Latest Urban geography Stories
BEIJING (Reuters) - As if China didn't have its hands full keeping tabs on its 1.3 billion people, the country will now begin tracking its vegetables. In an attempt to ensure food safety during the 2008 Olympics, Beijing is to give every cabbage, carrot and pea pod its own identity number and file, the Beijing News reported on Wednesday. If there is a "safety incident" the vegetable's file can be immediately checked and its origins traced, the newspaper said, in a report accompanied...
By Jeremy Lovell LONDON (Reuters) - The world's growing number of poor slum dwellers is a ticking time bomb that governments dare not ignore, the United Nations said on Friday. The world will pass a critical point in 2007 when the majority of its 6 billion people will be urbanized, the world body said. One-third of them will be slum dwellers, many trapped in poverty but overlooked by governments and with no prospects of improvement. "When a critical mass of people are in one place, if...
By Ellen WulfhorstNEW YORK -- Dave Givens drives 370 miles to work and back every day and considers his seven-hour commute the best answer to balancing his work with his personal life.The winner of a nationwide contest to find the commuter with the longest trek, Givens is one of millions of people who are commuting longer and farther than ever before.Studies show Americans spend more time than ever commuting and for a growing number, getting to work takes more than an hour. In the most recent...
By Terry WadeRIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Female beauty and brains were extolled on Monday night as Brazil's Carnival dancers shimmied, stomped and sang in sensual celebration.A naked pregnant woman danced on a float to a song about feminine beauty and brains as a second batch of elite samba schools marched into a stadium before thousands of cheering fans. She rubbed her belly provocatively as some 4,000 troupe members sang "Indian, white or black, it's all seduction."But the sensuous...
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Four armed men stole several famous paintings on Friday, including a Picasso and a Monet, from a Rio de Janeiro museum and then slipped away in a crowd of Carnival revelers. Officials of the Chacara do Ceu museum in downtown Rio de Janeiro said among the stolen paintings were Pablo Picasso's "Dance," Claude Monet's "Marine," Henri Matisse's "Luxemburg Garden," and Salvador Dali's "Two Balconies." The men, who were suspected of carrying a grenade,...
By Bruno Domingos RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - A gang turf war broke out when 40 armed men invaded Rio de Janeiro's largest slum, killing at least six people as the city prepares for a Rolling Stones concert and Carnival, police said on Thursday. Police squads raided the area, not far from Rio's beaches and posh neighborhoods, after the clash erupted in Rocinha on Wednesday night. They arrested seven people but raids and shooting continued into the early hours on Thursday. A...
By Zeeshan Haider ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Police used tear gas to drive out students who stormed into Islamabad's diplomatic enclave on Tuesday and protesters attacked Western businesses in Pakistan's most violent reaction yet to cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. In the eastern city of Lahore, police fired tear gas, shot into the air and baton-charged protesters who ransacked a McDonald's franchise and set fire to outlets of KFC and Norwegian mobile phone firm Telenor, witnesses said....
By Angus MacSwanRIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Youths armed with AK-47 rifles sit on street corners in the cramped Vigario Geral slum in Rio de Janeiro, reporting on a stranger's movements through walkie-talkies.They are the foot soldiers of the drug gangs who rule the seaside city's violent slums, or favelas.Above them, in an upstairs room off an alleyway, Carlos Andre Santos is watching a group of youngsters go through a drumming routine.Three months ago, Carlos was a colleague of the...
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has started the trial of a local Communist Party chief for his role in one of the bloodiest in a wave of rural riots to strike the country in recent years, state media said on Friday. In June, hired thugs killed six and injured dozens of villagers staging a sit-in on land confiscated by a state-owned power plant to protest against low compensation in Shengyou village in the northern province of Hebei. "The open trial of the 27 defendants involved in the June...
TORONTO (Reuters) - To coincide with the world premiere of the "Lord of the Rings" musical in Toronto in February, a city tenants' group will crown a "Lord of the Slums." The group also wants slumlords to line up for a chance to win the "Golden Cockroach" award, and is eyeing a "Slums Unlimited" safari for tourists. The campaign by the Parkdale Tenants Association, which represents residents of a down-at-the-heels west end neighborhood, is taking aim at the city of Toronto and the...
