NEW ZEALAND
Gay groups slam ‘censoring’
McDonald’s said it was reviewing its Internet access policies yesterday after gay groups complained the fast-food giant was blocking their Web sites from its Wi-Fi network. Gay lifestyle Web site GayNZ.com sparked the review when it published an open letter condemning McDonald’s for “censoring” the free Wi-Fi access it introduced in its 132 restaurants in the country last month. It said GayNZ and other sites offering advice and resources to the gay community were barred, preventing access to information that could be “extremely valuable, even life saving, for young people.” “There is a difference between sexuality and sex. Perhaps your censors do not understand this?” the Web site said. McDonald’s said it barred gambling, tobacco and adult Web sites from its Wi-Fi service because it was a family restaurant chain and all content it allowed must be suitable for children to view.
PHILIPPINES
Web sex arrests made
Thirty-six people have been arrested for illegally selling Internet sex to Web users in the US, authorities said yesterday. The 36 were arrested in a raid on Monday on a supposed Internet cafe that was actually being used to sell pictures and videos of naked women to US clients, local police officer Myra Sapa said. Those detained would chat with clients via online messaging, posing as women and offering to disrobe and perform live sex acts in front of a Webcam, said Sapa, based in the northern city of Dinalupihan where the raid took place. “They would talk about sex and nudity until they convinced their clients to give them their credit card account number. Then they would send pictures and videos,” she said. “They pretended that they were these people on the videos. But it was not them. They were giving pre-recorded videos.”
PAKISTAN
Bhutto Zardari blasts killing
The son of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has condemned those who have praised the assassination of a provincial governor opposed to the country’s blasphemy laws. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told mourners on Monday at the Pakistan High Commission in London that people who have voiced support for the killer of Punjab provincial governor Salman Taseer were “the real blasphemers.” “Because of you, the message of Islam is distorted in the eyes of the world,” said Bhutto Zardari, whose father is Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. “Those who attack my religion, especially those who corrupt its peaceful message, you are what I call covert blasphemers and you will be defeated. This will be our jihad.” Bhutto Zardari further pledged to defend Christians and other minorities in the country.
SWEDEN
Soccer player convicted
Retired goalkeeper Magnus Hedman was convicted on Monday of breaking sex crime laws by having sex with a prostitute. The Svea appeals court in Stockholm overturned a lower court ruling acquitting the 37-year-old keeper, who played club soccer Coventry and Celtic, and ordered him to pay 2,500 Swedish kronor (US$360) in fines. Liberian midfielder Dulee Johnson, recently released by Swedish club AIK, was also convicted of paying for sex with the same prostitute on a different occasion. Hedman admitted he had sex with the woman, but claimed he didn’t pay her and wasn’t aware she was a prostitute.
SYRIA
Honor killing sentence rises
Damascus has ordered the sentence for those convicted of honor killings tripled to between five and seven years. The local press reported on Monday that President Bashar Assad amended the current law which stipulated a jail sentence of just two years for those convicted of killing a relative for having illicit sex. Activists say about 150 to 200 women are killed every year in the country by their relatives to preserve conservative tribal notions of family honor.
UNITED KINGDOM
Assange appears in court
WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange was to appear in a London court yesterday as lawyers drew the battle lines in his fight to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning about alleged sex crimes. The mainly procedural hearing at the top security Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court was likely to confirm the date for a full extradition hearing which is expected early next month. The 39-year-old Australian computer expert, who has infuriated Washington by releasing details of secret US diplomatic cables on the Web site he represents, has protested his innocence over claims of sexual misconduct against two women.
GERMANY
‘Double chin’ drug tested
Drugs giant Bayer said on Monday it had launched tests into an injectable drug to combat the fat deposits that lead to the dreaded “double chin.” Bayer said in a statement it was conducting clinical trials into ATX-101, an injectable drug “for the reduction of localized fat under the chin (submental fat).” The firm is testing 720 people in 64 centers in Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Italy with a view to launching a product in Europe, Asia and South America in 2014.
UNITED KINGDOM
Pedophile leader jailed
The “Svengali-like” leader of an online pedophile ring, who drew in four female accomplices, was jailed on Monday for a minimum of nine years and might never be released. Information technology consultant Colin Blanchard, 40, convinced four women — Vanessa George, 40, Tracy Lyons, 41, Tracy Dawber, 44, and Angela Allen, 40 — to sexually assault young children and share the images. Lyons was jailed for seven years and Dawber was given a four-year term while fellow pedophiles George and Allen are already serving prison sentences. Police smashed the gang when a work colleague of Blanchard found child sex abuse images on his computer in June 2009 and called police. “Your influence Colin Blanchard — described this morning as Svengali-like, over four separate women so they engaged in sexual abuse of children of such tender years — is frightening,” the judge at Bristol Crown Court said. “It is more extraordinary when one appreciates you never actually met three of them face to face.”
UNITED STATES
TV exec murder trial starts
Jury selection has begun at the second-degree murder trial of a Buffalo, New York, TV executive from Pakistan charged with beheading his wife. Prosecution and defense lawyers expect it will take longer than usual to seat 12 jurors for Muzzammil Hassan’s trial because of media attention the case has received. In February 2009, Hassan walked into the Orchard Park police station and said his wife was dead. Police found Aasiya Hassan’s body inside the studios of Bridges TV, the Muslim-American TV station the couple ran. Both were from Pakistan. Hassan’s defense is expected to include claims he was a battered spouse.
CANADA
No rejecting gay weddings
Marriage commissioners in Saskatchewan cannot legally refuse to wed gay couples because of their personal religious beliefs, a court ruled on Monday. The province had asked the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal to consider the constitutional validity of a proposed law that would allow commissioners to refuse to solemnize gay marriages. The provincial court ruled that the proposed changes would be unconstitutional, and if enacted, “would violate the equality rights of gay and lesbian individuals.”
UNITED STATES
‘Stabber’ to face trial
A Michigan judge said there’s enough evidence for a man suspected in a series of knife-slayings and attempted slayings to stand trial in a case where the victim survived. Elias Abuelazam already faces two murder trials, and a hearing in Flint scheduled for yesterday would decide if he would be tried in a third killing. On Monday, a Burton district judge ordered the 34-year-old Abuelazam tried on a charge of assault with intent to murder in the stabbing of Antoine Jackson on June 12 last year. Abuelazam was arrested in Atlanta in August while trying to fly to his native Israel. He’s also charged with attempted murder in Toledo, Ohio.
UNITED KINGDOM
Prison officers injured
Two officers were hurt in a serious disturbance at a young offenders unit in southern England when prisoners refused to return to their cells, prison officials said on Monday. The incident involving inmates at Littlehey Prison was resolved at around 9:30pm with no further injuries to staff or prisoners, a spokeswoman for the prison service said. She said the four to five inmates involved have been relocated to a segregation unit and would be subject to disciplinary procedures. Her comments downplayed earlier remarks from a spokesman for the Prison Officers Association. Glyn Travis had said that a female officer was assaulted and a male officer was scalded with hot water in the incident. Travis said about 60 inmates were involved in the disturbance.
UNITED STATES
Abuse tipster talks to police
A man who sent Los Angeles County detectives graphic video depicting sexual assaults on disabled women has reached out to detectives after seeing coverage of the case on the news. He told investigators that a drug addict had given him a computer to clean its hard drive. The man was deeply disturbed by videos on the hard drive so he made copies and sent them to the sheriff’s department, along with a note. He said he did so anonymously because he feared for his safety. Authorities have identified two suspects in the case, though as many as 10 men are believed to be involved in the assaults.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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