■INDONESIA
Workers demand security
Thousands of people took to the streets of Jakarta yesterday amid a heavy police presence as they demanded better social security for workers. “The social security system in Indonesia is still weak,” Indonesian Workers Association head Saepul Tavip told reporters. “The system here only covers about 25 percent of the workers. The social security has to cover all workers and even small people,” he said. Indonesian Metal Workers Federation member Didik Suryanto, 31, called for May Day to be made a holiday. “We contribute a lot to the country’s economy and industry. The government should declare May 1 as a public holiday to honor us better,” Suryanto said.
■UNITED STATES
Obama and Bono chat
President Barack Obama and U2 front man Bono met in the Oval Office on Friday to discuss the US administration’s development work in Africa. The White House says the social activist singer joined with Obama, along with members of his national security staff, to talk about ways to ensure the country’s foreign aid is effective. They also discussed opportunities for using innovation and technology to drive economic growth in Africa.
■UNITED STATES
Palin hacker convicted
A man who hacked into the e-mail account of then-vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was convicted on Friday on charges of illegally accessing her e-mail and obstruction of justice. David Kernell, 22, was convicted on the two charges by a Tennessee jury, which acquitted him of a third charge of wire fraud. Palin’s email was hacked in Sept. 2008 as she campaigned alongside Republican presidential candidate John McCain. A number of her emails and two family photos taken from her account were posted online. Kernell faces a maximum of one year in prison and a US$100,000 fine for unauthorized access of Palin’s e-mail, and 20 years in prison and a US$250,000 fine for the obstruction of justice charge, the Justice Department said.
■AUSTRALIA
Disrespectful video pulled
The creators of a comedy video showing a black sportsman as a spear-holding tribesman who talks in clicks have apologised and pulled it from YouTube. DreamTeam Talk, a Web site for Australian Rules football fans, posted a statement saying it had not meant to show disrespect to dreadlocked West Coast Eagles rookie Nic Naitanui, 19. “DT TALK would like to publicly apologise for any inadvertent disrespect shown towards Nic Naitanui and the West Coast Eagles,” the statement said. “We are huge fans of Naitanui [we all have him in our dream teams] and it was never our intention for Naitanui to be seen in a negative light.”
■UNITED STATES
Salinger ‘sequel’ in balance
A lawsuit blocking publication of a purported “sequel” to J.D. Salinger’s classic novel The Catcher in the Rye will be reconsidered in federal court, but Salinger’s trustees are likely to prevail, an appeals court ruled on Friday. The unauthorized spinoff, 60 Years Later: Coming through the Rye, was barred from publication in the US after Salinger — who died in January at age 91 — last year, sued its Swedish author Fredrik Colting, who writes under the name J.D. California. Colting’s book is already available in other countries including Britain, where it is labeled on its cover as a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the