Our World in 7 Headlines: Oct. 6

The world on Oct. 6, 2013, through local media headlines—from a history of shoemaking in Korea to shocking child pregnancy statistics in South Africa.
Our World in 7 Headlines: Oct. 6
North Korean women work at the assembly line of the factory of shoemaker Samduk Inc. at the Kaesong industrial complex in Kaesong, North Korea, on Feb. 27, 2006. An article published Oct. 6, 2013, in the Korean Herald looked at a Korean man who has been hand-crafting shoes for 60 years and the history of shoemaking in Korea. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
Tara MacIsaac
10/6/2013
Updated:
10/6/2013

Finland: Free to roam, but within the rules

Known as “everyman’s right”, by law and ancient custom people are free to roam public and private lands for recreation or exercise, even to camp, fish, boat and pick nature’s bounty. However, there are some rules, and five common mistakes people make when exercising this right.

The extensive freedom to roam, known in Finnish as “jokamiehenoikeus”  and “allemansrätten” in Swedish (literally “everyman’s right”) also comes with responsibilities. Chief among these are to not disturb others, to cause no harm to the natural environment, nor to wildlife, domestic animals or crops.

Yle Uutiset

 

Pakistan: Life on a Sunday: book buying

KARACHI—Khushwant Singh once wrote that rather than restaurants and cinema houses, the ultimate litmus test of a town’s sophistication is the number of bookshops it has, and the kind of books they stock. Stores that cater to students selling school and college textbooks do not count. It is others that have books on history, poetry, fiction, philosophy, etc. 

Bookshops are wonderful places - people standing there, letting their eyes drift over shelves, while that imaginary bookshop magic does its work.

Karachi, with packed streets is a marvellous wonderland of exciting shops and malls, where one can find everything: from the most eccentric stuff to the most useful things, including second-hand books. …

Daily Times

Pakistani book lovers browse through old books at a book market held every Sunday in Karachi on September 2, 2012. (Rizwan Tabassum/AFP/Getty Images) 

 

South Africa: Shocking child pregnancy stats

PRETORIA—The Annual Schools Survey by the Department of Basic Education has left children’s organisations shocked over new figures showing girls as young as eight are falling pregnant. ...

Jackie Schoeman, CEO of Cotlands, an NGO that provides early-learning opportunities to vulnerable children said the high number of child pregnancies were as a result of poverty and either single or no-parent households. However, Joan van Niekerk, manager of Childline’s national office, attributed the shocking statistics to sexual abuse in the home. ...

News 24

 

Korea: Seongsu-dong sees revival of handmade shoes

Kim Myung-sik has never stopped making shoes. 

Since first entering the business when he was 13, just after the Korean War, he’s been at work.

Shoemaking for him was a way of survival, and he learned the skills as he begged for meals. “Everyone was like me back then because we were so poor from the war,” Kim said, as the 73-year-old tended to some handmade footwear at his shop in Seongsu-dong, eastern Seoul. 

The area was once known as a center for handmade shoes as up to 1,200 shoemakers settled there. 

Looking back, Kim recalled that the Korean shoe industry in the 1960s had been a far cry from modernity. “We made shoes out of military boots that American soldiers dumped when they left,” he said. “Plucking and handling was a tough job.” …

Korea Herald

 

Malta: Police find secret tunnel to bank vault

The police have discovered a secret tunnel being dug from a garage towards the vault of the HSBC Bank in Swieqi. …

The tunnel was 15 metres long, just over a metre wide and 1.5m high. It was being dug from a garage which forms part of a complex of garages in Triq il-Qatta. It passed under Triq it-Tiben and was only a few metres short of the bank vault. …

Times of Malta

 

Malta, south of Italy. (Google Maps)

 

Peru: Former President Fujimori Campaigns on Twitter from Prison

Alberto Fujimori, Peru’s 75-year-old former president, has taken to Twitter from his prison quarters, sending out a couple of dozen tweets since mid-September to criticize Peru’s current government and defend his corruption-riddled administration.

Fujimori’s first tweet came on September 19, when he published a short recording saying that he will be publishing his “memoirs” on Twitter and Facebook. He said the accounts will be managed by his supporters. …

Peruvian Times

 

Romania: Romania becomes 10th country in the EU to allow medical use of marijuana

Romania has become the tenth country in the European Union to allow the use of medical marijuana to treat diseases such as epilepsy, cancer and multiple sclerosis.

So far, the ban on possession and use covered all forms of marijuana. However, two of the laws on narcotic substances now state that some of the plant’s derivatives may be used for medical purposes. ...

Romania Insider