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.
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