Even if he was considered a “pro-Europe” option, the Conservative victor in Greece’s Parliamentary election does not enjoy a shining reputation around the continent.
Category: Geopolitics
Essay: The old guard and Islamists are both manipulating the ideas and events of the Egyptian revolution. Revolutionaries themselves are squandering it with meaningless protests disconnected from the general population.
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Burma To Free All Political Prisoners
THE IRRAWADDY (Burma) NAYPYIDAW – The Burmese government is planning to free all political prisoners by July, reports The Irrawaddy. As opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was in Oslo receiving the Nobel Prize she was awarded in 1991, Industry Minister Soe Thane, not to be outshined, announced that President Thein Sein had decided to […]
Worldcrunch YEDIOT AHARONOT, HAARETZ (Israel), LE TEMPS (Switzerland), AL JAZEERA (Qatar) TEL AVIV – Amidst rising tensions over the issue of illegal immigration in Israel, more than 100 undocumented South Sudanese were sent back to their native country on Monday. Haaretz reported that the migrants, including 43 children, underwent a registration and identification process at […]
Worldcrunch OSUN DEFENDER, GUARDIAN, VANGUARD (Nigeria) KADUNA – A tense curfew was holding Monday across Nigeria after one of the worst days of violence between Muslims and Christians in memory as the nation continues to add new scars from sectarian violence. Boko Haram, a Jihadist group with links to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility Monday for the […]
Worldcrunch AL MASRY AL YOUM (Egypt), AL ARABIYA (Saudi Arabia), THE GUARDIAN (UK) CAIRO – Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi claimed a narrow victory in the Egyptian presidential elections Monday, but pushback from his opponent and constitutional maneuvering from the Army leave Egypt’s democratic transition as fragile as ever. Morsi garnered 51.13 percent of the […]
[dailymotion https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xrkm8a expand=1]Greeks ready for future-defining poll by reuters
Essay: The UN’s inaugural 1992 Summit in Rio was full of hope, seen for years as a watershed in facing the dangers of ecological ruin. Now it is more clear than ever that economic priorities still rule.
Analysis: As Europe closes its borders, Morocco is becoming a new immigration destination for the rest of Africa. And like Europe, it is failing to address the issue intelligently.
Worldcrunch THE JAPAN TIMES, THE MAINICHI (Japan) TOKYO – Katsuya Takahashi, the last fugitive from the Aum Shirinkyo cult that launched a sarin attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995, was arrested in the capital on Friday morning. The 54-year-old had been on the run for the past 17 years, until someone spotted him in […]
Worldcrunch CAIXIN MEDIA / SINA NEWS (China) CHINA TIMES (Taiwan) BEIJING – China officialy has its first female taikonaut, as “astronaut” is called in Chinese. Liu Yang (below) will be on board for Saturday’s launching of the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, scheduled for 18:37 local time, Chinese official media have confirmed. Liu, a native of Henan […]
Worldcrunch CADO IN PIEDI, DIRITTO DI POLEMICA (Italy) ROME – An economic crisis makes creative thinking an imperative. And in Italy, there are always political leaders out there thinking creatively. Here’s one recent thought from Pier Luigi Bersani, head of the center-left Democratic Party (PD): “I say that someone who pays their taxes has the […]
Worldcrunch AL MASRY AL YOUM (Egypt), BBC NEWS, AL JAZEERA CAIRO – The Egyptian capital remained tense Friday as pro-democracy activists and Islamists called for massive protests after a pair of judicial rulings by the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court have again put both civil order and longterm democracy at risk. One day ahead of the […]
A trip to Tunis’s slums finds young Salafi Islamists who were at the vanguard of the Arab Spring, and are now set to take the fight to Syria to take down the ruling secularist regime.
LE TEMPS (Switzerland) CNN, BBC GENEVA – Aung San Suu Kyi arrived in Europe for what some have seen as a sort of victory lap for democracy. The Burmese pro-democracy leader arrived on Wednesday at the annual conference of the U.N. International Labour Organization in Geneva. Watch a clip of Suu Kyi at the International […]
TUNIS TRIBUNE (Tunisia), FRANCE 24 (France) TUNIS – Former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was sentenced to 20 years in prison, for “incitement to public disorder, murders and lootings on the Tunisian territory.” The sentence was handed down Wednesday morning by a Tunis military court, following a trial focused on the days around […]
Worldcrunch AL ARABIYA, BBC NEWS, CNN BAGHDAD – A wave of bombings in six Iraqi provinces, including 10 locations in Baghdad, has killed at least 62 people and wounded dozens more in the country’s worst attack in more than a year, BBC News reports. Al Arabiya reports that the string of car and roadside bombs […]
From the G8 summit later this month in Mexico to her own domestic political fortunes, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will have all the world asking if she can lead the charge to save the euro, and help reverse a sinking world economy.
Worldcrunch CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY (Taiwan), VOA TAIPEI – These are not the kind of words that typically go “viral.” Following the mysterious June 6 death in China of prominent dissident Li Wangyang, a growing number of Chinese human rights activists in China have been using Twitter and other microblog services to personally declare: “I will […]
Worldcrunch LE NOUVEL OBS (France) PARIS – #trierweilergate, #vaudeville… Hashtags have been flourishing on Twitter since Valérie Trierweiler —French President François Hollande’s girlfriend— posted an unexpected message endorsing the Socialist candidate running against Hollande’s former long-term partner Ségolène Royal in parliamentary elections. At 11.56AM, Trierweiler (@valtrier) tweeted “Good luck to Olivier Falorni who is a […]
BBC NEWS (United Kingdom), PAJHWOK (Afghanistan) PUL-I-KHUMRI – A dramatic landslide killed at least 80 people in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan. The landslide was the result of two successive earthquakes that were felt as far as Kabul, 105 miles away. “A quake measuring 5.4 struck the Hindu Kush region, followed by a 5.7 […]
Worldcrunch AP, LENTA.RU (Russia) MOSCOW – Thousands of Russians have gathered in the capital for the first protest march against Vladimir Putin since his reelection last month as president. According to organizers, up to to 20,000 people took part in the “March of Millions’, the Moscow-based news website Lenta.ru reports. The protest began without top […]
A little lesson in what not to do when a porn star killer posts a photo of himself on Facebook drinking a bottle of your delicious beer.
On the eve of another mass protest in Moscow, opposition leaders had their apartments turned upside down by special security forces.
When Twitter made its debut in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez did his best to co-opt the social network and flood it with official statements. But now the social network is used by those undermining the twitterer-in-chief.
Worldcrunch LIBERATION (France) PARIS – On the wave of the solid popularity of newly installed French President François Hollande, left-wing parties look to be headed for a clear majority after Sunday’s first round of parliamentary elections. First estimates give the Left — led by Hollande’s Socialist Party — 47% of the vote, in front of […]
Worldcrunch DAILY TIMES OF NIGERIA, AP (Nigeria), CORRIERE DEL MEZZOGIORNO (Italy) Police rescued midfielder Christian Obodo, a player in Italy’s top soccer division, a day after he was abducted in his native Nigeria. Obodo’s abductors had contacted his family in the delta city of Warri to demand a ransom of 150,000 euros, the Daily Times […]
More than 15 years after the end of French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, 720 people afflicted with cancer and other illnesses have sued France for compensation.
No one knows what goes on or even who are all the people taking part in this invitation-only, top-secret club for the world’s most powerful elites. So how did a loquacious Green Party member manage to get invited?
In the northwestern African nation, anti-slavery activist Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid is accused of burning pages from a holy book that promoted slavery, prompting a call for his execution and a return to Sharia Law.
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Why Putin Is Betting On China
Analysis: After getting elected to a third term, Russian President Vladimir Putin skipped last month’s G8 in the US, and spent three long days in China this week. You do the math.
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Pakistan Bus Bombed, At Least 19 Dead
Worldcrunch REUTERS PESHAWAR – A bomb exploded on a bus on the outskirts of the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Friday, killing at least 19 people, police officials told Reuters. (DEVELOPING…)
AL ARABIYA (Saudi Arabia), FRANCE 24, LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR (France) PARIS – Syria appears set to descend into all-out civil war, as pressure from the international community heightens following allegations of a new massacre in the central province of Hama. United Nations observers are attempting to reach the town of Al Koubeir to investigate the […]
In the Jabal al-Akrad mountains, the Free Syrian Army rebels are fighting an uneven war against Bashar al-Assad’s army: with outdated weapons, depleting ammunition and barely a doctor to be found.
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Syria Denies New Massacre Claims
Worldcrunch AP, BBC NEWS DAMASCUS – Damascus denies reports of new mass killings in Syria’s central Hama region as pressure continues to build on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Syria discarded as “absolutely baseless’ claims by opposition groups about a new massacre in which government forces allegedly killed some 100 people, AP reports. The […]
Worldcrunch EL PAIS, REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, IL SOLE 24 ORE TOKYO, LONDON, MADRID – Markets rallied in Asia and Europe on Thursday, with all eyes on the response to a gathering financial crisis in Spain. The Spanish Central Bank successfully auctioned more than 2 billion euros in medium and long-term bonds, El Pais reported, adding a […]
AL-ARABIYA (Saoudi Arabia) / SANA (Syria) DAMASCUS – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had commissioned a regime insider to form the next government according to the al-Arabiya news channel. Riad Hijab, who served as minister of agriculture in the previous government, was appointed to replace outgoing Prime Minister Adel Safr. The formation of the new cabinet […]
PAJHWOK (Afghanistan), L’EXPRESS (France) PUL-I-ALAM – At least 17 civilians were killed during a NATO air strike in Afghanistan on Wednesday morning, Afghan news agency Pajhwok reports. The attack struck the Logar Province, in the eastern part of the country: women and children were among the victims. The intended target of the raid was the […]
CTV NEWS, BBC NEWS (Canada) VANCOUVER – Vancouver’s False Creek Elementary School and St George’s school for boys have both received a package containing human body parts in what some suspect may be the latest twist in the case of Canadian porn actor Luka Rocco Magnotta, who was arrested The packages contained a human hand […]
Named one of the world’s richest and most powerful women by Forbes in 2005, Former Prime Ukrainian Minister Yulia Tymshenko sits in jail as her country is set to co-host the European Soccer Championship.