Maria Balinska
Maria Balinska is the founder of Latitude News and an enthusiast for ferreting out the connections between different countries. A New Jersey native she spent 20 years in the UK where she worked at BBC radio as producer and then editor of international programming.
Should soldier accused of Afghan killings be tried in Afghanistan?
The army staff sergeant accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians, including 9 children, is on his way from Kuwait to Fort Leavenworth, KS. There has been a lot of coverage in the US media of how this senseless killing could have happened. The soldier’s lawyer, John Henry Browne, has been talking about the soldier not wanting ...
Soccer, stray dogs and love songs
A clash of heroic myths at Africa's Cup of Nations. How the Indian city of Kashmir is under attack from stray dogs. And a sad case of convoluted lyrics at Italy's San Remo Song Festival. Top picks from the world's media ...
ACTA – it only gets worse
Emotions about ACTA – the international anti-counterfeiting trade agreement – continue to run high in Europe. After a weekend of demonstrations across the continent, with tens of thousands of people braving frigid temperatures to protest curbs on internet freedom, two more countries have displayed their cold feet. Yesterday the Dutch Lower House voted to refrain ...
More extinctions looming in U.S. says Oz report
Here’s a provocative and thought provoking piece about species conservation in the U.S. from The Conversation, a new site in Australia that brings together the latest academic research from across the country’s universities and academic institutes. The argument made by Bert Harris, who’s doing his PhD at the University of Adelaide, is that three quarters ...
The racist murder that changed Britain
It was “an evil and terrible crime “said the judge. And it took 19 years to convict two of the killers – the other suspected offenders are still at large. Suburban London on a spring evening in 1993. 18 year old Stephen Lawrence, the son of immigrants from Jamaica, was waiting with a friend for ...
The world reacts to death of North Korea’s Kim Jong-il
North Koreans wailed at the death of the country's second leader. Western nations worried about what might happen to its nuclear program....
Americans occupy London
Boston police raided the city’s Occupy site this weekend and closed the camp down. Similar scenes have been played out in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. But in the UK, Occupy London is still going strong as it awaits its day in court on December 19. And that’s thanks in no small part to ...
A Russian watershed
For many Russians, this Saturday marked the first day they had ever been on a political demonstration. Tens of thousands of them turned out in Moscow and across all 9 time zones of the country. They braved the winter cold and in some cases sleet to protest the alleged faking of last Sunday’s elections in ...
A scary day for Britain?
After weeks of crisis and drama in the Eurozone , a pact was agreed in the wee hours of Friday morning. The 17 countries that use the single currency are now committed to enforcing tougher rules on government spending and budgets. France and Germany wanted all 27 countries in the European Union, including those that ...
Growing the economy with less “stuff”
The birth of one Filipino baby got a lot of attention this week. According to the United Nations, Danica May Camacho is the planet’s 7 billionth person. In Manila, Danica’s parents celebrated with cake and with the bevy of photographers taking the newborn’s picture for the world’s media. But most reports about the world reaching ...
Going down
So far the Arab revolutions have toppled three heads of state: Egypt’s Mubarak, Libya’s Gadaffi and Tunisia’s Ben Ali. Many commentators have been asking: who’s next? But Nadia al-Sakkaf, the editor-in-chief of the Yemen Times, the country’s first and most widely read English language newspaper, has been contemplating a different question. Namely, “how the fate ...
Toasting Nigeria with music
Nigerians marked 51 years of independence from Great Britain this weekend. But celebrations were subdued. People are on edge since this summer’s bloody attacks by the Islamist sect Boko Haram. Security was tight and the streets of the capital Abuja were deserted. The hip blog Africa is a Country had a more festive take. They ...
Pakistani dreams
What do a little girl’s dreams say about a country’s future? What, in particular, do they say about Pakistan? Pakistan has been making headlines in the US. Last week retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen accused that country’s spy agency of backing a deadly attack on the US embassy in ...
Poland’s campaigning war widows
Poland was one of four countries that sent its troops, alongside the Americans, into Iraq in March 2003. Over 15,000 Polish soldiers served there until withdrawal in 2008. Twenty two of them died. Now one of their widows has organized a campaign to get compensation for the families of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan ...
A Latitude News exclusive: Yasmine’s upcoming single
The lyrics of Yasmine Gustaffson's soon to be released single - about bullying. ...
GM honey with your breakfast?
Americans may not be wholeheartedly enthusiastic about genetically modified (GM) foods but American corn, cotton and soy farmers have adopted them widely since their commercial introduction in 1996. In fact, most of the time we don’t know whether we are eating GM foods or not: the FDA doesn’t believe we need to. In Europe it’s ...
A reality check on Somalia
The pictures are shocking. The facts heartbreaking. Hundreds of Somalis are dying of hunger every day. The United Nations said this week that 750,000 people are in danger of dying from starvation in the Eastern African country. Overall, it’s estimated that five million peoples’ lives are at risk. Money is being raised across the world ...
Shrimpers deal with oil spill – in China, not Louisiana
The outlook for the shrimping season in Louisiana does not look good. Many put that down to the lasting effects of the 2010 British Petroleum oil spill. Some waters remain closed to fishing altogether. Oil is affecting the Chinese shrimp industry too. Two June spills in the Bohai Bay from a Conoco Phillips China offshore ...
