Popular Elsewhere
15:05 UK time, Thursday, 21 April 2011
A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.
The Wall Street Journal's most popular story says that the . The article says Vladimir Putin's "most ambitious" project was an attempt to rebuild the remains of the "once-mighty" Soviet Red Army. A cornerstone of that effort was the creation of special combat-ready units staffed entirely by professional soldiers, not conscripts.
However, the work the soldiers were given was "menial, humiliating and of little practical use" - such as shoveling snow for hour upon hour. With volunteers leaving in droves, the Defense Ministry has abandoned the initiative altogether. The paper argues that the program's failure shows the limits of Mr Putin's grand plan to transform the army from a cumbersome machine designed for European land war into a lithe force capable of fighting regional wars and terrorism.
One of Forbes magazine's most popular stories reports on . Transporting matter from one place to another instantly has long been possible on Star Trek. But, the article reports, in the real world we are only just getting to the stage of possibly teleporting information. The new invention would allow information to be transported from one place to another without "travelling in the intervening space".
The Washington Post's most popular story argues that the Fox News host . It says that as the economy started to recover, Mr Beck's apocalyptic predictions lost their allure. Instead of adapting, he turned it up a gear, urging Americans to hoard food and, according to the article, becoming increasingly antisemitic.
One of Al Jazeera's most popular stories reports on the . It argues that the rise in prices is not just about demand increasing relative to supply. Instead it puts forward an argument that prices are being artificially pushed up by investors speculating. Campaigners are putting on pressure for increased regulation of investors arguing that it affects whether the poorest people can afford to eat.
A popular story on the First Post reports on "outrage" at a of the family. The piece quotes the California party official who circulated the image as saying "I simply found it amusing".
