MALAYSIA
Wives’ group draws ire
A group urging wives to avoid marital problems by fulfilling their husbands’ sexual desires like prostitutes has angered politicians and women’s rights groups, the New Straits Times reported yesterday. The Obedient Wives Club, which was set up by a group of Muslim women, said domestic violence, infidelity and prostitution stemmed from a lack of belief in God and a failure of women to satisfy their husbands. The club’s president, Rohaya Mohamed, said it was open to women of all religions and would conduct seminars on how to be a good wife as well as offer marriage counseling. “A man married to a woman who is as good or better than a prostitute in bed has no reason to stray. Rather than allowing him to sin, a woman must do all she can to ensure his desires are met,” Rohaya said.
MALAYSIA
Prostitution raid slammed
Lawyers, politicians and activists lambasted the police on Saturday for chaining up and marking the bodies of 30 foreign women detained for alleged prostitution. Police raided a high-end nightclub in northern Penang State late on Thursday and arrested 29 women from China and one from Vietnam, along with eight Malaysian men. Local media reported police officers went undercover at the club for a week before the raid. The raid triggered an outcry after newspapers carried photographs of the women bound up with a long chain and marked with either a tick or an X on their chest and forehead. “The police branded the detained women as though they are cattle,” opposition lawmaker Teresa Kok said in a statement. “It is sickening that the police would employ such dehumanizing tactics as a show of power and moral superiority over their detainees.” Police said the markings served as a way to identify the women. Police also said they had received numerous complaints from the wives of men who had patronized the club.
JAPAN
Kan may resign in August
Embattled Prime Minister Naoto Kan will be ready to step down in August, his coalition partner said yesterday. Last week, Kan survived an opposition no-confidence motion that some members of his own Democratic Party of Japan had threatened to support, after appeasing his enemies by promising to relinquish power, but without specifying a date. Kan later hinted he wanted to stay until next year, angering opponents. “His real thought is to get his work done by the end of August,” said Shizuka Kamei, leader of the People’s New Party. “That was the idea shared when I met him,” he told TV Asahi yesterday. The government is expected to submit its second extra budget to parliament in August, aimed at funding the reconstruction effort after the March 11 quake and tsunami disaster.
VIETNAM
Defense capacity boosted
The country said yesterday it was buying six Kilo class diesel-powered submarines from Russia for self-defense. “We regard this as a normal activity for the People’s Army of Vietnam,” Minister of Defense General Phung Quang Thanh told the Shangri-La Security Meeting in Singapore. “That is to defend [the country] and take part in national construction. Vietnam’s policy is completely for self-defense and we would never compromise any other country’s sovereignty, but we must deter anyone who tries to compromise Vietnam’s sovereignty.” The submarine deal, signed in 2009, is worth US$3.2 billion, according to Russian media.
PERU
Soldiers killed in clash
Three soldiers were killed and six others were wounded in the southeast on Saturday in a clash with leftist guerrillas from the Shining Path group, the military announced. The attack occurred on the eve of a runoff presidential election, which pits Keiko Fujimori, daughter of a jailed ex-strongman, against Ollanta Humala, a nationalist ex-military man.
UNITED KINGDOM
Academics to launch school
Leading academics are to launch a private university aimed at rivaling Oxford and Cambridge that will charge tuition fees of £18,000 (US$30,000) a year, a report said yesterday. New College of the Humanities, in London, will be modeled on elite liberal arts colleges in the US, the Sunday Times newspaper reported. The university, which will begin its first undergraduate courses next year, is reportedly being funded by millions of US dollars from private investors secured by eminent philosopher AC Grayling. Fourteen leading academics are backing the project and will teach at the university, including evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and historians David Cannadine, Linda Colley and Niall Ferguson, the report said. The college will initially offer about 200 places to undergraduate students to study English, history, philosophy, economics and law degrees, it said. Grayling said the university would offer weekly one-to-one tutorials that other institutions were struggling to maintain because of cuts to government funding. The government last year pushed through tuition hikes at state-run universities to a maximum of £9,000 annually. New College would not be subject to the cap as it is outside the state-funded system.
MEXICO
Ex-mayor arrested for arms
Former Tijuana mayor Jorge Hank Rhon, one of the nation’s most flamboyant businessmen and politicians, has been arrested on suspicion of illegal weapons possession, federal law enforcement officials said on Saturday. Troops raided Hank Rhon’s Tijuana house and took him to a branch office of the federal attorney general’s office, one of the officials said. He said Hank Rhon was suspected of having 88 unlicensed weapons. Another official confirmed the report.
FINLAND
Shipwreck champagne sold
An anonymous Internet bidder on Friday paid 54,000 euros (US$78,200) for two bottles of 200-year-old champagne salvaged from a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, auction organizers said. The buyer from Singapore paid a world-record price of 30,000 euros for a bottle of Veuve Clicquot and 24,000 euros for a bottle of Juglar. Both bottles are believed to be the oldest preserved examples of their respective brands. The buyer’s identity was not revealed. The bottles were discovered when divers found a shipwreck with champagne and beer just south of the islands in July last year. Researchers believe the ship was probably en route from northern Germany to the west coast of Finland when it sank in the first half of the 1800s. Divers found 145 intact bottles in the wreck that lies about 50m deep in total darkness and a constant cool temperature — an environment experts say is the main reason the bubbly kept in such good condition. There were 94 bottles of Juglar, a now--defunct champagne house, 46 bottles of Veuve Clicquot and four Heidsiecks. John Kapon, auctioneer at the event, said the buyer now owns a piece of history.
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
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number