Japan: Oldest signs of Japanese using tools uncovered in Okinawa
Archaeologists have unearthed shell tools around 20,000 years old that could help clear up mysteries surrounding the ancestors of modern Japanese people, a museum said Feb. 15. ...
Asahi
Chile: February in Santiago — a nation on vacation
Productivity plummets, transport prices skyrocket, beaches swarm and the country’s biggest metropolis empties as Chile takes the month off. ...
Santiago Times
France: Declassified files expose lies of French nuclear tests
The radioactive spread from French nuclear tests in Algeria in the 1960s was much larger that the French army admitted at the time, stretching across all of West Africa and up to southern Europe, according to recently declassified documents.
The documents were released in 2013 following appeals from military veterans who say their current ill health is linked to exposure to dangerous levels of radiation. ...
France 24
New Zealand: Hero driver saves truckie
School principal holds back State Highway 1 traffic, then leaps into cab, after diabetic blacks out at wheel
A school principal prevented a likely fatal accident by jumping into a 29-tonne truck veering across State Highway 1 after its driver had passed out at the wheel. ...
New Zealand Herald
Canada: 1700 unfinished pairs of moccasins memorialize the missing and murdered
Walking With Our Sisters is ceremony, it is art, and it is a memorial.
And so far, only half of the way into the first year of a seven year tour, it has already had a profound spiritual impact on many. That impact will continue to as the exhibition journeys across Canada and into the United States.
1724 pairs of vamps were submitted from around the world — each pair representative of a missing or murdered indigenous woman or girl in Canada. ...
CBC
Wales: Neknominate: Watch man drink pint of alcoholic drink before jumping from cliffs into freezing sea
The clip is the latest in a swathe of videos being uploaded on to Facebook of people taking part in the Neknominate craze
This video is the latest in a string of those taking part in the Neknominate craze.
The man, 29-year-old Samuel Dyer, from Haverfordwest, pours a bottle of what looks like alcopop WKD into a glass.
He then takes a swig and, while still drinking, leaps from rocks into the freezing, choppy sea. ...
One man from Cardiff is believed to have died after taking part in the craze. ...
Wales Online
South Korea: Luxury refashioned
In the 1990s, the nation’s surging middle class wanted to show off its wealth and started indulging in foreign luxury brands. These were the years when Louis Vuitton’s Speedy tote earned the nickname “3-second bag” for being almost ubiquitous on Seoul streets.
“Unlike in other countries where ‘It Bags’ are enjoyed mostly within the fashion community, they became a national fever in Korea at the time,” said Lee Ji-hyun, a fashion magazine editor.
After two decades, Korean shoppers’ expensive tastes have made Korea one of the top 10 markets for luxury goods globally. The annual sales are believed to exceed 10 trillion won ($9.4 billion). ...
Korea Herald
Friends Read Free