Australian Prime Minister John Howard has called for the reality TV series Big Brother to be axed after two male housemates allegedly sexually assaulted a female contestant.
Howard condemned the Australian version of the series after footage of the incident was shown on the show's live Internet streaming, though not on television. In the program, a group of contestants have to live together and try to survive being voted off by viewers.
One of the men reportedly held the young woman down while the other rubbed his crotch in her face. The alleged victim, 22-year-old Camilla Halliwell, was then forced to relive the experience before millions of viewers when she was questioned about the incident.
The behavior of the two men has outraged campaigners against sexual violence and politicians, who have demanded the independent production company, Southern Star Endemol, and Australia's Channel Ten network dump the program.
A question of taste
Howard said it was a question of taste.
"Here's a great opportunity for Channel Ten to do a bit of self-regulation and get this stupid program off the air," he said.
His views were shared by the opposition communications spokesman, Stephen Conroy, who said the incident was so serious that all the prize money should be donated to groups that help sex assault victims.
"The producers of Big Brother stand condemned today for creating an environment that is fueling behavior that is aggressive and demeaning towards women," he said.
The two male housemates, Michael "Ashley" Cox, 20, and Michael "John" Bric, 21, were ordered to leave the Big Brother house at the weekend. Police questioned them and Halliwell but have not pressed charges.
Di McLeod, manager of the Center Against Sexual Violence on the Gold Coast in Queensland, where the series is filmed, said her main concern was that Channel Ten was playing down the seriousness of the young men's actions.
Pushing boundaries
"They are putting people in situations where the boundaries will be pushed ... and we're expecting young people to know what's right and wrong," she said. "It's clear those boys were not identifying their behavior as being perhaps criminal, and at the very least antisocial and inappropriate."
Clearly uncomfortable, Halliwell told fellow housemates how she had told one of the men that it wasn't "the right thing to do."
"There was no malice intended ... and when I said very specifically to John, `Don't. No,' he didn't do it," she said.
Her reaction had much in common with women who had gone through similar experiences, Karen Willis of the New South Wales Rape Crisis Center said. First she had been distressed and then she had tried to play down the incident.
Broadcasting regulators in Australia have yet to make a decision on the program's future.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the