AUSTRALIA
Penis tattoo lands charge
A man has been charged with assault after reportedly tattooing a 40cm penis on his friend’s back after an argument, Queensland police said yesterday. Police said a 21-year-old was facing two counts of assault — the first for applying the indelible mark and the second for allegedly punching the victim. Detective Constable Paul Malcolm said a 25-year-old man had gone to the alleged offender’s house and “somehow in the course of the conversation the subject of tattoos came up.” “The victim wasn’t interested at first but he was talked into it and he said he wanted a yin and yang symbol with some dragons,” Malcolm said, according to Ipswich’s Queensland Times. “The bloke started doing the tattoo and there was another bloke standing there watching saying: ‘Mate, it’s looking really good.’” The victim was then allegedly punched on his way out, before he could check the ink work, which reportedly also included a misspelled comment about his sexuality.
CHINA
Officer’s son arrested
The son of a senior police officer who was allegedly involved in a fatal, drunken hit-and-run has been arrested, state media reported, after the incident sparked outrage on the Internet. Li Qiming (李啟銘) reportedly hit two students with his car at a university campus in Hebei Province and the drunk 22-year-old shouted “sue me if you dare” when a crowd stopped him from fleeing, the state Xinhua news agency said. Witnesses said Li drove past the victims after the accident on Oct. 16, speeding toward the gate of Hebei University, the report said late on Monday. When he was blocked, he was heard challenging people to sue him, shouting “my father is Li Gang [李剛],” referring to the deputy director of the public security bureau in Baoding city’s Beishi district, where the university is located.
NEW ZEALAND
Boy killer pleads guilty
A 13-year-old boy pleaded guilty yesterday to the manslaughter of his 11-year-old friend, making him one of the country’s youngest killers, reports said. The boy, who cannot be named, was aged 12 when he shot his friend with a semi-automatic rifle at a farm in North Island in July last year, Gisborne High Court was told. The boy told his victim not to “get cheeky” during an argument about a hunting trip, then prodded him with the rifle and fatally shot the 11-year-old as he walked away, the Waikato Times reported.
CHINA
Dam reaches top capacity
The water level at the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower plant, reached its maximum capacity yesterday, meaning that the decades-old project is generating its maximum amount of power for the first time. The reservoir’s water level hit its maximum height of 175m at 9am, according to its operator, the China Three Gorges Project Corp — marking the symbolic culmination the project.
AUSTRALIA
Protester throws shoes
A man protesting the Iraq War hurled his shoes at a former prime minister during a live TV show in Sydney, mimicking the shoe-throwing protest aimed at former US president George W. Bush in Baghdad two years ago. Peter Gray flung his shoes at John Howard on Monday after demanding the former leader defend his decision to send 2,000 troops to support the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. “That’s for the Iraqi dead!” he said.
AFGHANSITAN
Dutch aid worker kidnapped
Security forces stepped up the hunt yesterday for a Dutch aid worker and his Afghan driver believed to have been abducted by criminals in the north of the country, police said. The pair were snatched at gunpoint while driving through remote Takhar Province en route to neighboring Kunduz on Monday. The Dutch man was the second Western aid worker kidnapped while traveling by road through rural Afghanistan in a month. The first, British woman Linda Norgrove, was killed during a US rescue attempt. Most abductions of foreigners are carried out by criminal gangs, who then sell their hostages to Taliban insurgents, but Afghan interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said it was “too soon” to talk about who was responsible for the abduction.
ITALY
Scantily clad face fine
Skimpily clothed women in the town of Castellammare di Stabia are to be fined by the police under new regulations banning “very scanty clothing” that were approved late on Monday. The ban will include skirts judged to be too short, jeans that are too low-slung and necklines that are too plunging and is intended to guard against anti-social behavior, a spokesman for the town council said. Mayor Luigi Bobbio of the ruling People of Freedom party defended the much--derided new legislation, which prompted a small protest by female members of the opposition Democratic Party who held a “Mini-skirt Day” rally. “Mini-skirts are not included in the ban. Mini-skirts are not considered very scanty clothing unless they’re so small that they are no longer a skirt and they leave the undergarment showing,” Bobbio said before the vote. Following the vote, he said the ban made Castellammare “a civilized city.” The new rules also ban blaspheming, sunbathing in public and playing football in many public areas.
SPAIN
Prostitutes adopt vests
Roadside prostitutes working on a roundabout outside the city of Lleida have begun wearing yellow reflective bibs to avoid fines from police. The prostitutes have donned the high visibility vests, similar to those worn by road workers or drivers whose cars have broken down, to save themselves the 40 euro (US$56) fines. Police said they were not trying to get rid of the prostitutes, but were simply including them in a push to enforce use of the fluorescent bibs, which must be worn by anyone walking down a rural highway. A police spokesman said: “In the past couple of months the prostitutes have been fined for two reasons: For not wearing the reflective jacket and for creating danger on the public highway.”
TURKEY
Publisher receives award
A Turkish publisher on trial for publishing a classic erotic novel by French writer Guilliame Apollinaire has been recognized with a special award by the Geneva-based International Publishers Association (IPA). Irfan Sanci, owner of publishing house Sel, is being prosecuted under article 226 of the Turkish penal code, an anti-obscenity law, for publishing a translation of Apollinaire’s Les exploits d’un jeune Don Juan (The Exploits of a Young Don Juan). The novel, first published in 1911, features the escapades of a 15-year-old hero who impregnates three women, one of them his own aunt. Sanci is due to receive his award from the IPA’s Freedom to Publish committee on Nov. 2 at the Istanbul TUYAP book fair, with his next court hearing scheduled for the morning of the same date.
CANADA
Right-winger is new mayor
Toronto has elected a new mayor, a right-wing city councilor who is promising to end wasteful spending. Rob Ford tapped into a well of voter anger with his “stop the gravy train” message and has said Toronto would be better off if it didn’t accept more immigrants. The race was marred by ugly incidents, including homophobic ads targeting a gay candidate, and a newspaper article that took a shot at Ford’s weight.
CANADA
Terror leader gets 16 years
The ringleader of a terrorist group was sentenced on Monday to 16 years in prison for leading a terror cell plotting to attack parliament buildings, electrical grids and nuclear stations. Fahim Ahmad had pleaded guilty in May to participating in a terrorist group, importing firearms and instructing his co-accused to carry out an activity for a terrorist group. Ahmad and 17 others were arrested and charged with terrorism offenses in 2006. The court heard that Ahmad, 26, was the leader of a terror cell and held two training camps to assess his recruits’ suitability. Under his direction, plans were made to attack nuclear stations and storm Parliament, taking politicians hostage until Canada gave in to demands to pull troops from Afghanistan. Ontario Superior Court of Justice Fletcher Dawson ruled that even though Ahmad was the leader of the plot, he was not effective and was never close to carrying out any of his threatened attacks.
UNITED STATES
Shove it, Obama: candidate
The Democratic candidate for governor in Rhode Island said on Monday that President Barack Obama can “shove it” for withholding his endorsement in upcoming elections. “He can take his endorsement and really shove it, as far as I’m concerned,” Frank Caprio told local WPRO-AM radio, even as Obama was due to visit the state for two Democratic party fundraisers. Caprio was running against Republican John Robitaille as well as former Republican Lincoln Chafee, an independent who backed Obama’s 2008 presidential bid, in next week’s ballot. “I’ve never asked President Obama for his endorsement. And what’s going on here is really Washington insider politics at its worst,” Caprio said. White House spokesman Bill Burton said that “out of respect for his friend, Lincoln Chafee, the president decided not to get involved in this race.”
MEXICO
Madonna to open gyms
Pop star Madonna is opening a chain of fitness centers around the world to be known as Hard Candy Fitness global gyms. A partnership between Madonna, her manager and New Evolution Ventures plans to open the first gym in Mexico City on Nov. 29. Madonna will attend the opening. A statement by Hard Candy Fitness says gyms “will open in major cities around the world.” New Evolution Chairman Mark Mastrov said Madonna’s input will be reflected in the music, space, light and design.
UNITED STATES
Man moans to cops about pot
A man in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, called police to complain about marijuana he had purchased, which turned out to be something other than pot. Police say the man told officers the substance was “nasty” when he smoked it. Detective Donald Gmitter says a test determined the substance wasn’t pot but police didn’t say what it was. Although the man didn’t technically buy marijuana, he isn’t off the hook. Sergeant Wayne Brown told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that the man could face a charge of possessing a counterfeit controlled substance.
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