NHK, ASAHI SHIMBUN (Japan), CHINA DAILY (China) Worldcrunch TOKYO – Japan announced on Friday that it will send back the 14 Chinese activists who were arrested after landing on a disputed island, in an attempt to defuse the diplomatic feud between the two countries. The activists were arrested on August 15 after sailing from Hong […]
Category: Geopolitics
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South African Mine Clash Kills 35
MAIL & GUARDIAN, SABC (South Africa), BBC NEWS (UK), CNN (USA) Worldcrunch JOHANNESBURG– Thirty-five people were killed Thursday in a shooting between police and miners in Marikana, northwest of Johannesburg, reports the South African Broadcasting Corporation. Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa, confirmed this figure, bringing the death toll to 45 since the strike started at […]
KOMMERSANT (Russia), KOMMERSANT UKRAINE, ROSBALT (Ukraine) Worldcrunch ODESSA – The second of two men accused of planning a plot against Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadirov, Ilya Pyanzin, filed an appeal on Thursday with the local appeals to court in an attempt to fight extradition to Russia. Adam Osmaev, the man Pyanzin […]
OUTLOOK, TIMES OF INDIA, INDIAN EXPRESS, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES (India) Worldcrunch BANGALORE – Thousands of people from India’s northeastern states have fled the southern city of Bangalore amid fears that they will be targeted in attacks. On Thursday the situation at the Bangalore railway station was chaotic, says the Times of India, as thousands of […]
BEIJING – From the Huangyan Island, known also as the Scarborough Shoal, to the Diaoyu Islands, the Chinese territorial waters have been anything but calm. And inevitably, the shadow of the United States has been present behind all this. These so-called island disputes are actually a game between two great powers. After a period of […]
NEW YORK TIMES, CNN (USA), THE TELEGRAPH (UK), AL JAZEERA (Qatar) Worldcrunch ISLAMABAD – At least nine men, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, stormed an air force base in the early hours of Thursday in Kamra, about 80 kilometres northwest of Islamabad, reports Al Jazeera. According to a military spokesperson, the eight attackers […]
AFP (France), THE NEW YORK TIMES, BLOOMBERG NEWS (U.S.), AL JAZEERA (Qatar) Worldcrunch LEBANON – Persian Gulf states urged their citizens to leave Lebanon on Thursday after more than 30 members of the Syrian opposition movement were abducted by a Lebanese Muslim Shiite clan, in retaliation for the kidnapping of one of its members in […]
ISTANBUL – For the first time in Turkey’s history, the Kurdish armed group PPK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) has kidnapped a Turkish lawmaker. Hüseyin Aygün, an MP for the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) was kidnapped last Sunday in the eastern province of Tunceli. PKK has claimed responsibility for the abduction and has promised to free […]
OP-ED – A German newspaper recently published a list of the “ten most dangerous politicians in Europe.” When something bad happens we immediately start looking for someone or something to pin the blame on. It makes no difference if the “bad” thing was the capsizing of a cruise liner, a war that ended in a […]
SANA, AL IKHBARIYA (Syria), BBC (UK), AP (USA) Worldcrunch A bomb attached to a fuel truck shook the Syrian capital Damascus, injuring three people, Syrian state-television reports Wednesday morning. The bomb exploded in the car park of the Dama Rose Hotel, which is popular among UN observers — however, none of the injured parties is […]
ASSOCIATED PRESS (U.S.), KHAAMA PRESS (Afghanistan) Worldcrunch The Associated press reports that three grenades were thrown into a mosque in the eastern Afghan Khost province, injuring nine on Wednesday, a day after a string of suicide bombings killed at least 46 people in southwestern and northern Afghanistan. The Taliban did not acknowledge the attack, even […]
BENI – Last June, with rebel groups trying to force him to enroll, Paluku managed to escape into the Rwenzori mountains, in northeastern Congo. Near his 20th birthday, this native of Eringeti, about 400 kilometers to the north of the Congolese capital, Goma, is hardly the only one to have fled a region where armed […]
In just three weeks, the final stage of the EU phase-out of incandescent light bulbs will start. The EU campaign began in December 2008 with the EU Commission’s Ecodesign Directive stating that the manufacturing and sale of “light bulbs with low energy efficiency” would be forbidden in member states after a gradual phase-out. The directive […]
OP-ED – As the world’s eyes were focused on the Olympic Games in London and Bashar al-Assad’s killer tanks and planes battered Syria throughout the summer, Kofi Annan“s resignation went almost unnoticed. But when the UN peace envoy to Syria threw in the towel, it marked the end of a shameful fiasco. The affable Ghanaian […]
DAILY NEWS EGYPT (Egypt), JERUSALEM POST (Israel), AP Worldcrunch On Tuesday, Egyptian President Morsi appointed Mohamed Mekki as his new Vice-President. Mekki is a former senior judge and the first civilian to assume the role. Abdel Fattah el-Sissi was also named as the new chief Field Marshal whilst General Sidqi Sobhi became Chief of Staff. […]
EUROPE 1, BFM TV, LE COURRIER PICARD (France) Worldcrunch AMIENS – Around 100 French youths clashed with police overnight in the city of Amiens, north of Paris. A total of 16 police officers were injured by buckshot and mortar fire during the clashes that lasted for several hours — but no arrests were made. The […]
IRNA (Iran), ABC NEWS, NEW YORK TIMES, ASSOCIATED PRESS (USA), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), XINHUA (China) Worldcrunch TEHRAN – In an apparent change of heart, Iran says foreign aid is now welcome following the twin earthquakes that hit the north western part of the country last weekend, reports ABC news. On Monday, a Turkish rescue team […]
SKOPJE – Cameras flash on Macedonia Square. There aren’t droves of foreign tourists in Skopje, but the Macedonian diaspora, back in the country on holiday, can’t believe their eyes. A huge mounted warrior is in the center of the capital, brandishing his sword skyward: counting the pedestal, the monument has a respectable height of 24 […]
AL JAZEERA (Qatar), RADIO SVOBODA NOVAYA GAZETA (Russia), SUNDAY TIMES (UK) MOSCOW – Vladimir Putin, comfortably back in the Russian presidency, presents himself as a humble, down-to-earth man of average means. But rumors about his wealth, and the secrecy surrounding it, have been circulating for years, as far back as his time as deputy mayor […]
EL CALAFATE – This town of around 8,000 in Patagonia holds a particular place in the world of Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner. It is full of luxurious hotels that are open, but with barely any tourists, at least now in the (Southern Hemisphere’s) winter. It was full of stray dogs a few years ago, but […]
IRAN DAILY, TEHRAN TIMES (Iran), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), REUTERS Worldcrunch TEHRAN – Iran has raised the death toll from Saturday’s twin quakes in the north east of the country to 306, a day after calling off the search for survivors and stepping up the relief effort. The official toll, presented by Health Minister Marzieh Vahid […]
EFE (Spain), BBC (UK), AP Worldcrunch A thousand people were evacuated Sunday night in La Gomera, in Spain’s Canary Islands, as forest fires continue. Two boats transported residents from the Valle Gran Rey area to the town of San Sebastian overnight, after the fire blocked off road access, the BBC reported. The Garajonay nature reserve, […]
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Taiwan’s Fading Chinese Identity
TAIPEI – Flags have a particular knack for causing trouble in Taiwan, the de facto sovereign island state, which is nevertheless still lacking full sovereignty and therefore does not have much say in the matter when it comes to showing off its national colors. The Republic of China (the official name of Taiwan) is participating […]
EL PAIS (Spain) Worldcrunch On Tuesday, hundreds of members of the Spanish SAT workers’ union walked out of two supermarkets without paying for the shopping carts they had filled with food. The supermarket raids took place in Andalusia, in southern Spain. “Is this a theft? A symbolic act? An atrocity? An act of violence ?” […]
THE KOREAN HERALD, YONHAP (South Korea), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak is visiting the disputed Dokdo islands Friday, in an attempt to reassert the country’s control over the territory which is also claimed by Japan, reports the Korean Herald. The Dokdo islets, or Takeshima as the Japanese call them, are equidistant between […]
CNN (USA), BBC NEWS (UK), KHAAMA PRESS (Afghanistan) Worldcrunch An Afghan man wearing a military uniform killed three American soldiers in southern Afghanistan on Friday, only a day after U.S. authorities condemned a suicide bombing earlier this week that killed four other Americans. The attack is the latest in a string of ‘green-on-blue’ attacks, where […]
New age limits, coupled with the lowering of minimum age of certain government jobs, has dovetailed with a general celebration of youth in burgeoning China
Recent pictures of Kim Jong-un and his wife attending public events is just one sign that has insiders wondering whether North Korea has started to shift toward a ‘post-totalitarian’ regime.
AL ARABIYA (UAE), REUTERS (UK), BBC (UK) – The Free Syrian Army told Al Arabiya on Thursday that Bashar al-Assad’s chief of protocol had defected, amid an escalation of violence across the country. Muhui al-Din Maslamani is reportedly safe in an undisclosed location in Syria. The rebels are also claiming that more defections in the […]
CNN (USA), BBC NEWS, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (UK) Worldcrunch BEIJING – Gu Kailai, the wife of recently deposed top official in the Chinese Communist Party Bo Xilai, raised no objections to the prosecution’s charges as the trial ended on Thursday, reports BBC news. A court official told reporters Gu did not contest the charges. The […]
CHINA METEOROLOGICAL ADMINISTRATION, CHINA DAILY, XINHUA (China) SHANGHAI – Typhoon Haikui ploughed into China’s eastern coast on Wednesday morning, knocking down buildings, cutting off power, disrupting train and airline services and forcing authorities to relocate millions of people. The winds were at “severe typhoon” strength when Haikui made landfall in the province of Zhejiang, about […]
REUTERS, THE LOCAL (Sweden) Worldcrunch Belarus announced on Wednesday it was pulling all of its remaining embassy staff from Sweden and gave Swedish authorities until August 30 to withdraw their own diplomats from Minsk. The move worsened a disupte about a pro-democracy teddy bear drop over Belarussian territory in July that embarassed authorities and further […]
AL JAZEERA (Qatar), HAARETZ (Israel), CNN (USA) Worldcrunch CAIRO – Egypt launched air strikes in North Sinai early Wednesday killing twenty suspected terrorists in response to a series of attacks by masked gunmen on military checkpoints, reports CNN. Egyptian army Apache helicopters fired rockets at armed militants near the port town of El Arish. Witnesses […]
TIMES OF SWAZILAND (Swaziland), REUTERS, MAIL & GUARDIAN, INDEPENDENT (South Africa), AFP (France) Worldcrunch As weeks of protest culminate in an ongoing teachers strike and public enterprises’ workers threaten to down tools en masse this week, reports the Independent, King Mswati III of Swaziland has launched a three-day “people’s parliament” in an attempt to appease […]
MOSCOW – The three members of Pussy Riot, the Russian punk band accused of hooliganism for anunauthorized performance in a Moscow cathedral, had their last words in court on Wednesday after a weeklong trial. The verdict will be announced on August 17. For those outside Russia, this whole affair has been a litmus test for […]
RAFAH – Those living in Rafah have military forces responsible for securing the border at their doorsteps. While this should provide extra protection for the locals, on Sunday, it was the locals who struggled to save the soldiers undergoing a brutal attack. The failure to prevent an attack on a military checkpoint, carried out by […]
In Iran, the shortage of poultry has become the symbol of the economic “war” imposed on the Iranian regime by the West to pressure the country into abandoning its nuclear program. Since a new round of European and American-led economic sanctions were enforced on July 1, the price of chicken has soared in Iran, rising […]
PHILIPPINE STAR, PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER (The Philippines), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch Tens of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate the Philippine capital Manila due to severe floods. Ten people were killed on Tuesday in a landslide caused by the torrential rain, reports the Philippine Star. Eight members of a family, including a two-month old […]
THE NEW YORK TIMES (USA), THE TELEGRAPH (UK) Worldcrunch A remote controlled bomb killed at least nine people and wounded three others outside of Kabul early Tuesday morning. An improvised explosive device was detonated underneath a bridge as a crowded bus carrying commuting Afghans drove overhead, northwest of the capital city. The suspect was captured […]
MOSCOW – Proposed legislation in the Russian Duma (Lower House of Parliament) would forbid all public employees, including government ministers, the President and the Duma MPs themselves, from owning any real estate, stocks or bank accounts outside of Russia. In its current form, public employees found to have property or accounts abroad would be removed […]