INDONESIA
Woman killed for witchcraft
A 70-year-old woman has been hacked to death in the remote east of the country by machete-wielding men who suspected her of performing witchcraft, police said on Monday. Three men attacked Nuryan Umanahu early on Sunday in the village of Buya, in the Sula Islands, after one of them became suspicious she had cast a spell on his wife. “While she was sick, the wife often felt possessed and said that the old woman had cast a spell on her,” local police official Arifin La Ode Buri said. “Her husband believed this and took his friends to search for the old woman.” The husband was accompanied by a large mob of villagers to the old lady’s house, but only three went inside and carried out the killing, Buri said. Three men have been arrested on suspicion of murder, he added. Many people still believe in black magic in the Muslim-majority nation.
INDIA
Gay marriage bureau opens
An entrepreneur has set up what is claimed to be the nation’s first gay marriage bureau, seeking to arrange matches for homosexual couples. Benhur Samson, who previously helped foreign gay couples use surrogacy services, said he founded the agency in response to interest from clients. “I was surprised to see the response from the gay people whom I came in touch with while counseling them on the surrogacy issue,” Samson said. “This is how I came upon the idea of a marriage bureau for gay men and women who want to settle down with a partner.” Samson, who lives in the US, has enlisted the help of Manvendrasingh Gohil, an openly gay Indian prince, to help sort out immigration issues. “Several gay people of Indian origin wanted an arranged marriage and were looking for partners from India,” he said. “We already got over 200 inquiries and nearly two dozen people have enrolled with us. We are now in the process of identifying the right match for them.” Enrollment costs US$5,000, an unthinkably high sum for most Indians, although the fee is refundable if no match is found. The agency conducts background checks, visits prospective partners at home and at work, and provides counseling, Samson said. Gay marriage and gay sex are both illegal in the conservative nation.
AUSTRALIA
SBS plans Eurovision Asia
Asia-Pacific nations could soon have the chance to compete in their own version of the Eurovision Song Contest, pitting K-pop and Bollywood talent against Mandopop stars. Australian broadcaster SBS said in a statement on Monday it had secured an exclusive option to bring the concept to the region, with an inaugural event in Australia possible as early as next year. If finalized, Eurovision Asia would bring together songwriters and performers from 20 nations and would be hosted in other competitor nations following its Australian debut. SBS Eurovision production partners Blink TV, who would help develop Eurovision Asia for broadcast, said the show could reach an Asian audience of more than 1 billion. The existing competition is watched every year by about 200 million. “Asia has an astonishing set of musical and visual cultures, and it will make for brilliant television,” Blink TV director Paul Clark said. “Imagine — the musical virtuosity of Bollywood, the cutting edge of K-pop, and the excitement of Chinese and Japanese artists — now the biggest music consumers in the world... it’s a thrilling idea.” In November last year, Australia said it would compete at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest for the second time, following its wild-card entry last year. It was shown in China for the first time last year.
UNITED STATES
Pianist’s ex-wife charged
Texas police on Monday accused the estranged wife of internationally renowned pianist Vadym Kholodenko of killing the couple’s two young daughters before stabbing herself. Sofya Tsygankova faces two counts of capital murder in the deaths of five-year-old Nika Kholodenko and one-year-old Michela Kholodenko. Police say Vadym Kholodenko arrived on Thursday at his wife’s home in Benbrook, a Fort Worth suburb, to pick up the girls and found them dead in their beds and Tsygankova in an “extreme state of distress.” Police Commander David Babcock on Monday said that Tsygankova was served with arrest warrants in the Fort Worth hospital where she is undergoing a mental health evaluation. Authorities had said earlier that she suffered knife wounds. It is not clear how the girls died. The Tarrant County medical examiner’s office said that it had not completed autopsies. Police have said the children had no visible trauma. Babcock said Tsygankova’s bond would be set at US$2 million.
UNITED STATES
Hogan gets US$25m more
Moments after a Florida jury hit Gawker Media and its founder with US$25 million in punitive damages for publishing a sex tape of Hulk Hogan, the former pro wrestler told a gaggle of reporters that he and his legal team “made history.” Hogan on Monday evening said that he thought “we’ve protected a lot of people from going through what I went through.” The smiling 62-year-old, who wore all black throughout the three-week trial, added that he has been overwhelmed with support by fans. “Everywhere I show up, people treat me like I’m still the champ,” he said. On Monday, the jury hit Gawker Media with a US$15 million judgement and its owner, Nick Denton, with US$10 million. It also assessed US$100,000 against A.J. Daulerio, the Gawker editor who decided to post the edited sex video and wrote the post that accompanied it. The punitive damages come on top of US$115 million the jury imposed on Friday after two weeks of trial.
UNITED STATES
Flight attendant on the run
A flight attendant fled when she was selected for a random screening at Los Angeles International Airport, prompting a search that turned up 30kg of cocaine in her carry-on bags, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spokesman said on Monday. The woman, who had arrived at the terminal on Friday for a flight, abandoned her belongings before escaping on foot, Special Agent Timothy Massino said. The DEA declined further comment on the case while an investigation was under way. A law enforcement source said that the flight attendant had been identified by investigators, but not apprehended as of Monday evening. Authorities did not say which airline she worked for and there were conflicting media reports.
SWEDEN
Robbers blow up ATM
Robbers are suspected of blowing up the walls of a building in an apparent effort to empty an ATM, but police say they are not sure any money would have survived the blast. Regional police spokesman Calle Persson says they were alerted to the explosion in the small southern town of Genarp after 3am on Monday. They sent a bomb squad to check the site before officers began an investigation. He said no one was hurt, but the blast destroyed two walls of the red-brick building. People in neighboring houses reported they saw “a few men” at the site immediately after the explosion and heard a car pull away. It was not clear if the damaged ATM had contained any money.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of