Let's see, just this week, you can add Mexico, France and Germany to a list of nations surprised and angry over NSA eavesdropping. And that list already includes Brazil, Britain, and others.
And speaking of lists — it used to be you could count only on death and taxes. Now, it might be death, taxes and the occasional bribe… at least in Italy. Reuters reports on a scandal where Italian morticians have been extracting bribes, getting kickbacks and ripping off the families of those who have died.
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Recentlly, authorities in Greece and Ireland have taken blonde-haired children from darker-skinned Roma parents, suspecting that the children were illegally snatched or sold. In Greece, DNA tests showed little genetic relationship between child and parents, while in Ireland, DNA tests confirmed that the child was part of the family. PRI's The World spoke with a Roma journalist, who was himself blonde as a child, about growing fear among Roma that their children may be taken from them, just because the kids look a bit different.
It’s never too late to learn… or to be honored. Kim Jong-Un has taken time out from governing the world’s last neo-stalinist state to accept a doctorate in economics. The Independent has the story behind the ceremony at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Following weeks of international pressure, Russia has decided to drop charges of piracy again international environmental activists who tried to board a Russian oil platform in the Arctic. That isn’t the end of the case however, as the Guardian reports.
Australians, as we've reported in Global Scan, are having a miserably hot early spring with raging fires that have destroyed hundreds of homes. And now tempers are raging, too, over whether the heat and fires are an early sign of climate change. PRI's The World has been looking at the renewed debate over global warming in Australia.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Cholera epidemic spreads from Haiti to <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Mexico&src=hash">#Mexico</a>: <a href="http://t.co/hLv1pKlwan">http://t.co/hLv1pKlwan</a></p>— Jill Replogle (@jillrep) <a href="https://twitter.com/jillrep/statuses/393049451859673089">October 23, 2013</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Forecasters in Britain are predicting the worst storm of the year will hit the island this weekend. The Independent reports that forecasters have issued "amber alerts" for high winds and surface flooding in the south. The storm is gathering in the Atlantic and is expected to roll across England and Wales, perhaps on Monday, if it doesn't shift course.
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