INDONESIA
Woman in sex ring case
A woman accused of running an online prostitution ring has denied profiting from a network of nearly 1,800 sex workers, her lawyer said on Monday. Yunita was standing trial at Surabaya district court in East Java on multiple charges, including human trafficking, punishable by up to 15 years in jail. According to a copy of the indictment, the 34-year-old, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, arranged for the prostitutes to meet their potential clients via text messages on a BlackBerry Messenger. In one case, a prostitute told police that Yunita had instructed her to entertain a male client for a fee of 1.5 million rupiah (US$156), one-third of which was wired into her bank account, it added. Yunita had about 30 prostitutes working directly under her, but her “friends who cooperated as her pimps” had a network of nearly 1,800 sex workers in various cities, it said. Her defense lawyer, Erry Meta, said the indictment had “fatal errors.” “She had never asked for money from them or profited from their work,” he told reporters. “The prostitutes had readily transferred [the money] to her. She never knew whether or not they had entertained the clients. Yunita never told them what to do, so those charges were totally untrue.”
SOUTH AFRICA
Whale lands on boat
A breaching whale leapt out of the sea off the coast and landed on a boat on Monday, injuring three men, one seriously, sea rescue officials said. “The men claim they were motoring slowly approximately a kilometer offshore when a whale breached in front of their boat and came onto their boat, causing the boat and all three men to go under water as the whale sunk back into the water,” National Sea Rescue Institute Port Elizabeth station commander Ian Gray said. A 41-year-old was taken to hospital in a serious condition with suspected rib fractures and injuries to his arm, leg and soft tissue. A 25-year-old was also taken to hospital with soft tissue injuries, while the skipper, 35, had minor injuries. “The boat has sustained extensive damage,” Gray said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Osborne tops nightmare list
British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is the public figure who most often appears in Britons’ nightmares, a recent study has found. Ruling Conservative Party member Osborne was booed during a medal ceremony at the Paralympics this summer in London, and has been the focus of public criticism for austerity measures which have seen cuts to welfare budgets and a freeze in public sector pay. Former British prime minister Gordon Brown came second in the survey conducted by hotel group Travelodge, which asked 2,000 people about their nightmares. Former glamor model Katie Price, also known as Jordan, beat a number of other politicians to come third.
UNITED STATES
Nun accused of stealing
A nun with a gambling addiction has been accused of stealing US$128,000 from two rural parishes where she worked. Sister Mary Anne Rapp was treated for a gambling addiction and is in recovery, her order said on Monday, but she still faces a criminal charge of grand larceny following the thefts from the St Mary and St Mark congregations. She was expected to plead not guilty at an initial appearance in court on Monday evening. Rapp is accused of taking the money between 2006 and 2010. She was placed on leave from her position as a pastoral associate in February last year and fired in April last year.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
SEVEN-MINUTE HEIST: The masked thieves stole nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry, including a crown, which they dropped and damaged as they made their escape The hunt was on yesterday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewelry from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators was working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organized crime group. The heist reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums, with French Minister of Justice yesterday admitting to security flaws in protecting the Louvre. “What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of
RSS