INDIA
Doctors exploit poor women
Doctors in Chhattisgarh State performed hysterectomies on poor village women without a valid medical reason in order to claim money from a national insurance scheme, the state’s health minister said on Wednesday. Under the program launched in 2008, doctors can claim up to 30,000 rupees (US$540) to treat poor families, providing a safety net to help pay for expensive hospital surgeries, but critics say the program was exploited by unscrupulous doctors. “The women were deliberately ill-advised by doctors, who removed their uterus to get money,” Chhattisgarh Health Minister Amar Agrawal said. “As per my information, the doctors have so far managed to make roughly 2 crore [10 million] rupees in recent months by removing uteruses without any valid medical reasons.” The state government examined 1,800 hysterectomies performed in the impoverished state as part of an investigation into the alleged scam.
INDONESIA
Poaching suspect arrested
Police said they have arrested a man suspected of being part of a ring that poaches and trades in endangered animals. National police spokesman Colonel Boy Rafli Amar said yesterday that the man identified only as Feri was arrested on Tuesday at his house in Jakarta’s Depok suburb. Police believe he is a taxidermist. They seized at least 25 stuffed animals, including 14 Sumatran tigers, a lion, three leopards, three bears and a tapir from his house. They also found two sacks full of tiger pelts, the heads of a tiger and three deer. The suspect faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to almost US$11,000.
GERMANY
Sleepy hamlet owed trillions
The sleepy hamlet of Mittenwalde could become one of the richest towns in the world if Berlin were to repay it an outstanding debt that dates back to 1562. A certificate of debt, found in a regional archive, attests that Mittenwalde lent Berlin 400 guilders on May 28, 1562, to be repaid with 6 percent interest per year. According to Radio Berlin Brandenburg, the debt would amount to 11,200 guilders today, which is roughly equivalent to 112 million euros (US$137 million). Adjusting for compound interest and inflation, the debt now lies in the trillions. Historian Vera Schmidt found the debt slip in the archive, where it had been filed in 1963. Though the seal is missing from the document, Schmidt said that she is certain the slip is still valid. “In 1893 there was a debate in which the document was examined and the writing was determined to be authentic,” Schmidt said. Schmidt and Mittenwalde Mayor Uwe Pfeiffer have tried to ask Berlin for their money back, but to no avail.
UNITED KINGDOM
Olympic con man jailed
A man who deceived 75 children in Britain by promising them the opportunity to take part in the closing ceremony of the Olympics has been jailed for two years, police said. “Children as young as nine were left devastated by the actions of this man, whose fraudulent plan could never succeed,” police said in a statement. Stephen Moonesamy, 35, was arrested after approaching three dance schools and recruiting children between the ages of nine and 18 to perform at the closing ceremony. Prosecutors said he charged each child for taking part and built up an elaborate operation by training the dancers, securing equipment and gaining sponsorship. “His project was pure fantasy — based on a lie that grew larger and larger over time,” the Crown Prosecution Service said.
AUSTRIA
Centuries-old bras found
A revolutionary discovery is rewriting the history of underwear: About 600 years ago, women wore bras. The University of Innsbruck said on Wednesday that archeologists found four linen bras dating from the Middle Ages in a castle. Fashion experts described the find as surprising, because the bra had commonly been thought to be only little more than 100 years old as women abandoned the tight corset. Instead, it appears the bra came first, followed by the corset, followed by the reinvented bra. One specimen in particular “looks exactly like a [modern] brassiere,” said Hilary Davidson, fashion curator for the London Museum. Although the linen garments were unearthed in 2008, they did not make news until now, said Beatrix Nutz, the archeologist responsible for the discovery. Researching the items and carbon dating them to make sure they were genuine took some time. “We didn’t believe it ourselves,” she said in a telephone call from Innsbruck. “From what we knew, there was no such thing as bra-like garments in the 15th century.”
CANADA
MacKay’s wife attacked
The Iranian-born activist wife of Defense Minister Peter MacKay has been targeted by what the media described as offensive Twitter messages for her challenge of the Tehran regime. A message from the account of New York-based author and journalist Hooman Majd, said to be sympathetic to Iran, said: “Fucking a Canadian minister doesn’t make you Canadian, azizam [sweetheart]. Come back to papa.” Nazanin Afshin-Jam, a former beauty queen and human rights activist who married MacKay in January, denounced the “serious” slight as “offensive” in an interview with the daily Ottawa Citizen. The message followed Afshin-Jam’s calls last week for the government to shutter Iran’s embassy in Ottawa over reports that diplomats were using cultural outreach programs to recruit expatriates “to be of service to our beloved Iran.”
UNITED STATES
Karaoke leads to shooting
A California man is accused of shooting his 50-year-old son because he didn’t like his country karaoke singing. A Shasta County judge on Tuesday ordered 70-year-old William Henry Oller Sr to stand trial on attempted murder and assault charges in the January shooting, the Record Searchlight of Redding reported. The newspaper said William Carr Oller Jr, 50, suffered a gunshot wound to the arm and other injuries. Defense attorney Aaron Williams said there was no evidence to show the shooting was intentional, and his client may have acted in self-defense when he was approached by his son. The name of the song that may have sparked the shooting remained a mystery.
UNITED STATES
Shipwreck yields treasure
A deep-sea exploration company said it had recovered about 43.5 tonnes of silver from a British cargo ship that was sunk by a torpedo during World War II. Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc said on Wednesday it was the heaviest and deepest recovery of precious metals from a shipwreck. The haul comes from the SS Gairsoppa, which was hit by a German U-boat about 483km off Ireland’s coast. It sits 4,700m deep. So far, workers have brought up more than 1,200 silver bars, or about 1.4 million troy ounces (43.5 tonnes). As of midday on Wednesday, it was worth about US$37 million. The company is under contract by the British government and will get to keep 80 percent of the haul after expenses.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in