THAILAND
‘Underboob selfies’ banned
The military government warned women on Monday against posting “selfie” photographs of the lower half of their breasts — a social media trend that has gone viral — saying their actions could violate the nation’s computer crime laws. The 2007 Computer Crimes Act bans any material that causes “damage to the country’s security or causes public panic” or “any obscene computer data which is accessible to the public.” The culture ministry said offenders faced up to five years in jail, but did not say how they would identify the culprits. “When people take these ‘underboob selfies’ no one can see their faces,” ministry spokesman Anandha Chouchoti said. “So it’s like, we don’t know who these belong to and it encourages others to do the same. We can only warn people to not take it up. They are inappropriate actions.”
PAKISTAN
Naked motorcyclist arrested
A motorcyclist has been arrested in Lahore after police caught him riding naked along a busy road, days after a video of his exploits went viral on social media. Police got word on Saturday that Shehroz Khan, 20, was riding naked once again on Lahore’s Main Boulevard. They blocked the road from all sides, and Khan was flagged down and arrested, police said on Monday. “We arrested Shehroz on Saturday for speeding, violating traffic rules and for revealing his private organs in public,” police officer Zulfiqar Butt said. “He’s still in police custody, though all three offenses are bailable.” Khan, who goes by the nickname “Rocket,” had bet his friends he could pull off the nude stunt, media said. TV channels showed footage of a naked Khan doing a wheelie in the city center, while scores of cheering friends followed on their bikes.
SWEDEN
Court overturns video appeal
A man was on Monday ordered to pay damages to his former girlfriend for posting a video online of them having sex, the first such ruling in the Scandinavian country. The Supreme Court ordered the 20-year-old to pay his former girlfriend 76,000 kronor (US$8,750) in damages for uploading the video to two pornographic Web sites in 2012, unbeknownst to her, and causing her “fear, humiliation and shame.” The case sparked outrage in 2013 when an appeals court slashed the damages imposed by the district court of Joenkoeping from 136,000 down to 31,000 kronor — claiming it was now more “sociably acceptable” to be open and forthcoming about sexual behavior. “Prevailing ethical and social values should form the basis of the amount of compensation,” the appeals court said at the time. In the final ruling, the Supreme Court rejected that view.
GREECE
Varoufakis video not fake
A video showing Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis making the middle-finger gesture to Germany does not appear to be fake, a German talk show said on Monday after the politician contested its authenticity. The footage shown during the Guenther Jauch weekly talk show late on Sunday prompted an immediate and vehement rebuttal by the minister, who was a guest on the program. Varoufakis insisted on air that the video of him speaking at a 2013 event in Zagreb had been “doctored.” Jauch announced at the end of the program that the video would be examined. “As far as we know at this stage the editorial department of Guenther Jauch can determine no indication whatsoever of manipulation or falsification in the video shown during the live show,” it said in a statement on Monday.
BAHRAIN
Alleged bomb courier caught
Authorities arrested a young man on Monday who was trying to smuggle in bombmaking materials from Iraq, police said. The suspect, a minor carrying the materials in a suitcase, was arrested during a routine security search at the border post on the causeway that links to Saudi Arabia, according to a police statement published by the Bahrain news agency. The statement, which did not reveal the boy’s age or name, said that he told authorities a relative who lives in Iraq gave him the suitcase to take to Bahrain. The agency report said the boy’s relative in Iraq, who also was not named, is wanted by Bahraini authorities on terrorism-related charges. The nation has faced four years of unrest following widespread anti-government protests led by the Shiite majority against the ruling Sunni monarchy. Young protesters routinely clash with riot police. A number of small bombs mainly targeting security forces have killed and wounded police officers.
UNITED STATES
Man arrested over laser
A second New York man in a week was arrested and charged on Monday with pointing a laser at aircraft near the city’s busy LaGuardia airport, prosecutors said. Elehecer Balaguer, 54, appeared before a Manhattan judge and was charged with one count of aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Prosecutors say three commercial pilots landing or taking off from LaGuardia on March 9 were hit with a bright green beam, causing them to lose focus temporarily and in two instances briefly blinding them. In response, an air traffic controller temporarily changed the runway directions for all planes arriving and departing from LaGuardia that evening to avoid the laser beam. The green beam appeared to originate from the Bronx, where that evening police flew over in a helicopter and also temporarily lost sight when the beam was directed into their cockpit. Officers recovered the laser pointer from on top of a fridge in a second-floor apartment in the Bronx, but Balaguer denied at the time knowing who aimed the laser at the planes. US prosecutors said he subsequently admitted to shining the beam at an airplane and to lying to New York police. On Wednesday last week, prosecutors said Frank Egan, 36, was arrested at his home in the Bronx on March 9 in the general vicinity where investigators believe a laser was beamed from.
ARGENTINA
Two caught smuggling gold
Authorities have arrested two Paraguayans who tried to cross the border with a 19th-century gold ingot worth more than US$2 million, officials said on Monday. The ingot, which has been confiscated by the nation’s tax authorities, weighed 25kg and was stamped with the inscription “Central Bank of Paraguay — 1824.” It is estimated to be worth US$2.27 million and might also be historically significant, said the Argentine Federal Public Revenue Administration in Buenos Aires. The two Paraguayan men, who reside in Argentina, were transporting the ingot in a truck across the bridge between Posadas and Encarnacion in Paraguay, when customs officers stopped them for a routine search. They grew suspicious when the men became nervous, the administration said in a statement. Using a scanner, they found the ingot hidden beneath a false floor under the passenger seat. One of the men told authorities they had bought the ingot from a group of indigenous people for 250 million Paraguayan guarani, or US$52,267, the administration said. Officials also seized about 1kg of silver.
‘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