Indian censors have banned an award-winning documentary that chronicles one of the country's most painful and deadly episodes of Hindu-Muslim violence. \nFinal Solution is scheduled for release in 40 art house cinemas in Germany next month, where it won an award at this year's Berlin Film Festival. But in India, the Central Board of Film Certification has refused public screening of the film, saying it might trigger more sectarian violence. \nFilmmaker Rakesh Sharma said on Friday he would approach the Mumbai High Court to challenge the board's ruling. \n"I will be going straight to court," Sharma told reports about his feature-length movie that records the 2002 religious rioting in the western state of Gujarat, which killed more than 1,000 people, most of whom were Muslims. \nThe riots broke when Hindu mobs set off a wave of revenge killings after the burning of a train that left 60 Hindus dead. \nThe attack was blamed on Muslims, but investigators have not been able to confirm that. \nSharma's movie weaves in speeches of Hindu nationalists with interviews of rioters and victims. The censor board said the documentary was "highly provocative and may trigger off unrest and communal violence." \n"People who make hate speeches should be banned and not the filmmaker who records it," Sharma said. \nThe 210-minute movie won two awards at this year's Berlin Film Festival and one award at the Hong Kong festival. It wasn't allowed a screening in Singapore during the city-state's film festival in May, after its censor board deemed it "potentially inflammatory." \nOne chilling episode in the film shows a 4-year-old Muslim boy, named Ijaz, detailing in a singsong voice how he saw his grandfather and aunt being killed. \nIn the final scene, he recites his multiplication tables and then says in a calm voice he would kill Hindus, "because they did the same."
Newly married and with his first child on the way, auto worker Wang (王) wanted to move into the apartment he bought in Wuhan three years ago, but those hopes were dashed by China’s ballooning property crisis. Saddled with nearly US$300,000 in debt and with his unit nowhere near completion, the 34-year-old decided he had enough and stopped making mortgage payments. He is among numerous home buyers across dozens of cities in China who have boycotted payments over fears that their properties will not be completed by cash-strapped, debt-laden developers. “They said construction would resume soon,” Wang said, only giving his surname. “But
‘COMMON THREATS’: In a speech marking the end of Japan’s rule over the Korean Peninsula, Yoon Suk-yeol said he wants to ‘swiftly ... improve’ relations with Tokyo South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Monday said Japan is a partner as the two countries face “common threats,” offering to improve ties between the allies of the US whose help Washington has sought in putting up a united front against the likes of China, Russia and North Korea. Yoon said in a speech to mark Japan’s World War II surrender and the end of its 1910-1945 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula that he wants to “swiftly and properly improve” relations with Tokyo stemming from historical disputes. “When Korea-Japan relations move toward a common future, and when the mission of
NATIONAL SECURITY PRIORITY: Former US president Donald Trump might have retained nuclear codes after leaving the White House last year, a weapons expert said FBI agents were looking for secret documents about nuclear weapons among other classified material when they searched former US president Donald Trump’s Florida home on Monday, the Washington Post reported on Thursday. The newspaper cited people familiar with the investigation as saying that nuclear weapons documents were thought to be in the trove the FBI was hunting in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. They did not specify what kind of documents, or whether they referred to the US arsenal or another country’s. The report came hours after US Attorney General Merrick Garland said he had personally authorized the US government request for a search
PLEAS FOR PEACE: After dozens of vehicles had been destroyed, Tijuana’s mayor told gangs the city would ‘take care of its citizens,’ and asked them to leave bystanders alone Hundreds of Mexican military troops were on Saturday flown into Tijuana to beef up street patrols after armed gangs hijacked and burned at least a dozen vehicles in the border city, the latest in a wave of attacks hitting civilians across the country. The US consulate in Tijuana instructed its employees “to shelter in place until further notice” around midnight on Friday because of the violence, as the Tijuana hijackings snarled traffic across the city and temporarily blocked access to one of the world’s busiest border crossings. About 350 national guard troops were flown in to reinforce thousands of federal troops already
RSS