NEPAL
Fortune god leads ritual
A five-year-old boy is worshiped by many in Kathmandu after being hailed last year by Buddhist priests as Ganesh, or the god of good fortune. Since then, Sambeg Shakya has led several processions of the better--known “living goddesses,” also known as Kumari. On Wednesday, Sambeg, his eyes rimmed in black kohl and wearing a gold brocade dress, walked at the head of a line of nine tiny girls to another girl believed to be the bodily incarnation of Taleju, the goddess of power, in Kathmandu. The centuries-old ritual was the climax of the annual Hindu festival of Dasain, which lasts for two weeks and has become a major tourist attraction. “I want to become a doctor,” said Sambeg, his long hair tied in a bun on top with a peacock feather planted on it. His father, Bishwo Prakash, said his family would help the boy pursue the studies he chooses. The government pays US$63 a month to meet Sambeg’s living costs, but his family said the money was not enough. “The government must increase the allowances to cover the living costs and education of the child who plays a culturally significant role,” Prakash said.
THAILAND
Flood centers get condoms
The government on Wednesday scrambled to airlift condoms and other emergency health supplies to victims of its worst floods in decades to prevent a feared surge in unplanned pregnancies. Five helicopters began transporting medicine and other provisions from the Public Health Ministry in Bangkok to seven locations in the central province of Lop Buri, which has been severely inundated. “Local volunteers told us that villagers have nothing to do during the floods, so to prevent a baby boom we added condoms too,” an official at the Emergency Medical Institute of Thailand said. The unusually severe monsoon floods have killed 237 people and affected three-quarters of the country.
JAPAn
Hair-washing robot unveiled
It may look like a glorified salon chair, but a new hair-washing robot replicates the dexterous touch of a human hand to care for the locks of the elderly and the infirm. Its creators at electronics firm Panasonic say the machine features the latest robotic technology and could help replace human caregivers in the rapidly aging nation. “Using robotic hand technology and 24 robotic fingers, this robot can wash the hair or handicapped in the way human hands do in order to help them have better daily lives,” developer Tohru Nakamura said. The customer leans back in what looks like a regular salon chair, over a sink, and the machine — upgraded from a 16-fingered version — shampoos, massages the scalp and rinses in about three minutes. Conditioning and a blow-dry add another five minutes. Panasonic plans to start sales of the robot next year, targeting nursing homes and hospitals.
AUSTRALIA
Transgenders win appeal
Two transgender people yesterday won a High Court appeal giving them legal recognition as men despite not having had complete sex change surgeries. Transgender and intersex organizations praised the ruling as a precedent that would spare others from having to undergo medically unnecessary surgery to have their chosen gender recognized. The court ruled that characteristics that identify a person as male or female are “confined to external physical characteristics that are socially recognizable.” This recognition does not require knowledge of a person’s sexual organs, the court said.
RUSSIA
Putin dive expedition staged
A widely publicized incident in which Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pulled up ancient Greek jug fragments from the seabed on a diving expedition was staged, his chief spokesman said. The August dive in the Kerch Strait that connects the Black Sea and the Azov Sea was reported extensively in Russian and overseas media. Putin is noted for his habit of appearing in vigorous and adventurous settings, including fishing while stripped to the waist and riding with leather-clad motorcyclists. In video footage of the dive, Putin holds two fragments of what are said to be sixth century BC Greek jugs and says “the boys and I found them” in about 2m of clear water, but his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview shown on Tuesday on the Dozhd TV channel that the jugs had been found earlier by archeologists and placed there for Putin. “Look, Putin didn’t find down there jugs that had lain there for many thousands of years. It’s obvious,” Peskov said. “Of course, they were found in the course of an expedition several weeks or days earlier. Of course, they were left there or placed there. It’s completely normal.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Primal Scream slam Tories
As if unpopular austerity measures and Europe’s debt crisis were not enough, the ruling Conservative Party now has an angry band to deal with. Scottish rockers Primal Scream have labeled as “sick” the use of their hit track Rocks during a party conference in Manchester this week. The song was played at the end of a speech by Home Secretary Theresa May. The refrain features the lines “Get your rocks off, Get your rocks off, honey.” “Primal Scream are totally disgusted that the Home Secretary Theresa May ended her speech at the Tory party conference with our song Rocks,” the band said in a statement. “They are legalized bullies passing new laws to ensure the wealthy stay wealthy, taking the side of big business, while eradicating workers’ rights and continuing their attacks on young people. We would like to distance ourselves from this sick association.”
NETHERLANDS
Drunks to get ‘alcolocks’
Drivers caught operating a car while massively over the legal alcohol limit will be forced to fit their cars with “alcolocks,” which automatically lock the engine if the driver is over the limit. Convicted drunk drivers found with blood alcohol levels more than six times the legal limit will be ordered to install alcolocks in their cars, the transport ministry said on Wednesday. The new rules will come into effect on Dec. 1. The way the alcolock works is that the driver must first breathe into it to unlock the engine and the driver will have to repeat the same process at regular intervals during the journey. If the mini-breathalyser, which is fitted to the dashboard, indicates a blood alcohol level above the legal limit, the engine will not turn on.
SWITZERLAND
Motorist trapped by phone
A motorist used his mobile phone to record himself driving on a freeway near Geneva at 320kph, nearly three times the speed limit, police said on Wednesday. The offense was only uncovered six months later when the 28-year-old was questioned in another case and investigators found the images still on the phone. Some shots were focused on the speedometer of his car, a Bentley Continental, according to a police spokesman. Others showed the road, revealing where he was, and the phone’s timer recorded the date and the time. His license was confiscated and he is free on bail awaiting trial.
UNITED STATES
Obama hails Shuttlesworth
US President Barack Obama on Wednesday paid tribute to oft-arrested civil rights pioneer Fred Shuttlesworth, who has died at age 89, as a “testament to the strength of the human spirit.” “Michelle and I were saddened to hear about the passing of Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth today [Wednesday],” Obama said in a statement. “As one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Reverend Shuttlesworth dedicated his life to advancing the cause of justice for all Americans. He was a testament to the strength of the human spirit. And today we stand on his shoulders, and the shoulders of all those who marched and sat and lifted their voices to help perfect our union.” Obama, the US’ first black president, said he would never forget pushing Shuttlesworth across a bridge in Selma, Alabama, during a 2007 event marking a famous 1960s voting rights march. Shuttlesworth made his name as a civil rights campaigner by leading protests at racial segregation on buses in Alabama and was a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr.
PERU
Soccer tickets for stolen dog
A soccer fan who adores his dog even more than the game is offering prized tickets to a Peru-Paraguay World Cup qualifying match to the thief who drove off with his car and beloved shih tzu, or “Chocolate.” “I don’t care about the car, all I want is my dog,” Luis Reveredo said. Reveredo said he had left the beige and white shih tzu mixed breed in his car during a family get-together because he was barking too much. “As bad luck would have it, they stole the car and with it my little dog,” he said. To get the pooch back, Reveredo is offering two tickets to today’s game in Lima between Peru and Paraguay, the start of the 2014 World Cup elimination rounds for South America. He waited in line all night to buy prime seats, which he said cost him 300 soles (US$110) apiece and can now be scalped at four times the price. Reveredo’s wife and children are depressed, he said. “He’s my wife’s favorite pet. I would say she prefers Chocolate to me.”
UNITED STATES
Pot tools to grow vegetables
Equipment seized from a US marijuana operation is going to be used to grow a different kind of herb — and vegetables, too. Delaware County District Attorney Michael Green told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the equipment taken in May from a sophisticated marijuana growing operation will go to Cheyney University and a Philadelphia community development corporation’s Urban Food Lab. Authorities say the raid at a former Chester drugstore yielded industrial generators, grow lights and hydroponic plant containers. The Inquirer report says Partnership CDC’s Urban Food Lab grows greens, lettuce, peppers and broccoli. An on-campus business at Cheyney already uses hydroponic techniques to grow basil that’s sold to local supermarkets.
UNITED STATES
Porn-shoot firemen scot-free
Firefighters who allowed porn producers to use Los Angeles fire trucks in sex films won’t face discipline. The Los Angeles Times reports the City Charter prevents the Fire Department from taking disciplinary action for incidents that are more than two years old. The fire truck porn shoots were first reported last month by KNBC-TV. Fire Chief Brian Cummings wrote to Councilman Dennis Zine saying the two incidents occurred before 2008 and the charter prevented him from taking action. One incident involved Firehouse 63 in Venice, Los Angeles. The other film involved Firehouse 41 in Hollywood.
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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
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