JAPAN
Manga porn to be restricted
Tokyo is expected today to restrict the sale of manga comics and anime films with extreme depictions of rape, incest and other sex crimes, a plan that has brought cries of censorship. The bill before the Tokyo assembly would require publishers and shops to sell only to readers aged over 18 any material that depicts “virtual sex crimes” if the images are “unjustifiably glorified and exaggerated.” A group of 10 major comic publishers has protested against the bill and said it will boycott the biggest industry show, the Tokyo International Anime Fair, to be hosted next March by Tokyo’s conservative Governor Shintaro Ishihara. Manga comics are highly popular with both children and adults. The graphic novels deal with themes from high school romance to the literary classics — but also with pornography, much of it hardcore and violent. Ishihara has pushed for restrictions on the sale of “unhealthy” manga and anime within the city of more than 13 million people.
JAPAN
PM visits battle site
Prime Minister Naoto Kan is making a rare visit to Iwo Jima, the site of one of World War II’s bloodiest battles and where two mass graves were recently discovered. Kan paid his respects yesterday to the more than 21,000 soldiers who died on the tiny volcanic island in 1945. His government has resolved to find the roughly 12,000 Japanese whose bodies have yet to be recovered. Now officially known as Ioto, the island was the scene of a fateful and iconic battle that helped turn the tide against the Imperial Army, claiming almost 7,000 US and more than 21,000 Japanese lives. Along with the Japanese, 218 Americans are classified as still missing. Tokyo wants to account for the missing over the next three years.
CHINA
3D filming of classic starts
Monkey King, meet Avatar. Production has begun on a stereoscopic 3D version of one of the biggest-ever Chinese-language adventure tales as Chinese filmmakers hope to match the gigantic success of Avatar. The film, Monkey King, is based on the classic Chinese novel The Journey to the West, which tells the story of a Buddhist monk’s pilgrimage to India to collect religious texts. One of the best-known stories from Chinese mythology, the popular tale is frequently adapted for television and movies. Aaron Kwok (郭富城), a Hong Kong pop star, is cast as the Buffalo Demon King, while Chow Yun-fat (周潤發), who starred in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, plays the Jade Emperor. Other Hong Kong stars such as Donnie Yen (甄子丹), Kelly Chen (陳慧琳), Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) and Peter Ho (何潤東) will also take part.
JAPAN
Kan’s support plummets
Support for the Cabinet of center-left Prime Minister Naoto Kan has fallen six points to 21 percent, the lowest level since he took office half a year ago, a newspaper survey said yesterday. The poll by the liberal Asahi Shimbun daily showed that the disapproval rating for Kan’s government had shot up to 60 percent, 8 percentage points higher than in a survey by the newspaper last month. Kan has been under fire ever since he took the post in June, especially over foreign policy, including his handling of a territorial row with China. But 57 percent of the more than 2,000 voters polled at the weekend said they wanted Kan to stay on as prime minister anyway — a position the Asahi said was probably because of the absence of a strong alternative leader.
UNITED KINGDOM
Far-right group snubs pastor
A far-right group has canceled plans for firebrand US pastor Terry Jones to speak at one of its events after saying it disagreed with his views on race and homosexuality, the BBC reported. But Jones, who sparked an international furore after threatening to burn the Koran, the holy book of Islam, on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said he would likely still come to England and planned to organize an event in London. Far-right group the English Defence League (EDL), which organizes protests against what it terms as the “Islamification” of England, had invited the controversial pastor to speak at a rally in February. There were concerns his presence could inflame community relations and interior minister Theresa May had said she was considering whether she should block Jones from coming. But the EDL said on Monday they had decided Jones would not be speaking at their rally. EDL spokesman Guramit Singh told the BBC that “after doing some research and seeing what his personal opinions are on racism and homosexuality, we are not allowing him to speak at our demonstration. He is not the right candidate for us. The EDL is anti-homophobic and we are a non-racism organization.”
RUSSIA
Policewoman arrested
A policewoman was arrested in Saint Petersburg on Monday for attempting to sell a synthetic drug popular with addicts and party-goers, authorities said. “Yana Frolova, aged 21, attempted, with the help of a 32-year-old man, to sell more than two kilos of natrium oxybutyricum for 10,000 rubles [US$330],” local prosecutors said. The substance, generally known as sodium oxybate or GHB, is considered a “club drug” popular with young party-goers. Russia’s police force is plagued by corruption and scandals are common, despite a pledged crackdown by President Dmitry Medvedev.
UNITED KINGDOM
Hurley tweets separation
British actress and model Elizabeth Hurley used her Twitter account to announce that she had separated from her husband of three years, Indian businessman Arun Nayar. “Not a great day. For the record, my husband Arun & I separated a few months ago. Our close family & friends were aware of this,” the 45-year-old, who also runs her own swimwear business, wrote on the social messaging site. The couple married in 2007 at Sudeley Castle in western England and then celebrated with a traditional Hindu ceremony in the historic Indian city of Jodhpur. Hurley dated British actor Hugh Grant for more than a decade and has a child from a relationship with film producer Steve Bing.
UNITED STATES
Bieber tops YouTube
Teenager Justin Bieber had four of the top 10 most-watched music videos in the world on YouTube this year, with Baby taking the top spot at more than 400 million views, YouTube said in Los Angeles on Monday. The 16-year-old Canadian, who was discovered in 2008 after he posted home videos on YouTube, also saw Never Say Never, Never Let You Go and Somebody to Love Remix make the most-watched videos from major music labels for this year. A young Alabama man giving an impassioned TV news interview about a local crime spree became the most-watched YouTube entry outside those produced by major music labels. Bed Intruder Song — a remix of the words by Antoine Dodson, 24, set to a song by New York musicians Evan and Michael Gregory — was viewed 60 million times around the world.
UNITED STATES
Hackers target McDonald’s
Fast-food giant McDonald’s and gossip Web site Gawker on Monday said that hackers had helped themselves to data about people who take part in their offerings. McDonald’s was quick to note that no financial or sensitive personal information was swiped by cyber criminals who broke into computer systems operated by an outside firm used to manage a customer e-mail database. Gawker Media said hackers looted passwords from servers handling nine of its Web sites including Gizmodo and Fleshbot. People who log-in at Gawker Media online properties were advised to change passwords immediately. A group calling itself “Gnosis” claimed responsibility for the Gawker hack, according to the New York based Internet firm.
UNITED STATES
Mudslides halt trains
Mudslides following torrential rains in western Washington state forced passenger rail service to shut down through yesterday morning on several key Pacific Northwest routes, Amtrak said on Monday. The National Weather Service issued flood warnings along several major river basins after a warm, moist air mass originating from Hawaii swept the Northwest with heavy showers on Saturday and Sunday. The storm dumped up to 20cm of rain in the north and central Cascades and Olympic Mountains, weather service forecaster Mike McFarland said. While skies began clearing on Monday, flood warnings remained posted for parts of nine rivers across much of western Washington.
UNITED STATES
TV chef planned wife’s death
A former TV chef who pleaded no contest to trying to hire a pair of homeless men to kill his wife for US$1,000 was sentenced on Monday to nine years in state prison. Juan Carlos Cruz, onetime host of Calorie Commando on the Food Network, pleaded no contest to a single count of soliciting murder on Oct. 26, as a preliminary hearing was set to begin in the case. As a result of his plea, a count of attempted murder was dismissed. Prosecutors say Cruz, 48, approached two homeless men in May and offered them US$500 each to kill his wife, Jennifer Campbell. The men instead contacted the Santa Monica Police Department, which set up a sting operation to videotape Cruz arranging the murder with the men, a Los Angeles County District Attorney’s spokeswoman said.
UNITED STATES
Baby whale rescued
A baby sperm whale that beached itself near San Diego has been guided back into the ocean, where it will hopefully reunite with its mother, a spokesman for Sea World said on Monday. The roughly 5.5m long, 1.4 tonne whale was found beached on Sunday evening near Torrey Pines State Beach, north of San Diego. A rescue team from Sea World responded and found that the whale was in good condition. “Normally when we see a beached cetacean it is extremely sick and very, very lethargic, so it was pleasant to see the animal being energetic, although it was being pushed around along the rocks,” Sea World spokesman David Koontz said. “The surf was pretty powerful last night.” Koontz said team members gave the whale, which had suffered scrapes and scratches from rocks at the shoreline, steroid and antibiotic injections and guided it back to sea. Koontz said it wasn’t clear why the whale had beached itself, although it might have done so after getting lost or separated from its mother.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
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