JAPAN
Scientists crack butt scanner
Put your fingerprint scanners away. Stand aside iris measurers. Buttocks are the new way to prove who you are. A team of scientists claim their pressure sensor sheet can accurately identify an individual’s backside and when placed on a driver’s seat could be used as a last line of defense to stop someone else driving away your motor. “The sheet has 360 sensors, which collect data for 39 features to recognize a person, such as pressure patterns and the dimensions of the buttocks,” said Shigeomi Koshimizu, who led the research. However, he said, there are still a few hurdles to clear before the technology makes it to market. “The recognition tends to be compromised by different clothes,” he said. “Sensors read different signals from a pair of trousers and a pair of jeans.”
HONG KONG
Shangri-La drops shark fin
Luxury hotel chain Shangri-La has announced it will stop serving shark fin at its 72 properties worldwide, as the campaign to protect the marine predators gains ground among Chinese consumers. The group said it would cease serving shark fin in all of its restaurants as well as accepting new orders for shark fin products in banqueting with immediate effect, under its “sustainable seafood policy.” Shangri-La said it would also phase out Bluefin tuna and Chilean sea bass, which are under the threat of extinction, at all restaurants within the year.
JAPAN
Kim son not so confident
A new book claims that the eldest son of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il believes the regime may be destined to collapse and fears his young half-brother isn’t ready to lead. The book by Tokyo-based journalist Yoji Gomi went on sale yesterday. He says it is based on e-mail exchanges he had with Kim Jong-nam over many years. The book drew immediate attention as a rare view into the family that has led the secretive country for decades. Since Kim Jong-il’s death on Dec. 17, North Korea has been led by his youngest son, Kim Jong-un. “Jong-un will just be a figurehead,” the book quotes Kim Jong-nam as saying. It claims he said the collapse of North Korea’s economy is “within sight” unless it initiates reforms, which could also bring it down.
INDIA
Court mulls general’s age
The government and its army chief are asking the Supreme Court to answer a peculiar question: Just how old is the nation’s top soldier? General Vijay Kumar Singh says he was born in May 1951 and will not reach the mandatory retirement age of 62 until next year. However, the Ministry of Defense says its records show he was born a year earlier and must retire in four months. The disagreement, the first time a serving general has dragged the government to court, is complicated because Singh’s army records and school certificates show different dates. Like many of his generation, Singh has no birth certificate.
HONG KONG
Police search for ring
Police said yesterday they were investigating the theft of a US$1.6 million gem-encrusted ring reportedly left in a hotel washroom by co-president of Swiss jewelers Chopard. “A female foreigner left an emerald ring valued at HK$12 million in the washroom on the fourth floor of the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong,” a police spokeswoman said. “A few minutes later when she returned to look for the ring, it was gone.”
FRANCE
Worker guilty of ‘crap’ insult
A court on Tuesday found a union delegate guilty of publicly insulting his call-center employers by calling them “crap bosses” on Facebook. The court in Paris found Eric Blanchemain guilty of “public insult” for the November 2010 posting on the Facebook page of the CGT-FAPT union branch for the Webhelp call center based in Caen. In the post, Blanchemain had written: “Crap day, crap weather, crap job, crap office, crap bosses.” He was given a suspended sentence of a 500 euro (US$635) fine and ordered to pay a symbolic one euro each in damages to Webhelp, its branch in Caen and his immediate supervisor. “The statements in question went beyond the limit of acceptable criticism,” the court said in its ruling. Blanchemain admitted in court to having posted the statement but said it was under exceptional circumstances as it was the day after a colleague’s suicide.
IRELAND
Police recover stolen relic
Police have recovered a Christian relic said to be part of the cross on which Jesus was crucified, three months after it was stolen from an abbey, the Catholic church said on Tuesday. The 14th-century silver artefact containing the relic was undamaged, it said. In the Oct. 11 raid on Holy Cross Abbey in County Tipperary, masked thieves used an angle grinder, hammer and screwdriver to cut loose two artefacts — the silver reliquary containing two crosses and dark stones, and another cross made of gold and bronze. The archbishop of Cashel and Emly, Dermot Clifford, said it was “truly wonderful” both artefacts had been recovered. The relic, which has been an object of devotion and pilgrimage for centuries, is said to have been presented to the abbey by an Irish king, Donal Mor O’Brien, some time around 1180.
FRANCE
WHO issues implant alert
The WHO on Tuesday intervened for the first time in the roiling global scandal over faulty breast implants, urging women with the devices to seek medical advice if they have any concerns. “Persons with PIP or M-Implant prostheses should consult their doctor or surgeon if they suspect rupture, have pain or inflammation or any other concerns,” UN’s health agency said, referring to the brands implicated in the controversy. “Affected persons and physicians should take note of their national health authority recommendations and act accordingly,” it said in a “Global Alert and Response” statement issued on its Web site. About 300,000 women in 65 countries are believed to have received implants made by Poly Implant Prothese, a now-defunct manufacturer in southern France, although some figures are much higher. The prostheses were withdrawn from the European market in 2010 after France’s health watchdog discovered they were made from sub-standard, industrial-grade gel.
RUSSIA
Polls were marred
The Dec. 4 parliamentary polls won by the ruling party and which sparked mass protests were marred by 3,000 violations, prosecutors said yesterday, but they did not back allegations of mass rigging. Irregularities ranged from conflicts of interest on election committees to unlawful voters, prosecutors said in a report delivered to President Dmitry Medvedev. Up to now, 95 people had faced administrative consequences for the violations, it said. However, the report made no mention of any criminal cases and stopped well short of backing opposition claims that there was mass rigging to boost the ruling United Russia party of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
UNITED STATES
Man charged over shooting
A man accused of firing shots at the White House in November has been formally charged with attempting to assassinate President Barack Obama, according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday. A preliminary psychiatric evaluation last month found Oscar Ortega-Hernandez, 21, competent to stand trial, but federal prosecutors are asking for more extensive tests to ensure he can be held legally liable. The federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a 17-count indictment on Tuesday against the suspect, who has been in custody since his arrest on Nov. 16.
MEXICO
Dismembered bodies found
Three dismembered bodies were found on Tuesday in different parts of Acapulco in what appears to be continuing drug cartel violence, the Guerrero state government said. Two of the bodies were found in a burning car and on the pavement of the roadway at the entrance of a resort, officials said. Firefighters responding to the report of a car fire found two heads on the pavement, the lower part of a man’s body in the trunk and the rest of the bodies in two bags inside the vehicle. Earlier in the day, neighbors in a residential area found the dismembered body of a man inside a home.
UNITED STATES
Suspected killer arrested
A US Iraq veteran was charged on Tuesday over the deaths of four homeless people in California, police said, adding that the alleged serial killer had selected more victims before he was arrested. Itzcoatl Ocampo, 23, of Yorba Linda, was arrested on Friday after witnesses chased him from the scene of the fourth fatal attack in Orange County — of a 64-year-old Vietnam war veteran — in less than a month. The first killing on Dec. 20 targeted a 53-year-old homeless man sleeping outside a shopping center, followed eight days later by that of a 42-year-old in Anaheim, in which the victim was stabbed 40 times. On Dec. 30, a 57-year-old man was stabbed more than 50 times outside a library in Yorba Linda, triggering growing alarm that a serial killer was on the loose.
UNITED STATES
Stars to wear condoms
Pornography stars in Los Angeles will be required to wear condoms during film shoots after the city council voted on Tuesday to mandate their use, despite a threat by producers to leave town over the requirement. The move comes amid persistent questions about how to enforce the health measure, which backers say will protect performers in the multibillion-dollar porn industry from contracting HIV and other diseases. The mandate will take effect in 90 days.
BRAZIL
Police probe rape on show
Police are investigating a cast member of the nation’s most popular reality TV show, Big Brother Brazil, for allegedly raping a fellow contestant. Early on Sunday, after a party that was scripted as part of the show, contestant Daniel Echaniz, 31, is alleged to have had sex with Monique Amin, 23, as cameras rolled. Both have denied that to police, they said on Tuesday. Police took the contestants’ underwear and sheets from the show set, and the host voted Daniel off for “inappropriate behavior.” The party was televised on Brazil’s Globo TV, and showed Echaniz, a model, and Amin, a student, kissing and caressing each other. Another image shows Echaniz under the sheets presumably having sex with Amin, who appears not to move. Network officials told media that authorities were investigating, because Amin was apparently asleep.
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