UNITED STATES
Porn a health crisis: Utah
A panel of lawmakers in the predominantly Mormon state of Utah has heartily endorsed a resolution declaring pornography a public health crisis. Republican Senator Todd Weiler, a Mormon, contends that children are being exposed to pornography at an earlier age and that viewing the material leads to relationship problems. Republicans and one Democrat on a Utah Senate health committee on Friday unanimously agreed with Weiler and approved his resolution.
UNITED STATES
Sixth man on moon dies
Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, has died in South Florida. He was 85. Mitchell’s daughter Kimberly Mitchell said he died on Thursday night at a West Palm Beach hospice following a short illness. Mitchell’s passing coincides with the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 14 mission, from Jan. 31 to Feb. 9, 1971. That is when Mitchell and Alan Shepard helped NASA recover from Apollo 13’s aborted and near-fatal mission. He later devoted his life to exploring the mind, physics and unexplained phenomena such as psychics and aliens. He said aliens visited Earth and faith healers were legitimate. He attempted to communicate telepathically with friends at home during his Apollo mission.
UNITED STATES
Gordon-Levitt feted, roasted
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has gotten a little roast along with his pudding. In keeping with tradition, The Walk actor was feted and roasted as Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals Man of the Year on Friday. The collegiate theatrical organization said it selected the 34-year-old Gordon-Levitt as this year’s honoree because he is a “talented actor” and “visionary entrepreneur.” Gordon-Levitt is to portray Edward Snowden in Oliver Stone’s upcoming movie about the man who leaked classified National Security Agency documents.
UNITED STATES
‘Peanuts’ antecedent passes
Linus Maurer, a cartoonist and illustrator whose old friend and colleague Charles Schulz borrowed his first name for Charlie Brown’s blanket-wielding best friend Linus in his Peanuts comic strip and cartoons, has died aged 90. Maurer died on Jan. 29 in Sonoma, California, his longtime partner Mary Jo Starsiak told reporters on Friday night. His exact cause of death was not clear, but he had struggled with Parkinson’s disease and heart trouble. About 65 years ago, Maurer and Schulz worked together at Art Instruction Schools Inc in Minneapolis, when Peanuts was getting started. Schulz told the story in a book celebrating Peanuts’ 50th anniversary. “Linus came from a drawing that I made one day of a face almost like the one he now has,” Schulz wrote.
UNITED STATES
Actor to open weed clinic
Actor and marijuana advocate Woody Harrelson was one of nearly 60 applicants to apply to open one of Hawaii’s first medical marijuana dispensaries. Harrelson, 54, applied for a license in Honolulu County under his company, Simple Organic Living. The Hawaii Department of Health posted the list of 66 applications on its Web site on Friday. The state is now reviewing applications for dispensary permits, which they are to award in April. If selected, dispensary applicants must have US$1 million cash before applying for a licenses, plus US$100,000 for each dispensary location. All applicants must have been Hawaii residents for more than five years.
UNITED NATIONS
IS said to be expanding
Thirty-four militant groups from around the world had reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) extremist group as of mid-December last year — and that number is likely to grow this year, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report on Friday. Ban said the Islamic State group poses “an unprecedented threat,” because of its ability to persuade groups from nations such as the Philippines, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Libya and Nigeria to pledge their allegiance. He said UN member states should also prepare for an increase in attacks by Islamic State associated groups traveling to other nations to launch attacks and develop networks. “The recent expansion of the [Islamic State group] sphere of influence across west and north Africa, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia demonstrates the speed and scale at which the gravity of the threat has evolved in just 18 months,” Ban said. Adding to the threat, the Islamic State group is “the world’s wealthiest terrorist organization,” Ban said, citing estimates the group generated between US$400 million and US$500 million from oil and oil products last year, despite an embargo.
NEW ZEALAND
Key slams dildo tossing
Dildo throwing is not a good look for the nation and an “appalling way” to behave on the nation’s national day, Prime Minister John Key said yesterday, angered by an attack on a senior government minister. Minister of Economic Development Steven Joyce was hit in the face by a pink dildo thrown at him by a protester during national day celebrations in the northern town of Waitangi on Friday. “It is appalling because that image has gone around the world and there are now people in countries all over the world saying the way New Zealanders theoretically commemorate or celebrate their national day is with a senior politician having a sex toy thrown at them,” Key said. “That is the way now that people from overseas are viewing how we have a celebration on our national day. It just is not the right image for New Zealand.”
RUSSIA
‘Gay’ animals raise eyebrows
Prosecutors have begun considering whether media coverage of an unexpected friendship between a male tiger and goat at a safari park in the nation’s far east counts as gay propaganda. Novosibirsk jurist Alexei Krestyanov last month complained to the prosecutor general that information about the animals living together could harm children by provoking “interest in non-traditional sexual relations.” “I think the positive coverage of this topic is nothing less than interference in the personal lives of minors, which is what hidden propaganda is, and public, active imposition of homosexuality,” Krestyanov wrote. The prosecutors’ office in the Primorsky region, which borders China and North Korea, has now said it has begun checking Krestyanov’s allegations.
ITALY
Actor clinically dead
An Italian actor, who was left in a coma after he accidentally hanged himself during a live theater performance, has been pronounced clinically dead. Raphael Schumacher, 27, was performing in a production of Mirages at the Teatro Lux in Pisa, Italy, when the incident occurred. He was taken to hospital on Saturday night last week and has been in a coma since. Doctors say his condition has worsened and that he was not responding to treatment.
‘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