America's booming adult entertainment industry is bracing itself for a "summer of censorship" as the government clamps down on pornography. \nFor nearly 10 years, the resources of the Department of Justice's anti-obscenity division have been allocated almost exclusively to the war on child pornography, leaving those involved in the US$10 billion-a-year adult market to their own devices. \nBut with producers of adult porn becoming increasingly lawless, according to Andrew Oosterbaan, head of the agency's anti-obscenity department, it is time to "send ripples" through the industry and prosecute those producing and distributing obscene material. \n"Nothing will be off-limits as far as content goes," he said. "We'll do everything we can to deter this conduct." \nOosterbaan's department has its work cut out. More than 11,000 adult films are released annually in the US and there are 800 million DVD and video rentals of adult movies each year, according to the trade association Adult Video News. \nPorn on the Internet is at record levels. Websense, an Internet software management company, announced earlier this month that it has more than 1.6 million adult Web pages on its database, 18 times more than in 2000, and a recent Nielsen/Net Ratings study said one in four Internet surfers in the US, about 34 million people, uses the Web to visit adult sites. \nObscenity laws have been unchanged since 1973, when the Supreme Court ruled that for material to be considered obscene, an average person applying "contemporary standards" must find it offensive and without artistic value. \nThe recent reappointment of high-profile anti-porn lawyer Bruce Taylor to the Justice Department is one clear indication of President George W. Bush's get-tough policy. \nThe move has drawn criticism from free-speech advocates such as the American Civil Liberties Union, and those involved in the adult entertainment industry say it is no coincidence that the policy shift comes just months ahead of November's presidential election. \n"This agenda is to attract votes," said lawyer Paul Cambria, who has defended many adult business owners, including the notorious Hustler publisher Larry Flynt, against obscenity charges. \n"It's censorship. It's an effort by the Department of Justice to interfere with adults' rights to adult materials. We deal in plain old vanilla sex, nothing really outrageous," Cambria said. \nThe clampdown on the adult entertainment industry mirrors a lower-tolerance approach being shown by federal government towards other areas of the media. The House of Representatives approved tougher penalties for indecency on the airwaves and called the heads of the major broadcast networks together for warnings. \nTheir ire was stoked by an incident at January's Super Bowl in which singer Janet Jackson's breast was exposed to millions of viewers on live television.
Pins hidden in her shoes, head forced down a toilet, kicked in the stomach: South Korean hairdresser Pyo Ye-rim suffered a litany of abuse from school bullies, but now she is speaking out. The 26-year-old is part of a phenomenon sweeping South Korea known as “Hakpok #MeToo,” where people who were bullied publicly name and shame the perpetrators of school violence — “hakpok” in Korean — decades after the alleged crimes. Made famous globally by Netflix’s gory revenge series The Glory, the movement has ensnared everyone from K-pop stars to baseball players and accusations — often anonymous — can be career-ending, with
One of Australia’s two active volcanoes on an island near Antarctica — known as Big Ben — has been spotted by satellite spewing lava. The lava flow on the uninhabited Heard Island, about 4,100km southwest of Perth and 1,500km north of Antarctica, is part of an ongoing eruption that was first noted more than a decade ago. The image was caught by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite on Thursday, and is a composite of an optical picture and an infrared image. The lava is seen flowing down the side of Big Ben from near the summit, known as Mawson Peak.
TIME TO TALK: Among China’s grievances were economic and trade issues related to Taiwan, but both countries emphasized the need to maintain communication US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) on Friday raised complaints about China’s state-led economic policies during a meeting with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao (王文濤), who objected to US tariffs and trade policies, as well as issues related to Taiwan, their offices said. However, statements from the US Trade Representative’s (USTR) office and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce emphasized the need for Washington and Beijing to maintain communication on trade. “Ambassador Tai highlighted the need to address the critical imbalances caused by China’s state-led, non-market approach to the economy and trade policy,” the USTR said in a statement released after the
READY FOR ACTION: Military, police, firefighters and volunteers were standing by for search-and-rescue operations, with an official saying they ‘cannot afford not to prepare’ Philippine officials yesterday began evacuating thousands of people, shut down schools and offices and imposed a no-sail ban as Typhoon Mawar approached the country’s northern provinces a week after battering the US territory of Guam. The typhoon was packing maximum sustained winds of 155kpm and gusts of up to 190kph, but was forecast to spare the mountainous region a direct hit. Current projections show the typhoon veering northeast toward Taiwan or southern Japan. Although it is expected to slow down considerably, authorities warned of dangerous tidal surges, flash floods and landslides as it blows past the northernmost province of Batanes from today
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