Poutine, if you don't know, is a Canadian dish made up of French fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. And if you don't know, you really haven't been living your life to its fullest. Seriously, what have you been doing? Go get some poutine. Then come back and read about this poutine burger — an open-faced hamburger topped with poutine — we ate from Spritzburger in Chicago. We'll wait. We have to. We can't move.
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A 2-week-old boy born to a Pakistani couple visiting India is being denied permission to return home with his parents because he lacks the proper travel documentation.
The story begins with Mai Fatima, her husband, Mir Muhammad Mahar, and their two children. The couple, from Ghotki, Pakistan, were expecting a third child when they came to Basanpir, India, 2 months ago to visit Mai Fatima's father.
But her father died during their visit; she subsequently gave birth to a boy on April 14.
On April 25, the couple and the baby, named Sohail, left for Pakistan on the Thar Express. They were stopped near the border at Munabao. The Times of India reports that immigration officers instructed them to either go to Pakistan, leaving the child behind, or stay behind and complete documentation for their baby. (We should note here that several Indian news outlets are reporting that Pakistani officials didn't allow the child in, while Pakistani news organizations are saying it was Indian officials who didn't allow the child to leave.)
"They refused to let us go because my passport did not have Sohail's photo," Mai Fatima told the Hindu newspaper.
Her husband Mahar rushed to New Delhi, the Indian capital, to get the required documentation, and the newspaper said the couple's visa will be extended until that can be done.
Pakistan's Express Tribune newspaper quoted Pakistan's high commissioner in India as saying the child's details will be registered "as soon as the woman contacts them and verifies her Pakistani origin with documents."
Stories of families divided by the India-Pakistan border are not new. The two countries were formed almost simultaneously in 1947, and have shared a deep mistrust for much of the time since then.
North Korea isn't exactly known for its light touch: It has referred to its foes as a "rat-like group of bastards," a "shameless political dwarf" and even a "swish of skirt."
That aforementioned "swish of skirt" is the target of North Korea's latest diatribe.
The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which is the body tasked with uniting the two countries, called South Korean President Park Guen-hye a "capricious whore who asks her fancy man to do harm to other person while providing sex to him." The "fancy man" in question: President Obama, who visited ally South Korea last week for two days.
The comments were reported by KCNA, North Korea's official news agency.
The story went on to call Park a "dirty comfort woman for the U.S. and despicable prostitute selling off the nation." That epithet is likely to anger many South Koreans because of the Korean women who were kept as sex slaves by the Japanese during World War II.
The Guardian notes:
"While Pyongyang is known for its aggressive rhetoric, recent remarks have been unusually personal.
"Earlier this month state media ran misogynist articles, including one headlined "We accuse Park the bitch", labelling her as a lunatic, idiot and 'cold-blooded animal' and emphasising the fact that she has never married or had children.
"Those remarks were presented in the form of quotes from ordinary North Koreans, while the latest tirade, carried by state news agency KCNA, is presented as a statement from an official body."
A court in Egypt has sentenced 683 people to death, including the top leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. In a separate court ruling, the activities of youth group that spearheaded the 2011 uprising were banned.
It's the latest mass trial aimed at the Muslim Brotherhood of Mubarak's successor, ousted President Mohammed Morsi. The defendants were charged with an attack on a police station in the city of Minya in 2013 that killed a policeman.
Mohammed Badie, the Brotherhood's spiritual guide, was among those convicted. The Associated Press writes: "If his sentence is confirmed, it would make him the most senior Brotherhood figure sentenced to death since one of the group's leading ideologues, Sayed Qutb, was executed in 1966."
NPR's Leila Fadel reports that the case was heard by the same judge, Said Youssef, who sentenced 529 people to death in March; however, all but 37 of the earlier sentences were commuted by Youssef on Monday.
In March, the U.N. Human Rights office described the mass death sentences "unprecedented in recent history" and the U.S. State Department called them "unconscionable" and as having a "flagrant disregard for basic standards of justice."
The AP reports:
"Monday's ruling sparked an outcry among families of the defendants outside the court, with women fainting and relatives wailing and crying out 'Why? This is unfair!'"
"'My three sons are inside,' said a woman who only gave her first name, Samiya, as she screamed in grief. 'I have no one but God.'
"Lawyer Ali Kamal, said the hearing lasted only eight minutes. Security forces surrounded the court building and blocked roads, preventing families and media from attending the proceedings."