AUSTRALIA
‘Carmen’ banned by sponsor
An opera company is being criticized for banning as part of a sponsorship deal any performances of Carmen because the 140-year-old French opera depicts smoking. For two years West Australian Opera will not stage the popular opera about a Spanish gypsy named Carmen who works in a cigar factory. The ban lasts the duration of a A$400,000 (US$355,000) sponsorship deal with a state government health promotion agency, Healthway. The deal begins in March next year and was revealed in the media on Wednesday. It has split Australians among those who complain of a nanny state and those who applaud its positive public health message. Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Thursday condemned the deal as “political correctness gone crazy.”
CHINA
Putin’s tiger crosses border
An endangered Siberian tiger released into the wild by Russian President Vladimir Putin has become Moscow’s latest export to China, after the beast wandered over the border in search of a meal, Chinese state-run media said on Thursday. The animal, named Kuzya, was among three Siberian tigers set free by the Russian president in May and it has crossed a river forming the border between the two countries, Xinhua news agency reported. Local officials told Xinhua that Kuzya — a male tagged with a tracking device — would have no shortage of food in his new home, adding: “If necessary, we can release cattle into the region to feed it.” The report said local officials are scrambling to capture the wandering big cat on camera and locate its precise whereabouts, while removing hunting traps which might bring its roaming to a sharp end.
GUATEMALA
Court suspends judges
The nation’s highest court has suspended the swearing in of Supreme Court and appellate judges due to concerns that they were improperly selected. The justices are elected by the unicameral congress and allegations have arisen that the two largest parties divided up the positions between themselves. Constitutional Court president Gloria Porras said on Thursday that the tribunal considers the allegations serious enough to warrant a temporary stay while they are examined. She said it will be several days before a final decision is reached. Current justices will remain in the meantime. Judges who were elected in the vote said at a news conference that the suspension amounted to a technical coup against the judicial system.
MEXICO
3rd arrest in Shabazz death
Police have made a third arrest in last year’s beating death of Malcolm X’s grandson following a dispute over a bar bill, authorities said on Thursday. Mexico City prosecutors said in a statement that suspect Juan Dircio Guzman was detained in Nezahualcoyotl, near the capital. He was expected to appear before a judge to face charges of homicide and robbery. Malcolm Shabazz, the 28-year-old grandson of the assassinated US political activist, was reportedly attacked in the early hours of May 9 last year while with a friend at the Palace bar on Mexico City’s Garibaldi Plaza. Prosecutors said Shabazz was beaten and robbed by bar staff for reportedly refusing to pay a US$1,200 tab. Two waiters were arrested soon after Shabazz’s death. Prosecutors identified Dircio Guzman on Thursday as the bar’s head waiter and said he is also suspected of taking part in the assault.
UNITED STATES
New foreign Oscar bids
Kosovo, Malta, Mauritania and Panama have submitted films for the foreign-language Oscar for the first time, among a record 83 movies under consideration, Academy Award organizers said on Thursday. Kosovan director Isa Qosja’s Three Windows and a Hanging is the young Balkan nation’s first submission for the 87th Academy Awards, to be held on Sunday, Feb. 22, next year, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Malta is represented by Rebecca Cremona’s Simshar, Mauritania by Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu, and Panama has submitted Invasion, by Abner Benaim. The deadline for submissions was on Wednesday last week.
UNITED STATES
New charges in hacking
US federal prosecutors on Thursday added 11 new charges against a Russian man they say hacked into US businesses to steal credit card information that they say was later sold on the Internet. The new 40-count indictment filed on Thursday paints Roman Seleznev as a leader in the marketplace for stolen credit cards who earned millions of US dollars in illicit profits from the enterprise. Prosecutors say the 30-year-old created a Web site that offered tutorials to other hackers on how to use stolen credit cards to commit a crime. The indictment adds additional wire fraud and hacking charges. Seleznev pleaded not guilty to the earlier charges and is to be arraigned on the latest charges next week. His lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the new indictment. His trial is set for Nov. 3. Seleznev also faces racketeering charges in Nevada. He has not made a court appearance there because he is in custody in Seattle, the Nevada US Attorney’s Office has said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not