I would like to do a little "experiment", given we have many nationalities here.

I would like each poster, as regularly as they see fit (not more than once a week), to open the website of any of the most important newspapers of their country (for you Federalist, national or state / provincial newspaper, as you see fit), to select the most "important" article and to translate the title and to explain in 4 / 5 lines what it is all about. This could give an idea of what is importnat in the other countries - both their view on international news and the "local" issues.

For instance, France - Le Monde

"Three additional Heads of Police under arrest after the arrest of the number 2 of the Police of Lyon [Second largest city of France]"

Basically, two days ago, the number 2 of the Police of Lyon was arrested for corruption, drug-trafficking, money-laundering. He was interrogated by the police, and now 3 more policement were arrested - all from Lyon. Also, drug trafficants were also arrested. The inquiry is unfolding as I speak (at least the "public part") but it looks like it is going to be big - the guy had contacts with a Colombian Cartel and with some suspicious people in Switzerland.*

Your turn.

What if we have several newspapers, but none of them is considered the most important?

Random pick?

Random. But random picking of the newspaper, not of the article.

Not very interesting news from Finland today, no annual school shootings or anything. According to the largest magazine "Helsingin Sanomat" today:

- Every 5th 40-year old woman in Finland has no progeny (children)

- Today is the warmest day in Finnish history (actually, since 1961 when they started recording it here) for the last day of September, around 20 Celsius degrees today. The earlier record was 19 degrees the same day. Usually this time of the year the day temperature is around 8-12 degrees, I think. I guess I'll go to swim then?


A few weeks ago one big news was about certain Finnish woman who was earlier accused of stabbing (dozens of stabs or so) her husband to death while their children were watching, a middle-class family living in a good neighborhood. She said it was some unknown burglar, and there was a long trial after which she was found not guilty, as far as I can tell. The long-running case was very well reported in Finnish media.

Anyways, the newest twist (a couple of weeks ago) was that suddenly she is now charged anew for sexual molestation and rape of underage children with a boyfriend she met after her husband's death, or some such sh*t.

Quite a bizarre case if you ask me, even in a Finnish scale. But I'm weary of following the case(s) anymore, it has been ongoing too many months... I don't know if it has been reported elsewhere, after all it pales in comparison with all the Austrian/Belgian/German pedophile cases and such.

Germany - Zeit Online (The Zeit is a left-leaning newspaper)

Most read article:

A fence seals the door to the world

Hamburg spent 118.000 Euros on ways to keep homeless people (mostly from Eastern Europe) from seeking shelter under a bridge. The reason for this is that the street people supposedly soiled the area and committed crimes amongst themselves. This is obviously very controversial and people are protesting what they perceive as an Orwellian and inhuman action.

Edit: The most important online presence of a newspaper is actually the one from the Spiegel, but it's just piss poor and full of articles by poorly paid and dense Germanistik and Journalism students. Zeit Online isn't that great either, but the print version is pretty much the best we've got.

CBC's top story as of right now: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/09/29/bc-insite-supreme-court-ruling-advancer.html

And what if the country's most important newspaper is written in a strange language?
I kid. I would rather try to decipher the strange language than to tell you the sad and irrelevant drivel that passes for news in the local paper.

NZZ - Burma suspends controversial dam project
The title is pretty explicit. People would have had to be displaced as is often the case with dams and it seems there were protests. Read about it in your favorite English-language newspaper (it's what I do instead of trying to decipher whole articles written in strange languages).

I used Google Translator for that purpose just a day or two ago. If it can succeed in translating half-readable English from a Finnish article, I think it can translate French/German/whatever-you-are-talking-in-Switzerland as well. :)

Since I am a journalist this might just help me in a somewhat vague fashion.

The headlines for the day is that the government's planning commission believes that if you can spend 32 rs a day on food in urban areas then you happen to rich. Which is absolutely preposterous since that does not even amount to half a dollar but it appeals to the somewhat convoluted logic of the think - tank in the planning commission. I wonder why the riots like those in London haven't happened already....After all the situation here is absolutely deplorable..

Here's a flitting response to the report:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Live-on-Rs-32-a-day-Aruna-Roy-to-Montek-Ahluwalia/articleshow/10177818.cms

Top of the UK oriented news for the Big British Castle?

Weekly Bin Rounds to be reinstated with a cash injection from government!

I mean seriously? That's the best we can do? That's what the British people are deemed to care about most? That our mouldering bean tins are taken to a landfill once every seven days instead of once every fourteen.

So yeah. Big up the BBC.