Connect to share and comment

Great Weekend Reads

Another look at stories you might have missed this week.

Vladimir Franz, tattooed professor, is 3rd in Czech presidential race

Vladimir Franz, a completely tattooed professor at Prague's Academy of Performing Arts, has risen to third place in the Czech Republic's presidential race.

People of North Korea: Happy birthday Kim Jong Un!

Kim Jong Un's birthday prompts a country-wide mission to make sure every child receives candy and puns.
Happy Birthday from your friends at GlobalPost.
More

Great Weekend Reads

Another look at stories you may have missed this week.

Great Weekend Reads

Another look at stories you might have missed this week.

Best GlobalPost quotes 2012

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.

Indonesia: death by soap opera?

Child's family says soap opera's hospital shoot contributed to daughter's death
Indonesia soap opera 20121227Enlarge
A screen shot of the Indonesian soap opera "Love in Paris." (YouTube)

Soap opera-crazed Indonesia is watching a tragically ironic drama play out in the death of a 9-year-old, whose parents blame a hit soap for playing a role in their daughter's death.

"Love in Paris" is a romance starring a young starlet, actress Michelle Zudith, whose character suffers from leukemia and is expected to die before 20 -- a plot device that affects her search for love.

Ayu Tria Desiani was a 9-year-old who suffered leukemia in real life. According to the Jakarta Globe, she frequently required treatment in hospitals. After experiencing a burst blood vessel, the Globe reports, she was rushed to an ICU ward yesterday.

Turns out the ward was filled with atypical guests: the perfectly healthy cast and crew shooting a scene for "Love in Paris."

Ayu didn't survive. And her family, according to the Jakarta Post, now claim the soap opera crewcontributed to her death by crowding the ward, disturbing her treatment and walking around without sterile clothing.

The hospital insists the received adequate treatment though the Post reports that Indonesia's health minister insists that active ICU wards can never be used legally as filming locations.

Whether Ayu's family can prove a hit soap opera interferred with their daughter's treatment is up in the air. But the accusation alone is stirring up a publicity nightmare for both the show and the hospital.

More

Top 5 Christmas songs to get you in the festive spirit

Christmas songs by George Michael, Michael Buble, Frank Sinatra and others will help you get in the festive mood.
GlobalPost has selected five Christmas songs that will help you get in the festive mood.
More

Maya and New Agers praise the new dawn at Mexico’s Chichen Itza (PHOTOS)

CHICHEN ITZA, Mexico — Was it just another solstice marking the beginning of winter? Or the dawn of a new era, as predicted by Maya priests?

New feat for Colombia’s urban innovator: slum escalators

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.
Syndicate content