■ HONG KONG
Jackie Chan fights piracy
Jackie Chan (成龍) is taking the fight against movie piracy to your home refrigerator. Two movie industry groups will issue 200,000 refrigerator magnets bearing Chan's image and an anti-piracy message to buyers of authentic DVDs in China. The message says: ``Thank you for purchasing legitimate DVDs. Your action determines the future of the film industry,'' Hollywood industry group MPA said in a statement on Tuesday. MPA is organizing the campaign with the China Film Copyright Protection Association.
■ JAPAN
Beef soup stunt sours
How many scoops of stewed beef can you pile onto a bowl of rice? Two video-savvy cooks who tried to find out could find themselves out of jobs after the beef bowl chain Yoshinoya suspended them for posting a clip of their experiment on YouTube. The three-minute clip, posted on Nov. 30, had been viewed almost 480,000 times on the video-sharing site as of Tuesday. It shows a man in a Yoshinoya uniform heap ladle after ladle of steaming stewed beef onto a bowl of rice. By the sixth scoop, the mound of stewed beef is twice as high as the porcelain bowl.
■ PHILIPPINES
Santa tackles crime
More than 1,000 police officers wearing Santa hats have fanned out across Manila in time for the Christmas holidays -- traditionally the busiest period for thieves in the city. "We are wearing this to show the people that during this Christmas season our hearts and minds are on serving the ... people," Manila police officer Giovanni Valera said on Tuesday. Metropolitan Manila police chief Geary Barias said 1,000 officers and 700 police recruits have traded their blue caps for Santa hats while conducting more patrols of Manila's crime-ridden streets.
■ ITALY
Tweety Bird sues pirate
A court in Naples included the cartoon characters Tweety Bird, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in a summons as the damaged parties in a trial. The court summons cites "Titty, Paperino, Paperina, Topolino" -- the Italian names for the characters -- in the criminal trial of a Chinese man accused of counterfeiting products of Disney and Warner Bros instead of naming only the companies and their legal representatives, officials said. "Unfortunately they cannot show up, as they are residents of Disneyland," said Fiorenza Sorotto, vice president of Disney Co Italia. The summons will have to be rewritten, though this will probably delay the trial, Disney lawyer Cristina Ravelli said.
■ FRANCE
Rewards offered for tips
Police have been handing out leaflets in the Paris suburb hit by three nights of riots last week, promising hefty cash rewards for tip-offs about gunmen who opened fire on the security forces. The violence in Villiers le Bel left more than 120 police wounded, several dozen by lead shot fired from shotguns. The leaflet urges people to contact police anonymously via a toll-free number. "This is no longer just urban violence, this is guerilla warfare. We observed tactical movements on the youths' behalf to attract the police. This was anything but spontaneous," said Jean Espitalier, the police chief in charge of the investigation.
■ ITALY
Dialing up a saint
If you are a Catholic looking for a saint in Heaven to protect you, you no longer have to carry a small "holy card," you can get the image as wallpaper for your cellphone. "We found a need and filled it," said Barbara Labate, who came up with the idea with her business partner in a cellphone services firm in Milan. "We are merely catching up with the times. I think this will appeal to young people as well as grandmothers." The downloading service, done by sending a text message to a phone number, costs 3 euros (US$4.42). Some Catholic Church leaders, however, think the idea is crass and commercial. "This is in really bad taste," Bishop Lucio Soravito De Franceschi told the Turin paper La Stampa. "It is a distortion of sacred things."
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Xmas message opened
Fifty years after Britain's Queen Elizabeth delivered her first Christmas message on TV, it's time for her subjects to have their say online. The British have been invited to compile their own nation-to-nation message by computer chip manufacturer Intel. People can submit their own video comments to www.intel.co.uk/thepeoplesspeech. The speech will then be compiled for online viewing from Dec. 18.
■ SOUTH AFRICA
Dominatrix sues minister
A dominatrix has cracked her whip against a pastor by filing a claim for 350,000 rand (US$51,000) in damages after he tried to have her evicted from a church-owned home, a report said on Tuesday. Marianne Ellis is suing Pastor Johann Ernst, claiming loss of reputation after he allegedly sent text messages painting her and her husband as liars and sinners, the Pretoria News said. The couple had been churchgoers in the Pretoria suburb of Doringkloofuntil falling out with Ernst when she gave an interview alleging that some members of his congregation were clients, the paper said.
■ CANADA
Man probed for sex crimes
A man convicted of sex crimes against young boys in Cambodia and also sought by Thai police is being investigated in Canada on various charges, his lawyer said on Monday. Defense lawyer Brian Coleman said Orville Mader, who was arrested at Vancouver International Airport last month after being convicted in absentia of sex crimes against children in Cambodia three yeas ago, is being investigated for "a bunch of other charges." Coleman did not elaborate. Thai police had been looking for Mader after they issued an arrest warrant for him Oct. 31 after an eight-year-old Thai boy said a Thai man took him to Mader's hotel room in Thailand's beach resort town of Pattaya.
■ UNITED STATES
Skeleton found in home
Police found the skeletal remains of a woman in her home in Brooklyn, New York, on Monday. How long ago she died was unknown, but neighbors said they had not seen her for about two years. There was no evidence of foul play, investigators said. An autopsy was planned. Neighbors said the woman was Christine Copeman, believed to be in her 60s. They described her as a retired bank worker who was widowed. Mail had piled up behind the storm door at her brick row house on East 92nd Street in Brownsville, and deliveries of bottled water had accumulated on her porch.
■ UNITED STATES
Detective files lawsuit
A counterterrorism detective who says his failed drug test came because his wife had spiked his meatballs with marijuana has filed a lawsuit to get his job back. Anthony Chiofalo asked the court to declare that his firing in August from the New York Police Department was unreasonable and unconstitutional, to declare that a damning hair sample was improperly taken and to order his rehiring with back pay plus interest, seniority and all benefits. Chiofalo, a 22-year veteran assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, was suspended without pay in November 2005 after a random drug test found marijuana in his system. He denied using drugs and demanded a hearing.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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