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Charges Filed in India Rape Case

Women hold placards as they march during a rally protesting for justice and security for women (Photo: Reuters)

Indian authorities filed rape and murder charges Thursday against five men accused of gang rape of a 23-year-old university student.

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Sweeping a Dusty Market in Search of Gold

Afsiroon Naqas pulls a smoldering ball of mercury from a mixture he uses to extract gold dust from heaps of dirt in a market in Rawalpindi, Pakistan (Photo: Beenish Ahmed)

On hands and knees, he painstakingly sweeps every inch of the street with an old shoe brush. But he and his young son Asad aren’t collecting trash. They’re looking for gold dust that blows out of the jewellery shops around them.

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Qatari News Giant Al Jazeera Purchases American Channel Current TV

A journalist captures video of Current TV in San Francisco (Photo: REUTERS/Robert Galbraith)

The Arab news giant Al Jazeera has purchased the American television news channel Current TV. The New York Times Media Reporter Brian Stelter tells anchor Marco Werman this represents a huge leap in audience numbers for the Qatari-owned channel.

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Iceland’s Name War: Girl Sues to Use Her Given Name

The Icelandic capital, Reykjavik. (Photo:WikiCommons)

A 15 year old girl in Iceland is taking her government to court. She’s suing for the right to use the name given her by her mother. Only certain names are allowed, by law, and hers isn’t one of them. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Sveinn Gudmarsson of the Icelandic National Broadcast Service.

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How China’s New Leadership Continues Efforts to Control the Media

A trainee walks pass a communist party logo as he attends a training course at the communist party school called China Executive Leadership Academy of Pudong in Shanghai

China’s government is increasingly trying to control the message and it’s increasingly having difficulty doing that. The latest example happened this week in Guangdong, when a government censor replaced the annual New Year’s editorial of a well-respected newspaper. And people went ballistic online.

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Massachusetts Looks East to Lure Chinese Tourists

Boston Public Garden in summer. (Photo: Tim Grafft / Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism)

China has a middle class of some 300 million people. And more and more of them are traveling internationally. When they travel, they spend, and American states are increasingly trying to market themselves to bring Chinese tourists to their corner of the world.

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Copy That: Architectural ‘Borrowing’ in China

A building (right) resembling the one designed by architect Zaha Hadid (left) is going up in the city of Chongqing, China.

Ever heard of an architectural style being knocked off? Well Iraqi-British Zaha Hadid has. The Iraqi-British architect unveiled her designs for the Wangjing Soho complex in Beijing in 2011, but a building that looks a lot like Hadid’s is also going up in the city of Chongqing.

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Fiscal Cliff Bill’s Hidden Subsidy For Caribbean Rum

Rum fills up the shelves in an American liquor store (Photo: WIKI)

Which of the Caribbean region rum producing countries has the oldest continuously producing rum distillery ? This country has been making rum in wooden stills along the banks of the Demerara River ever since the 17th century. Rum expert Edward Hamilton has the answer.

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Remembering Master Violinist M. S. Gopalakrishnan

Violinist M S Gopalakrishnan died in Chennai on Thursday. (Photo: amazon.com)

M.S. Gopalakrishnan was a violinist whose intense study led him to develop new styles of playing the instrument in Indian classical music.

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PRI’s The World: 01/02/2013 (Sierra Leone, Finland, Jordan)

Thousands rally in Delhi demanding an end to India’s culture of violence against women. Also, the long-term questions posed as Finland prepares to move its nuclear waster underground. And a street musician from Sierra Leone builds an American following, thanks to the Internet.

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Thousands Protest Sexual Violence in India

Women hold placards as they march during a rally protesting for justice and security for women (Photo: Reuters)

Thousands of women rallied in Delhi, India, in the latest protest following the brutal rape of a 23-year-old student last month. The victim died over the weekend. The protests demand an end to a culture of violence against women in India. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Jatin Anand, a reporter for The Hindustan Times.

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Rapid Urbanization Partly to Blame for Violence Against Women in India

A candlelight vigil for the Indian rape victim in Singapore. (Photo: Edgar Su / Reuters)

Feminist writer and publisher Urvashi Butalia says rapid globalization, competition for jobs and class and caste differences begin to explain what motivates the recent acts of brutal violence against women in India.

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Finland’s Nuclear Waste Disposal Dilemma

Onkalo tunnel (Photo: Posiva Oy)

A vast network of tunnels is being constructed beneath the Nordic countryside in Finland. It’s intended to safely store nuclear waste for up to a thousand centuries. Eventually, officials say, there will be no surface trace of the tunnels below.

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US Ambassador to Finland Goes Great Guns

Bruce Oreck ProBody cover

Bruce Oreck is the US Ambassador to Finland. He also happens to be a former professional body-builder. And now, Oreck is flexing his diplomatic muscle on the cover of Finland’s ProBody magazine.

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Egyptian Television Satirist Bassem Youssef in Trouble With Islamists

Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef on his television program "Al Bernameg" (Photo: YouTube Screengrab)

Television satirist Bassem Youssef has allegedly insulted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi on his TV show. On his program, Youssef was seen sweet-talking and hugging a red furry pillow carrying President Morsi’s image, while mocking his speech style.

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