BOSTON — While covering underreported stories around the world, GlobalPost's far-flung correspondents often hear some real verbal gems. Here is a selection of some of their best quotes in 2012.

MEDELLIN, Colombia — The upper reaches of a mountainside slum called Comuna 13 are so steep that streets give way to staircases. To get home, many residents here used to climb the equivalent of a 28-story building. But last year, Medellin officials installed a $7 million outdoor escalator — the first ever designed for a slum. The ride to the top now takes five minutes.

“While there does seem to a very real public safety risk posed by this group and others like it in China, it also doesn’t hurt the Party to let everybody know it’s still in charge and that it doesn’t pay to spit at the throne,” said George Chang, a sociologist as National Taiwan University.

TOKYO — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will defy international opinion and push ahead with a rocket launch planned for this month because he wants to honor the memory of his father, said Kenji Fujimoto, the Kim family’s sushi chef for 13 years before he fled to his native Japan.

TORONTO — Some laughs with Rob Ford have uncharitably come at his expense. There’s the time he fell off the scale during his campaign to lose some of his considerable weight, and his stumble and roll while imitating a quarterback during recent festivities for the Grey Cup, Canada’s version of the Super Bowl. It became a viral GIF in no time. To supporters, these slapstick moments likely enhance his everyman appeal. But there’s a side to what has become the Rob Ford reality show that doesn’t leave many laughing.

Given the remarkable backlash from the markets and entrepreneurs of France against Socialist President Francois Hollande, you might expect France's major center-right party, UMP, to be gathering momentum. In fact, quite the opposite is happening. Rather than take initiative, the party is locked in an embarrassingly and potentially dangerous internal leadership battle, and things are getting so bad that people are now begging for a Nicolas Sarkozy comeback.

Another look at stories you may have missed this week.