SINGAPORE
Artist under investigation
An artist under investigation for allegedly vandalizing roads saw more than 11,000 Internet users yesterday petitioning online for leniency. Police declined to identify the 25-year-old woman arrested, but said she faced a maximum three-year jail term and a fine of up to S$2,000 (US$1,500) if convicted. A police statement said the woman, dubbed “Sticker Lady” by the local media, is alleged to have painted “MY GRANDFATHER ROAD” on several streets last month. She is also alleged to have pasted captioned stickers on traffic lights, pavements and pedestrian crossings. The case has sparked uproar on the Internet, with many feeling the artist, identified as Samantha Lo in local media, was simply expressing creativity and should be treated with leniency.
INDIA
Police hunt alleged killer
Police yesterday said they were hunting for a village strongman accused of beating to death an “untouchable” neighbor who broke strict caste-based rules by using a local handpump. Mohan Paswan, in his late 40s, was lynched in Parhuti village in Bihar State on Thursday last week when he disobeyed an order by a local thug not to use the pump during a heatwave. “Paswan was attacked and brutally thrashed by village strongman Pramod Singh and his henchmen for taking water,” local police official Saroj Kumar said. “Police have been trying hard to arrest the accused in the case, but they are absconding.”
SINGAPORE
Ex-defense chief charged
Former Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) chief Peter Lim was charged with accepting sex for favors yesterday in the most serious corruption case involving senior government officials in almost 20 years. Lim “is accused of having corruptly obtained sexual gratification from two female vendors and one potential female vendor to the SCDF on 10 occasions between May 2010 and November 2011,” a spokesman for the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau said. Lim, along with Central Narcotics Bureau director Ng Boon Gay, was replaced in February, with authorities saying the two men were being investigated by the bureau. The Straits Times’ Web site reported Lim, who is 51, appeared in court alone yesterday, but did not say if he entered a plea.
VIETNAM
High-priced sex ring busted
Police have busted a high-end sex ring and arrested four people, including a former beauty queen, for pimping models, singers and actresses to wealthy clients, state media said yesterday. Police discovered the alleged ring after raiding a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City over the weekend and finding two women — who have confessed to working for the ring — with two clients, the Thanh Nien newspaper said. The women told police they worked for beauty queen Vo Thi My Xuan, 29, and could earn up to US$4,000 for each appointment, the report said, adding the ring included about 20 models, singers, actresses and students.
JAPAN
Prince Tomohito dies
Prince Tomohito, cousin of Emperor Akihito, died yesterday, a palace official said. He was 66. Tomohito, who openly admitted to an alcohol problem, had been suffering from cancer of the larynx. He had undergone cancer-related surgery a reported 16 times, most recently in March. Known as “the bearded prince,” Tomohito was one of the more outspoken members of the imperial family.
BULGARIA
Ancient ‘vampires’ unearthed
Archeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed two skeletons from the Middle Ages pierced through the chest with iron rods to keep them from turning into vampires, the head of the history museum said on Tuesday. According to pagan beliefs, people who were considered bad during their lifetimes might turn into vampires after death unless stabbed in the chest with an iron or wooden rod before being buried. “These two skeletons stabbed with rods illustrate a practice which was common in some Bulgarian villages up until the first decade of the 20th century,” national history museum chief Bozhidar Dimitrov said after the recent find in the Black Sea town of Sozopol.
ISRAEL
Ex-player on hunger strike
A former member of the Palestinian national soccer team remains on hunger strike over his imprisonment by Israel without charge, or trial, despite an agreement that was reached last month in order to end a mass protest by Palestinian prisoners. Mahmoud Sarsak, 25, has refused food for 80 days, since 19 March. He began his hunger strike after his “administrative detention” order was renewed for the sixth time. He was arrested in July 2009 while on his way from his home in Gaza to a national contest in the West Bank. Sarsak is due to be visited for the first time today, by a doctor from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) — an Israeli organization — following legal submissions. A PHR spokeswoman said although Sarsak may be taking fluids and supplements, “every day that this goes on he is at risk of death or permanent damage.”
RUSSIA
Fine for illegal protest soars
Russia’s lower house of parliament approved a bill on Tuesday that would raise the fine for participating in an unauthorized protest 150-fold. If, as expected, the bill becomes law, protesters whose rallies are not officially sanctioned will face fines of up to 300,000 rubles (US$9,000), up from the current 2,000 rubles. The potential punishment is far more severe than for many other crimes. A sampling of other offenses and their maximum penalties under Russian law: prostitution (2,500 rubles); illegal use of an automobile (120,000 rubles); nuclear materials storage violations (5,000 rubles for regular citizens, 40,000 rubles for public officials); performing an abortion without medical qualifications (80,000 rubles); violating safety precautions in designing, building and using nuclear energy facilities that could cause danger or radioactive contagion (200,000 rubles); and organizing prostitution (500,000 rubles or three years in prison).
GERMANY
Spain needs help: Kauder
The leader of Germany’s conservative parliamentary group, Volker Kauder, yesterday urged Madrid to seek help from the EU rescue fund the European Financial Stability Facility to solve Spain’s banking crisis. “Spain is going to have to make a decision, and I think it should seek protection from the fund ... because of its banks,” Kauder said. As head of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Kauder is a close aide to Chancellor Angela Merkel, but Germany has until now taken care not to exert pressure on Spain as it battles the latest blaze in the eurozone debt crisis. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has refused so far to seek financial assistance from the EU that would come with strings attached, but has acknowledged that the situation with the banks is critical.
UNITED STATES
Vodka served to toddler
A company that manages a Hawaii dinner cruise has acknowledged mistakenly serving alcohol to a three-year-old boy. Army Specialist Bingyan Cai said her son Michael’s orange juice contained vodka while they were dining aboard the Alii Kai catamaran on May 26. She noticed her son turning red, acting unruly and mumbling, the active duty mom stationed on Oahu told Hawaii News Now.” She tried his drink and tasted alcohol, even offering it up to family members and nearby tourists for confirmation. She notified the boat staff and was given bottled water, but was told not to make a fuss so as to not ruin the ride for tourists, Cai said. The company that manages the cruise, Roberts Hawaii, apologized in a statement on Monday, saying it was mortified by the error. The family received a refund of nearly US$300 for the cost of the dinner cruise.
CANADA
‘Bath salt’ precursor banned
The government said on Tuesday it was moving to ban the main substance used to make “bath salts” — the drug linked to a grisly attack in the US in which a man almost killed another by chewing his face. The drug — which resembles regular bath salts in texture — can spark an often aggressive, chaotic experience for users, including intense hallucinations. Key to the production of the illegal drug is a synthetic stimulant known as MDPV that, under new regulations expected to take effect within months, will become illegal to produce, own, deal, export or import. Reports have suggested that a nude assailant who gnawed the face of a homeless man in Miami last month was likely under the influence of “bath salts.”
BRAZIL
Cannibal cultists charged
Three Brazilians have been charged with murdering three women and eating their flesh as part of a cult in which they sought to purify their souls and control population growth, police said. Authorities on Tuesday brought the charges against the three — Jorge da Silveira and Isabel Pires, a married couple in their early 50s, and 25-year-old Bruna da Silva — accusing them of murdering three women aged 17 to 31 between 2008 and this year in Pernambuco State. “The accused admitted to consuming the flesh of their victims,” police spokesman Paulo Berenguer told reporters, adding that investigators were looking into whether they were involved in the deaths of four other people.
UNITED STATES
Madoff staffer admits fraud
A former employee at the investment firm run by Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty on Tuesday to paying fake salaries as part of a tax fraud scheme. Craig Kugel, 38, pleaded guilty in the federal court in New York to false tax returns, false statements and tax fraud conspiracy. Kugel faces a maximum sentence of 19 years in prison and will be sentenced on Dec. 13.
MEXICO
Ex-governor’s ranch seized
Federal prosecutors have seized a ranch and the offices of former Tamaulipas governor Eugenio Hernandez Flores. A state official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said soldiers and federal agents with the organized crime branch of the Attorney General’s Office raided Flores’ properties on Tuesday. US authorities allege a previous governor of the northern border state, Tomas Yarrington, took money from the Gulf and the Zetas cartel. Neither Hernandez nor Yarrington have been charged with any crime.
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