CAMPINA GRANDE, Brazil – Diego Alexandre spent three years saving for his dream car but when it arrived he could barely fit inside it. The 36-year-old standing at 1.93 meters (6.33 feet) bought the convertible by just seeing the pictures of it. A mocking video of Alexandre has been shared by his motoring friend where he is driving the car wearing a helmet, as he is too tall for the roof to close and his head rises above the windshield. However, Alexandre, who is also a businessman from the Brazilian municipality of Campina Grande, made the mistake of not taking…
Author: zenger.news
Why have some countries been hit harder than others during the COVID-19 pandemic? Researchers from IDC Herzliya and Yale University say the usual answers, such as demographics (population, age) or health policy (quarantines and lockdowns), don’t illustrate the whole story. Cultural variances across countries can prove critical. Yossi Maaravi, vice dean at the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship at IDC Herzliya, and Aharon Levy, researcher in the department of psychology in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Yale, analyzed data from 69 countries representing about 75 percent of the world’s population. Their conclusion: The more individualistic a country, the…
The legal team of Botswana’s ruling party is auctioning the properties of 14 opposition party members who ran an unsuccessful court challenge against a 2019 poll over election rigging allegations. The Botswana Democratic Party is using proceeds from the auctions to cover the legal costs in the case. The Court of Appeal dismissed the Umbrella for Democratic Change‘s challenge on Jan. 27, 2020. The costs associated with the appeal are around P500,000 ($45,396). In the Oct. 23, 2019 election, the Botswana Democratic Party won with a majority of 38 seats. Umbrella for Democratic Change, the opposition, won 15 seats in…
NAIROBI, Kenya — Fifteen-year-old Ian Muriuki has bright brown eyes and the curious look of an innocent child gazing into your soul, trying to understand the kind of person you are. He sits quietly, looking at an interviewer who asks a question, and then looking back at his father in anticipation of what his father will say. Ian speaks in a low tone, but most of the time chooses not to utter a word. He has suffered epileptic seizures since he was a baby. Also plagued by seizures is 35-year-old Jerusha Muthoni. “People would say that I was bewitched whenever I…
Marvel Joseph was still a senior at Florida Atlantic University when he joined a group of students from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) on a 2019 trip to Israel with the Maccabee Task Force (MTF). The trip left a lasting impact. Half a year later, the South Florida native landed a job with the Task Force as a coalition coordinator to help other HBCU students recognize the value of Israel. Does the hiring of Joseph — who is Black and not Jewish — seems unconventional for an organization that promotes Israel and dispels anti-Semitism? It’s not. Welcome to the…
Twenty-six-year-old college dropout Pruthiraj Rath founded smart banking platform Payzello about five years ago to plug a gap he saw in the Indian banking sector. His start-up created a three-in-one card that functions as a debit, credit, as well as forex card. “Many Indian college students open accounts with public sector banks. Private banks ignore them due to their requirement of higher minimum balance,” said Rath. “There are a lot of things that need to evolve in India.” Sensing the same opportunity and to speed up the digital payments’ adoption, India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, had invited…
MUMBAI, India — Indians who had loved the 2016 hit “The Girl on the Train” starring Emily Blunt can now see the official Hindi remake of the film on Netflix. Released on Feb. 26, it has the same name, but Indian actor Parineeti Chopra has stepped into Blunt’s shoes. “The structure and the basic material are from the original film and the book,” director Ribhu Dasgupta told Zenger News. “But we have given it our own color. We have rewritten certain characters and certain parts of the film.” Official remakes are somewhat new in the Indian film industry, one of the…
PUNE, India — Buddhism, one of the major world religions with its origin in India, just added another piece of historical evidence to its 2,500-year-old existence A structure belonging to the Buddhist culture was recently unearthed by the Archaeological Survey of India at the foothills of the Juljul hills in the Hazaribagh district of India’s eastern state of Jharkhand. The site is around 340 kilometers (210 miles) from Sarnath, a major pilgrimage site near Varanasi where the Buddha gave his first sermon. From 362,113 foreign visitors in 2013 to 430,682 in 2017, Sarnath tourism has seen tremendous growth. The Archeological Survey of India…
PERM, Russia — A hotel manager in Russia was sentenced to five years in jail over his alleged negligence causing five people their lives after a hot water pipe busted in their rooms. All five people were burned alive in their beds at the mini-hotel Caramel. Due to the pipe breakage in the hotel, boiling water began to flow into the building which caused severe burns to nine people and death of five people. “Necessary checks with law enforcement and monitoring services will be conducted by us,” said Maxim Reshetnikov, minister of economic development of the Russian Federation. “Special thanks…
VILLESSE, Italy – The Italian cops recovered nine puppies smuggled inside plastic containers in the boot of a car coming from Villesse on Feb 27. The police stopped the driver and were surprised to find the puppies inside a car going towards the north-eastern Italian province of Gorizia located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It was the capital of the former Province of Gorizia and is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. “The puppies were all in poor health after the long journey spent inside the plastic containers,” said the Italian cops who rescued…