From a cat cafe to a gold-plated diet, we’re scanning the globe for you
Canadian cartoonist Gary Clement on the new happy face of Iran’s nuclear program.
Sitting comfortably? If not, perhaps you should consider reading this email in the Parisian style — with a four-legged friend? We’re clawing back the urge to fill the rest of this post with puns.
Here’s what else is grabbing our attention.
Kenya begins three days of mourning
With the siege at Westgate mall over, Kenya has begun three days of mourning. We've seen interesting analysis of the global impact of the siege from a number of people. Among the best is the Financial Times’ Michaela Wrong, who has been looking at how the last week will influence efforts to bring Kenya’s president to trial for encouraging ethnic violence
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has issued a warning to the west not to be fooled by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s conciliatory tone — after the Israeli delegation walked out of Rouhani’s speech at the UN.
Haaretz’s Zvi Bar’el has typically insightful analysis of where the new Iranian tone leaves Israel.
Smugglers swallow gold at airport
Police in Sri Lanka have arrested seven men after they had some difficulty passing through an airport metal detector. The BBC has the full story — including details of the carefully chosen diet the police are imposing on the men (including a powerful local dish known as ‘pittu’).
The great Chinese man surplus
An unintended consequence of China’s one child policy is a huge surplus of single, marriage-age men. A preference for sons, plus sex-selective abortions over the last 25 years, has created a generation of miserably single men. The BBC’s Lucy Ash has been meeting matchmakers.
What we're seeing on social
RT @abuaardvark: New Islamist Bloc Declares Opposition to National Coalition and US Strategy http://t.co/qLEQTBka1w
— Matthew Bell (@matthewjbell) September 25, 2013
Weather around the world
Officials in Russia declared an emergency in Sochi, future home of the Olympic Games, where rains have caused flooding and mudslides. This is at least the third flood-related emergency there since March.