INDONESIA
Gamblers publicly caned
Authorities have publicly caned eight men who were convicted of gambling in conservative Aceh province. About a thousand people watched as the eight men were caned inside a mosque compound after Friday prayers in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh. An official said police arrested nine people who were gambling in July and seized about US$130 in cash from them, but one could not be caned because of his health condition. A state prosecutor read out their punishment and a masked man wearing robes used a thin rattan cane to whip their backs five times each. Indonesia allows Aceh on Sumatra Island to follow a version of Shariah law, which forbids gambling.
CHINA
Porn purge strikes sites
China’s Cyperspace Administration has closed nearly 1.8 million accounts on social networking and instant messaging services since it launched an anti-pornography campaign in April, state news agency Xinhua reported yesterday. The campaign has been focused on shutting down Web sites showing pornography and services used to solicit prostitution. Most of the accounts closed were associated with microblogs, smartphone app WeChat and the instant messaging service QQ, Xinhua quoted the Cyberspace Administration as saying. Many of the accounts were shut down by the companies owning the apps themselves after public complaints, Xinhua said. There was no immediate comment from any of the companies involved. Beijing regularly launches anti-pornography campaigns because the Chinese Communist Party considers it deeply offensive to public morals. Tencent Holding Ltd’s WeChat is among China’s biggest messaging apps with more than 300 million users.
CHINA
Massive jade deposit found
A massive deposit of jade weighing about 600 tonnes has been found in northeast China, state media said on Friday. The government in Liaoning Province said miners discovered the deposit while digging in a cave in Kuandian Man Autonomous County last year, Xinhua news agency reported. Jade holds mythical properties in China, where it is believed to ward off evil spirits and bring better health. Wang Xingdong, general manager of the local mining company that found the deposit, said it was priceless, according to the report. There is no international pricing system for jade. Seen as a classier status symbol than gold, values have been increasing since 2005 as the newly-rich in China have bought-up jade products.
FRANCE
Criminal exaggerates death
A French criminal came up with a cunning plan to escape the long arm of the law by announcing his own funeral, which both the police and his unsuspecting granny attended. The 26-year-old, wanted for a long list of offenses including fraud and theft, placed a death notice in the Ouest-France regional paper and online. “His mother, father, brothers, sister and the whole of the family would like to inform you of the death of [Cedric L], who passed away on Thursday, September 11, at the age of 26,” the notice read. “The funeral will be celebrated Tuesday, September 16 at 10:30.” However, police smelt a rat and turned up to the funeral at the appointed time to find neither a body nor a funeral — just a bemused grandmother who was not in on the act. The young man planned the scam with great precision, phoning the funeral service pretending to be his brother and then the paper, which dutifully “confirmed” the information with the funeral home.
RSS