAAF (The Netherlands), BBC NEWS, THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch AMSTERDAM – Two Dutch centrist parties have secured an absolute parliamentary majority between them in Wednesday’s elections, reports The Guardian. VVD, the party of liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte, claimed victory with 41 seats, two more than center-left rivals Labor, which won 39. According to […]
BEIRUT – Sheikh Hani Fahs lives by the old route to the airport, near the entrance of Beirut’s Dahieh (“southern suburb”). This a Hezbollah stronghold. The Lebanese cleric has had a ringside seat over this main axis, which has often been blocked by angry demonstrators these past few months. Down the street, walls are covered […]
KOMMERSANT (Russia)


 Worldcrunch MOSCOW – There is a widely held misconception in Russia and abroad that Russian parents want their children to emigrate, hoping they will be able to find a better place to settle down outside of Russia. But it turns out, according to a recent survey, only 12% of parents would be happy […]
AL JAZEERA (Qatar), EGYPT INDEPENDENT (Egypt), ABC (US), SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia), AFP (France) Worldcrunch BENGHAZI – The US Ambassador to Libya and three other staff members were killed following an attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi amid protests against an American amateur film denouncing the Prophet Muhammad. Al Jazeera reported that US Ambassador […]
DAWN (Pakistan), TIMES OF INDIA (India), AL JAZEERA (Qatar) Worldcrunch KARACHI – At least 191 people were killed in two separate factory fires in the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Lahore. Officials said Wednesday that 166 people where killed after a fire broke out in a factory in the coastal megalopolis of Karachi, and dozens […]
ASAHI SHIMBUN, JAPAN TIMES (Japan), CHINA DAILY, XINHUA (China), ASSOCIATED PRESS Worldcrunch The Japanese government signed a 2.05 billion yen (26 million) contract Tuesday with the owner of three of the five Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, effectively nationalizing the territory and immediately drawing a strong protest from Beijing, which sent surveillance ships […]
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, RADIO AUSTRALIA (Australia), CNN, WALL STREET JOURNAL (USA), REUTERS Worldcrunch BEIJING – Xi Jinping, the 58-year-old Chinese Vice President, widely expected to be the next leader of the People’s Republic of China, has not been seen in public since September 1. Several meetings planned with foreign leaders have been canceled, reports Reuters […]
Maged, a young officer who’s defected from the Syrian police, says his countrymen often never even knew each others’ religious and tribal backgrounds. “We used to live in peace,” he says, recalling life before the past year of violence. “But the regime has managed to breed sectarianism in people.” Syria has not yet turned into […]
NTV, DAILY HURRIYET (Turkey), CNBC (USA) ISTANBUL – One police officer has died in Istanbul’s Sultangazi district, after a suicide bomber threw a grenade into a police station in the area, Turkish news channel NTV reported. Up to five people were injured and taken to hospital in critical condition, according to Daily Hurriyet. “First (the […]
NEW YORK TIMES (USA) Worldcrunch NEW YORK – Eleven years after 9/11, a writer with unprecedented access to pertinent classified documents says the Bush Administration ignored multiple “direct warnings” that Al Qaeda was planning to strike on American soil leading up to the Sep. 11, 2001 attack. In a piece published in the Op-Ed pages […]
TIMES OF INDIA (India), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch NEW DEHLI – At least 28 people were killed after a bus plunged off a highway Monday night in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, reports BBC. The bus fell into a 500-foot-deep gorge in the Kangra valley, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the state […]
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST (Hong Kong), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch HONG KONG – Hong Kong’s pan-democracy wing has failed to capitalize on the growing anti-Chinese sentiment, after a disappointing outcome in the legislative council elections. Albert Ho, the leader of Hong Kong“s biggest pro-democracy party has announced he will step down as chairman after his party […]
HAARETZ, THE JERUSALEM POST (Israel) Worldcrunch JERUSALEM – Three Palestinians were wounded early Monday in three successive Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip in response to a rocket attack launched toward southern Israel from the Palestinian enclave, reports Haaretz. Israeli Air Force helicopters and F-16s were heard around midnight over the Gaza Strip, followed by […]
SKY NEWS, DAILY MAIL, BBC, THE GUARDIAN (UK), LE FIGARO, LE POINT (France) Worldcrunch Police have cordoned off two roads outside the home of a British family found shot dead in the French Alps, and residents have been evacuated from the immediate area, reports Sky News. Sky reporter Ashish Joshi, outside the al-Hilli house in […]
US spy chief Patraeus makes low-profile visits to Ankara and Jerusalem, aiming to repair damage between two key U.S. allies.
LE NOUVELLISTE, LE MATIN (Haiti), MIAMI HERALD (US) Worldcrunch Bulldozers have started tearing down Haiti’s National Palace. Once a symbol of national pride, its crumbling façade has become a constant reminder of the devastating earthquake that hit the country in 2010. However, as the Palace demolition began on Thursday, the Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste criticized […]
EL MUNDO, EL UNIVERSAL (Venezuala) LA NACION (Argentina) Worldcrunch CARACAS – Hugo Chavez is not known for mincing words. But recently, the Venezuelan President has unleashed highly personal attacks against Henrique Capriles Radonski, his opponent in Chavez’s reelection campaign, including some with anti-Semitic undertones. Last week, he called Capriles Radonski ‘jalabola’ and ‘majunche,’ rude terms […]
MERCO PRESS (Uruguay), TELESUR (Venezuela), BBC (UK), AP, REUTERS Worldcrunch Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos rejected a proposal by FARC rebels for a bilateral ceasefire during talks next month aimed at bringing an end to half a century of war, reports MercoPress. The call for both sides to put down their weapons while talks are […]
CHINA DAILY, XINHUA (China), BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch BEIJING – A series of earthquakes in southwestern China on Friday killed at least 24 people and injured 150 more, reports BBC News. Chinese state media Xinhua said the 5.7 magnitude quake struck the border of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, with its epicenter located in the Yiliang […]
MOSCOW – Russia’s federal government, which has instituted its own new public order decrees, is starting to be concerned that the outer regions of the country are cracking down on civil society protests a little too enthusiastically. Regional leaders took part in a meeting last month of vice-governors with the presidential administration to discuss laws […]
HÜRRIYET, HABER 7 (Turkey) Worldcrunch At least 25 Turkish soldiers were confirmed dead Thursday, after a military depot exploded in the western province of Afyonkarahisar. Terrorism has been ruled out as a cause of the blast, which also left at least eight injured. Veysel Eroglu, the Minister of Forestry and Water, says the explosion Wednesday […]
THE GUARDIAN, THE MIRROR (UK), LE MESSAGER (France) Worldcrunch French police were still searching Thursday morning both for the gunman and the possible motive of a grisly shooting in a quiet village in the French Alps, which left four British tourists dead. The British tabloids Thursday were dominated by reports of the shooting spree, which […]
BEIJING – Every time that German Chancellor Angela Merkel makes a trip to China, she always goes home with a large chunk of investment. Her just concluded visit was no exception. In addition to more than 10 cooperation agreements in areas such as aerospace and the automotive industries, Merkel has also obtained a commitment from […]