■SOUTH KOREA
Porn makers sue thousands
Foreign pornography producers are suing Internet users for breach of copyright by uploading their content onto local Web sites, police said yesterday. A law firm representing 50 US and Japanese porn producers has filed suit against about 10,000 people. The lawsuit was filed simultaneously through 10 police stations in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, police said. “Police will look into the case to see whether there was any breach of the law before deciding whether to initiate criminal probes,” an officer said. Munhwa newspaper said the lawsuit argues that unlimited distribution of porn is “harmful to juveniles.” “We selected about 10,000 user IDs that earned financial benefits from habitually uploading pornography,” an official of the unidentified law firm said.
■HONG KONG
Fair features pricey tea
A 109-year-old tea has gone on sale at an international tea fair, a media report said yesterday. Just 10g of the pu-erh tea costs HK$8,000 (US$1,025), the South China Morning Post reported. Sun Sing Tea is also selling two 300g to 320g slabs of 1950 vintage pu-erh tea for HK$130,000 and HK$70,000 respectively at the three-day fair. Tea is the most popular beverage in Hong Kong, which has the highest consumption of tea of all Asian cities.
■CHINA
Better with butter on it
Residential property managers have turned to butter in their battle against burglars as a cheap alternative to repairing their broken surveillance system. They smeared 100kg of butter on the gas pipelines that run outside the buildings on the Mingdemen estate in the city of Xi’an, making them too slippery to climb, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. “Natural gas pipelines are often used as ‘ladders’ by burglars and burglaries are rife here,” one Mingdemen manager was quoted as saying. About 1,200 of the 2,000 units are rented out, so it can be difficult to determine who actually lives there and “some bad guys may sneak in,” he said. All the surveillance cameras were broken and the estate was facing an outstanding US$8,800 installation bill. “Butter is the most economical way,” the manager said.
■AUSTRALIA
Asylum seekers intercepted
A navy vessel intercepted a boat carrying 77 people off its northwest coast, officials said yesterday. The boat was found early yesterday in the Indian Ocean near Christmas Island, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor said. It is believed that the group intended to seek asylum. “The group will be transferred to Christmas Island, where they will undergo security, identity and health checks as well as establish their reasons for travel,” O’Connor said in a statement.
■CHINA
Kids learn about birds, bees
A Shanghai sex-education camp for children aged eight to 13 began this week, but only six boys enrolled and the girls’ section was canceled, state media reported yesterday. The privately run three-day US$420 camp opened on Wednesday to coincide with the start of summer holidays, the Shanghai Daily reported. A recent survey at a Shanghai hospital found that less than 30 percent of callers to a health hotline knew how to avoid pregnancy, while only 17 percent were aware of venereal disease, state media said last month. But the summer camp for kids aims to answer the basic question: “Where Did I Come From?”
■GERMANY
Briton becomes top shaker
The 35th World Cocktail Championships climaxed late on Tuesday in a hail of ice, bottles and shakers. More than 800 bartenders from 52 countries competed in two categories: “classic,” where taste is king, and “flair,” where competitors pull off jaw-dropping routines, hurling bottles in the air, spinning shakers on their heads, all backed by thumping music and wildly cheering crowds. Ever competitive, the Germans left nothing to chance this year and borrowed a trainer from the World Athletics Championships for “fitness training.” The crowd saved their loudest cheer of the night for two-time world “flairtending” champion Levent Yilmaz of Germany, who wowed them by juggling four bottles and a shaker, at one point catching a rum bottle on the bridge of his nose, to ecstatic applause. Like the ice in his cocktail, however, the home favorite’s dreams of a third world title were crushed by British contender Gianluigi Bosco, with his “Absolutely Rocking” concoction. Vladimir Banak of the Slovak Republic carried off the “classic” trophy with his “Sweet Road.”
■ITALY
Vatican warns on lotto
Catholic officials have warned Italians against worshiping money before God as fever mounts over a lottery prize now worth 131.5 million euros (US$187 million), the largest ever seen in Europe. People have been lining up outside tobacconists across the country to buy tickets for the SuperEnalotto, which has rolled over 82 times since January. “This is a form of idolatry, where we turn not to God but to money,” Domenico Sigalini told Vatican Radio. “History teaches us that everyone who wins billions ends up badly. It’s bad — not good — luck.”
■ITALY
Lotto winner keeps promise
A businessman has shared a third of his 963,000 euros (US$1.36 million) lottery win with his employees as he had promised, La Repubblica daily reported on Wednesday. “If I win, we’ll share it,” Marco Colombo, 38, had shouted to his workers a few days before entering Saturday’s SuperEnalotto draw. The jackpot in the lottery climbed to more than 130 million euros, the newspaper said. On Monday, the businessman, who runs a small metalworking business in the northern city of Turbigo, kept his promise and gave each of his five workers 70,000 euros.
■SWEDEN
Pirate Party targets polls
Sweden’s pro-file-sharing Pirate Party said it would stand in the country’s municipal elections next year, in addition to the national elections. Party leader Rick Falkvinge said the Pirate Party would continue pushing its agenda locally after its success in the European Parliament election in June. The Pirate Party advocates shortening the duration of copyright protection and allowing noncommercial file-sharing.
■ITALY
Bells resume tolling
Which is nicer to have echoing through a small village — the chiming of bells or the banging of pots? The church bells in Mezzema, a village near La Spezia, northern Italy, were silenced earlier this month by the local parish priest. A tourist, it seems, had complained about the early morning gonging. Some residents, though, were not happy. A dozen of them protested by banging pots and lids in the street. Anna Daneri, who led the protest, said that early Wednesday morning, after a few pot-banging protest sessions, the church bells started chiming again.
■COSTA RICA
Arias recovering from flu
President Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and mediator of the Honduran political crisis, is in good spirits as he fights the swine flu, the government said on Wednesday. Mayi Antillon, a spokeswoman for the government, said Arias would continue to work from home. While the president did not enjoy having to watch a soccer match alone, he was in good spirits, Antillon said. The 67-year-old president, who was under medical care, must remain isolated in his residence for at least seven days, but will not delegate power during his absence, his brother said.
■UNITED STATES
Snake in the wash
Laundry workers in Manhattan found a 1.2m snake slithering in the dirty wash. An employee at Gracie Laundry in Manhattan got a shock when she spied a boa constrictor nestled among the bags, NY1 broadcaster reported on Wednesday. “At first I thought it was a joke,” said Eddie Huerta, a friend of the worker who made the discovery. He called the city’s animal control offices. An Animal Care and Control official surmised that the 4kg boa, who was nicknamed Slither, had been abandoned, and was seeking human company. “It was somebody’s pet at one point because it’s very comfortable around humans,” Jose Ortiz said. He said Slither was “a very timid snake, not an aggressive snake at all.”
■ARGENTINA
General convicted of killing
A retired general and four other members of the military have been convicted and sentenced to long prison terms in the 1976 killing of a communist activist. Retired general Santiago Riveros was sentenced to life in prison for aggravated homicide by a three-judge federal court in Buenos Aires province during televised proceedings on Wednesday. Four other retired servicemen received prison sentences of 14 to 25 years in the killing of Floreal Avellaneda, who was abducted in 1976 by a military squad.
■UNITED STATES
Jury to decide Smith case
A New York City judge says a jury can decide whether the author of a best-selling book about the death of Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith defamed her lawyer by calling him a pimp. Federal Judge Denny Chin found plenty of reasons on Wednesday to let the jury hear a US$60 million libel lawsuit brought by lawyer Howard Stern against Blonde Ambition author Rita Cosby. The judge says the veteran television news anchor’s book contains allegations that may be too outlandish to be true, such as claims the lawyer had sex with one of Smith’s former boyfriends and acted as her pimp.
■UNITED STATES
Dropped fish damages car
A woman in Ohio is telling a fish story about one that got away — from a bird — and damaged her car. Authorities in northwest Ohio say the fish — a Lake Erie freshwater drum, known as a sheepshead — smashed a car windshield on Tuesday when an eagle dropped its catch from a height of about 12m, the Sandusky Register reported. Leighann Niles says the impact felt like a brick hitting her Toyota’s windshield. The woman from the Cleveland suburb of South Euclid was vacationing along the lake in Marblehead. Niles says she had thought herself lucky to escape damage in another animal encounter shortly before the fishy one. She says a truck hit a small bird, which struck her back passenger door and startled her five-year-old daughter.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was