FRANCE
France 3 pulls its sexist ad
A television station was forced to pull an advertisement boasting about its feminist credentials after it met with ridicule and criticism saying the ad itself was sexist. The 40-second spot on France 3 was designed to highlight the station’s positive record on female employment, with the tagline: “The majority of our presenters are women presenters.” However, it illustrated its point by showing domestic chores that were going wrong without a woman around. Viewers are told that all this shameful dereliction of female duties is due to the fact that “the women” are “at France 3.” State Secretary for Women’s Rights Pascale Boistard tweeted: “It did not seem like the best way to promote equal rights.”
FRANCE
Anti-smoking prisoner wins
A former prisoner has successfully sued the state for placing him in a cell with smokers, a court in the northwestern town of Caen said on Thursday. The state was fined 1,200 euros (US$1,300) for making the non-smoker share a 20m2 cell with four to six fellow inmates, several of whom were smokers. In the ruling handed down two weeks ago, judges said the plaintiff “was justified in arguing that ... as a non-smoker his incarceration did not take place in the required hygienic conditions.” The former prisoner — about whom no more details were given — also complained about “overcrowding in the cells he occupied and bad hygiene conditions, lighting and poor ventilation.” The court found that the conditions of the inmate’s detention were a “breach of human dignity and revealed an error of a nature that puts the responsibility of public authorities on the line.” The plaintiff had initially asked for 6,050 euros in damages.
UNITED STATES
King cobra recaptured
A dangerous king cobra that panicked a Florida community has been recaptured, found under a household dryer more than a month after escaping, authorities said on Thursday. The snake, named Elvis, escaped from its owner on Sept. 1 in Ocoee, Florida, prompting a frantic search and calls for people to exercise extreme caution. Three animal services officers struggled to capture the 3m-long snake on Wednesday, after a concerned resident reported hissing sounds from beneath a dryer in her garage, Orange County Animal Services said in a statement. “I attempted to put the snake in my snake box, but it was too large to fit,” county animal services officer Billy Ledford said. Valerie Kennedy, the wife of the cobra’s owner, confirmed that the snake was indeed Elvis. Owner Mike Kennedy pleaded not guilty this week to a misdemeanor charge for not immediately reporting the disappearance of the dangerous snake, the Orlando Sentinel newspaper reported.
UNITED STATES
Man wakes to bear bite
A hunter camping in Idaho woke up when a black bear started biting his head, and he could not get medical care for three days because he was in such a remote wilderness area. Idaho Fish and Game officials said in a statement on Wednesday that 29-year-old Stephen Vouch had been hunting bighorn sheep with friends and awoke to the attack at 2am on Friday last week. Vouch yelled and one of his friends shot the young male bear with a .45-caliber handgun. Vouch then shot and killed the wounded bear when it climbed a tree. Vouch received first aid, then the hunting group rafted downstream before flying out of the rugged Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness on Sunday.
‘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