INDONESIA
‘No sex’ signs mulled
Officials on the island of Bali are considering putting up “no sex” signs at Hindu temples besides the usual “no eating” and “no smoking” warnings after a lusty Estonian couple were caught in the act. Police took the pair in for questioning after they were found by youth leaders who had gone to check up on repairs at the temple in the village of Saraseda. “They said they really did not know that sex at temples was prohibited in Bali, so we just let them go and left it up to the village heads to decide how to handle the case,” Gianyar district police chief Hadi Purnomo said yesterday. “In the end, the village decided they wanted to hold a cleansing ceremony and ordered the couple to pay 20 million rupiah [US$2,063] to fund the ritual.” The couple admitted they had also used the temple’s outdoor shower before having sex, Purnomo said, and apologized.
SOUTH KOREA
‘Little Psy’ aims for fame
The impish boy who showed off his dance moves alongside Psy in Gangnam Style is hoping to go viral, too. The seven-year-old, nicknamed “Little Psy,” is releasing an electro-pop song next week through iTunes. The boy, whose real name is Hwang Min-woo, says he wants to gain global fame like his “big brother,” Psy. Sporting a black suit and a sleek haircut, Min-woo performed at a news conference on Wednesday. He is the latest recruit in the increasingly global K-pop industry. Min-woo is a second-grader and his mother comes from Vietnam. Meanwhile, the big Psy has released a Gangnam Style remix and is continuing his worldwide tour. The video released on YouTube in July last year has a record 1.39 billion views.
ZIMBABWE
Lions kill third victim
Lions claimed a third victim in the resort town of Kariba after a man’s head, ribs and pelvis were found on Thursday, the country’s parks authority said. Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and the Civil Protection Unit in Kariba have asked professional hunters to help kill the cats after efforts to trap them failed, spokeswoman Caroline Washaya-Moyo said in a telephone interview yesterday from the capital, Harare. Hunters have shot and killed a zebra that will be used to bait the lions, she said. Two earlier victims were discovered on Tuesday, the state-controlled Herald reported. Kariba town, in the north of the country, sits on the shores of a man-made lake of the same name. The town is a popular tourist destination. A plan to poison the lions was rejected by National Parks as dangerous to other wildlife in the area. Elephant, hippo and antelope are commonly seen in Kariba, though lions rarely venture close to human habitation.
BRAZIL
Skulls cause bewilderment
Police in Sao Paulo are baffled by a macabre puzzle: someone has been leaving gift-wrapped human skulls around town. Investigator Paul Henry Bozon Verduraz described the case to the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper in a story published on Thursday. The first skull in cherry-red wrapping was found on Feb. 20 in a planter near a residential building downtown. Since then, seven others have been found near Mormon temples or consulates, including those for Russia, the Czech Republic and South Africa. The skulls are old, with traces of dirt. Verduraz says security cameras captured images of a woman in an ankle-length skirt leaving the skulls. He thinks this may be part of some sort of ritual.
UNITED STATES
Man charged over fatal crash
A man arrested in connection with a New York car crash that killed a rabbinical college student, his pregnant wife and their baby has been charged with vehicular manslaughter and other offenses. Julio Acevedo was arraigned on Thursday in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn and was ordered held without bail. He arrived in the city earlier on Thursday after agreeing to be returned from Pennsylvania, where he had surrendered on Wednesday. Police in New York say Acevedo left the scene of Sunday’s fatal crash. He is accused of speeding down a Brooklyn street and crashing into a car carrying 21-year-olds Nachman and Raizy Glauber. Acevedo has told the Daily News he was fleeing someone who was trying to shoot at him.
UNITED KINGDOM
Bieber faints during show
Justin Bieber is recovering after fainting backstage at a concert in London. A spokeswoman for Bieber said late on Thursday that the 19-year-old pop star was given oxygen and took a 20-minute reprieve after fainting backstage at London’s O2 Arena. “Getting better,” Bieber later posted on Twitter. “Thanks for everyone pulling me thru tonight. Best fans in the world. Figuring out what happened. Thanks for the love.” Jazz Chappell, a 20-year-old concertgoer who brought her younger sister and her friend to the show, said a backup dancer helped Bieber off stage after he announced he could not breathe and needed water. She said many fans in the audience were gasping and crying, while others kept cheering for him to return. “I thought, ‘Give the guy a break. He just fainted. He’s not a performing horse. Let him rest a second,’” Chappell said. In a video of the concert posted online, Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun, appeared on stage and told the crowd that the singer was feeling “very low of breath,” but would come back to finish the show. Chappell said Bieber, who is in London to perform four concerts at the O2, later returned and performed low-energy renditions of his hits Boyfriend and Baby.
RUSSIA
Female heading for space
Russia will send a female cosmonaut into space for the first time in two decades next year, an official at the space training center said on Wednesday. Yelena Serova, 36 and a professional cosmonaut, “is getting ready for a space flight in the second half of 2014,” said Alexei Temerov, an official at Russia’s Star City space training center. Russia will this year celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first woman’s trip to space. The feat was accomplished by Valentina Tereshkova on June 16, 1963. However, only one Russian woman has flown to space since the early 1980s.
‘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