■ INDIA
`Sex lighters' not for kids
Police in the south said they arrested a man on Tuesday for selling adolescents a "sex lighter" that displays a nude woman when ignited. S. Sreejith, superintendent of police in Kottayam in Kerala, said the arrest happened after a parent complained that a boy had given his daughter one of the lighters as a gift. Sreejith said the man, who has not been identified, could face a one-year prison term.
■ CHINA
Students boycott canteens
Students at universities in the south are boycotting school canteens to protest against rising food prices, students said yesterday. Students at Sun Yat-sen University, one of the top universities in Guangdong, called for a boycott of canteen food. "There are a lot of complaints from students about food, such as the price is too high, the quantity is too small and the food itself is not tasty," a senior-year student said by telephone. Other universities, including South China University of Technology, launched similar boycotts this month, a student said.
■ AUSTRALIA
Sexcapade break-in solved
It was a stick up of a different kind for one intruder, who broke into a neighbor's house and played sex games in the bathroom with a bottle of toilet detergent and a vacuum cleaner. A court in the northern city of Brisbane heard how 27-year-old Jamie Lacey, high on drugs, broke into the house in September 2004, scattering pornographic magazines around the bathroom and making a sex toy from a bottle of detergent, a piece of wood and a rubber glove, the Brisbane Times reported. Lacey was arrested after police matched his DNA to that on the rubber glove, according to the Australian Associated Press. Lacey was sentenced to 12 months' community service.
■ UNITED STATES
Seattle welcomes the `SLUT'
Officially it's the South Lake Union Streetcar. Within Seattle's old Cascade neighborhood, part of the area to be served by the new line, it is popularly known as the South Lake Union Trolley -- or SLUT, also an offensive term for a promiscuous woman. At Kapow! Coffee, 100 T-shirts bearing the words "Ride the S.L.U.T." sold out in days and another 100 are on order. "We're welcoming the SLUT into the neighborhood," Jerry Johnson, 29, a part-time bartender, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper. Trolley tracks have been laid downtown and project officials say the US$50.5 million project should be completed and streetcars running in December.
■ UNITED STATES
Alcohol ban lifted
For the first time in more than a century, beer and wine by the glass will go on sale in a small, conservative city in Michigan with the granting of a liquor license to a pizzeria. "We could be serving in six to eight weeks," Vitale's Pizza co-owner Ryan Snyder told the Grand Rapids Press for a story on Tuesday. Zeeland is a 6,000-member community with a conservative Dutch heritage, about 32km southwest of Grand Rapids. In November, voters approved an end to the 104-year-old alcohol sales ban, 1,425 to 1,385. Turnout was 73 percent.
■ UNITED STATES
Sex blamed for car crash
A 22-year-old carnival worker in Moscow, Idaho, blames two friends having sex in the back seat of his car for an accident in which the car struck a telephone pole. Joshua Frank pleaded guilty on Monday to a misdemeanor charge of failing to notify a police officer of a traffic accident. He left the vehicle at the site of the crash. He was fined US$188, the Lewiston Tribune reported. According to a probable cause affidavit, Frank told police the actions in the backseat caused the car, which "was top heavy anyway," to become "tippy" and lose control. Frank had a minor head wound. The two in the backseat were treated for injuries.
■ UNITED STATES
Granny arrested over lawn
A 70-year-old woman in Orem, Utah, arrested in a dispute over her brown, unwatered lawn, pleaded not guilty. "I ask the citizens of Orem: How many of you would like to have your great-grandmother taken from her home with bruises and blood and placed in handcuffs for failing to water her lawn?" attorney Gloria Allred said. "Let's bring sanity back to law enforcement," she said. Betty Perry is charged with resisting arrest and failing to maintain her landscaping, both misdemeanors. She was arrested on July 6 after failing to give her name to a police officer who visited her home. During a struggle, Perry fell and injured her nose. She spent more than an hour in a holding cell before police released her.
■ UNITED STATES
Stock broker loses his cool
A Wall Street stock broker has been charged with assault after he became enraged during a cycling class at a posh health club and slammed a fellow member and his bike against a wall, according to a complaint. Christopher Carter, 44, a broker at Maxim Investments Group, was at Equinox gym taking a spin class, a high-impact workout using stationary bikes. He apparently became so fed up by member Stuart Sugarman's hooting and grunting during the workout that he picked up Sugarman and his bike and hurled them into a wall. "This is spin rage," said Samuel Davis, Sugarman's attorney.
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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