Our weekly roundup of urban news from around the globe…
Major cities in India and Pakistan were inundated by heavy monsoon rains this weekend. In Srinagar, the capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, hundreds waited on their rooftops to be rescued. And dozens were killed in the Pakistani city of Lahore by collapsing houses and electrocuted by downed power lines. The death toll is over 300 and rising.
A pretty hefty meteorite struck the Nicaraguan capital of Managua, leaving a crater 40 feet wide.
So many schools in Iraq’s northern cities have been turned into shelters for displaced Iraqis that the government announced there’s no room for students this year, so classes won’t start on time.
Did you know you can order an Uber cab in Mumbai? The upstart car-booking service is available in India, but the country’s central bank now says it needs to start charging its customers in rupees – not dollars, as it sometimes does – if it wants to keep operating there. Uber is looking into a new online payment system as a work-around.
The African Union held an emergency summit to create a continent-wide strategy to stop the Ebola outbreak, which has now killed over 2,000 people.
Beijing’s crackdown on government corruption has claimed an unusual casualty: the mooncake industry, which counts on officials bribing their bosses with the pricy little cakes (sometimes with a little something extra stuffed inside the bakery box) each September. The crackdown appears to be working – sales of the expensive baked goods are down sharply this year.
And finally, a British self-professed “armchair detective” claims to have “definitely, categorically and absolutely” identified London’s most infamous murderer, Jack the Ripper, who terrorized the city in the 1800s. According to Russell Edwards, “Jack” was a Polish immigrant who died in one of the city’s infamous asylums after gruesomely killing at least five women. “Only non-believers that want to perpetuate the myth will doubt,” said Edwards. “This is it now – we have unmasked him.”
Never Miss A StoryDownload our app