RUSSIA
Protest artist severs earlobe
A controversial artist who once nailed his scrotum to the cobblestones of Red Square has been taken to hospital after cutting off his earlobe to protest the forced psychiatric treatment of dissidents. Pyotr Pavlensky climbed naked on the roof of the Serbsky psychiatric center in Moscow on Sunday and cut off his right earlobe with a large kitchen knife. Covered in blood, he was removed from the roof by police and taken to a hospital. His lawyer, Dmitry Dinze, told the Guardian on Monday that Pavlensky did not have pneumonia or lasting problems from the incident and would probably be discharged from the hospital soon. In a statement on his wife’s Facebook page on Sunday, Pavlensky said cutting off his earlobe represented the damage resulting from police “returning to the use of psychiatry for political goals.”
Photo: Reuters
UNITED STATES
Lewinsky fights cyberbullies
Monica Lewinsky on Monday proclaimed herself one of the first victims of cyberbullying after falling in love with former president Bill Clinton. The former White House intern made the remarks during her first speech in 13 years: an emotional address at Forbes’ inaugural Under 30 summit in Philadelphia that recalled the 1998 sex scandal. Announcing, a campaign to end online bullying, Lewinsky said she was “the first person to have their reputation completely destroyed worldwide via the Internet.” “There was no Facebook, Twitter or Instagram back then, but there were gossip, news and entertainment Web sites,” she said. “Of course, it was all done on the excruciatingly slow dial-up. Yet around the world this story went. A viral phenomenon that, you could argue, was the first moment of truly ‘social media.’” She said she was motivated to campaign against cyberbullying by the 2010 suicide of an 18-year-old New Jersey freshman who was haunted online after being secretly filmed kissing another man.
UNITED STATES
Woman gets stuck on man
Firefighters rescued a Los Angeles woman from a chimney after she became stuck while allegedly breaking into the home of a man she met online, reports said on Monday. TV footage showed emergency personnel dismantling the chimney brick-by-brick to reach the woman 2.5m down, according to local channel KTLA. The man whose home she was trying to get into — who declined to give his name — said they had met online and dated a few times. “She seemed totally cool, until the first flag was her actually being on my roof two weeks ago,” he told KTLA, adding: “I hope she gets help. I hope she stays offline.” The woman was identified as 30-year-old Genoveva Nunez-Figueroa.
FRANCE
Thief caught watching TV
A burglar who cracked open a bottle of champagne to celebrate his caper was surprised by Provins police while watching TV and drinking in the house he had just robbed. The owners of the house called police on Saturday when they returned to their home in the medieval town southeast of Paris to find their shutters drawn, which they had left open. Police discovered the tipsy robber “in front of the television with an open bottle of champagne,” a police source said, confirming local reports.
PAKISTAN
Pro-Khan station suspended
Authorities on Monday suspended a television channel supportive of anti-government protests being held by cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan and a populist cleric in the capital, Islamabad. ARY News, a popular station, is being taken off air for 15 days for “maligning honourable courts and judiciary,” the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority said in a statement. Khan and Tahir-ul-Qadri have been staging a sit-in in Islamabad since Aug. 15. They accuse Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of vote rigging during last year’s elections. ARY News was also fined 10 million rupees (US$97,089).
MYANMAR
No delay for election
The government says it will hold a general election late next year as planned, countering rumors that the vote could be postponed. Tin Aye, chairman of the Myanmar Union Election Commission, made the announcement yesterday. He said international and local observers would be invited to witness the election, to be held in late October or early November next year. The general election will be the second since former strongman General Than Shwe handed power to a nominally civilian government, ending half a century of military rule. The 2010 election was widely seen as rigged in favor of the military-backed government’s party.
JAPAN
Man dumps 200kg of porn
A pensioner who dumped almost a quarter of a tonne of pornography in a park is unlikely to be charged, police said yesterday, because the stash belonged to an ill friend. Hideaki Adachi was spotted unloading 17 sacks of films and magazines, which included about 500 VHS video tapes, from the back of a truck at a small park in Osaka. Adachi, 70, was arrested on suspicion of illegally dumping the 200kg of porn, but was released the next day after telling police he had found the trove in a storehouse belonging to a bedridden friend, police said.
MALAYSIA
‘Dog patting’ event probed
Islamic authorities are investigating a controversial “dog patting” event aimed at removing the stigma regarding men’s best friend in the multi-ethnic Muslim-majority country. The event, titled “I want to touch a dog” and held in a park on the outskirts of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, on Sunday, encouraged patting dogs — seen as unclean in Islam — and reportedly drew hundreds of Muslims, raising the ire of religious leaders. Islamic authorities said they would investigate the event, while a Muslim leader, Nooh Gadut, said the event was an attempt to insult clerics. “Don’t try to create a culture that is opposite to Islam,” he was quoted by local media as saying. The Muslim organizer, Syed Azmi Alhabshi, 30, had said his intention was to help people overcome their fear of dogs and promote compassion toward animals.
JAPAN
Chewing monitor invented
Are you worried that you’re just not chewing enough to keep your mind and body in tip-top condition? Then never fear: a firm has invented something to help you count your bites. A study last year suggested there was a connection between chomping and cognitive function, and the belief in a link between chewing and health is widely held in the country. Now a gum maker has created earphones that record the number of times you move your jaw, and the speed and strength of each bite. “Chewing, unless you make a conscious effort, can be seen as a bit of a pain,” Lotte chief marketing officer Katsumi Kawai said. “As a gum maker, this is a great concern.”
‘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
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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