INDIA
Cars get special horns
German carmaker Audi makes special horns for its vehicles sold in India, where local drivers hoot incessantly as they fight their way through chaotic traffic, the firm’s country director has revealed. “Obviously, for India, the horn is a category in itself,” Audi India director Michael Perschke told yesterday’s Mint newspaper. “You take a European horn and it will be gone in a week or two. With the amount of honking in Mumbai, we do on a daily basis what an average German does on an annual basis.” Perschke said the horns are specially adapted for driving conditions in India.
PAKISTAN
Bollywood film banned
The country’s film censorship board says it has banned a movie featuring a character dubbed “India’s James Bond” that is critical of Islamabad’s generals and spies. Censorship board vice chairman Mohammad Ashraf Gondal said yesterday that the Bollywood film Agent Vinod violated the codes set by his organization. He refused to provide further details. The movie shows Pakistani officials providing support for the Taliban in Afghanistan and scheming to set off a nuclear suitcase bomb in archenemy India’s capital. The film, which was scheduled to open last week in Lahore and Karachi, likely hit too close to home because it echoes real criticism of the country — admittedly, in the exaggerated style of India’s popular Bollywood film industry.
CHINA
‘Red’ TV drive axed
A television channel is to ax shows extolling Communist ideals, state media said yesterday, just more than a year after they were introduced in a “red” drive led by disgraced former Chongqing Communist Party secretary Bo Xilai (薄熙來). The official Global Times said the government-backed satellite broadcaster in Chongqing would revert to its previous staple of popular sitcoms from Tuesday next week. The moves comes just weeks after Bo, famed for his populist “red revival” campaign that included airing shows promoting Communist-era songs and classic revolutionary tales, was removed as the metropolis’ party chief.
NEPAL
Third gender option wanted
A prominent lawmaker and gay rights activist said he has asked Facebook to include a third option for people who do not identify themselves as male or female. Sunilbabu Pant said he has written to Facebook founders Mark Zuckerberg and Chris Hughes asking for an option such as “third gender” or “others” when signing up because people who do not identify as male or female continue to be sidelined by Facebook’s options. Pant said he has not received any response from Facebook, but was hopeful. Pant is the only openly gay parliament member in the country and has been campaigning for equal rights in the Himalayan nation.
MYANMAR
Thein Sein touts fairness
President Thein Sein urged the country to respect “the decision of the people” in key by-elections, state media said yesterday, ahead of a poll expected to sweep Aung San Suu Kyi into parliament. Thein Sein, a former general who has spearheaded wide ranging reforms since taking power a year ago, said the authorities were trying to ensure “free and fair” elections. “Winners and losers will emerge in the by-elections as per usual. We all need to work together to ensure that the outcome is accepted by all the people,” he said in a speech published by the New Light of Myanmar.
BRAZIL
‘Gang of Blondes’ busted
A gang of women — described as blond, bilingual and well educated — have been taking shopping malls by storm, kidnapping female shoppers and maxing out their credit cards, police say. Over the weekend, police in Sao Paulo arrested three members of the so-called “Gang of Blondes,” which has been credited with 54 express kidnappings in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro since their crime spree began in 2008. Police said gang members would follow a potential victim in broad daylight, often in a shopping mall or a supermarket, to assess their wealth. Then two women would hold the victim as she entered her car, while two others would assume the victim’s identity and run up their credit card or empty their bank accounts at ATMs.
CANADA
Mulcair wants to ‘reach out’
The new opposition leader said on Sunday that social democrats must reach out to the public who share their progressive values to beat the ruling Tories in a 2015 election. Center-leaning Thomas Mulcair was crowned leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) on Saturday at a convention in Toronto, after the death of Jack Layton, who led the party to historic gains at the ballot box last year. “One of the elements that we are going to have to work on is to make sure that people realize that the NDP is formed by a team of women and men capable of providing good competent solid public administration,” he said at his first press conference as leader. With polls showing the NDP now tied with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, Mulcair is the first real social democratic contender for prime minister in the NDP’s 50-year history.
MEXICO
Pope praises enthusiasm
Pope Benedict XVI said he now understood why Jean Paul II said he felt “like a Mexican pope,” after breaking protocol, donning a sombrero and meeting with locals late on Sunday. The pope stepped out of the Miraflores college where he was staying in Leon, at the end of his first visit to the country. “Dear friends, thank you very much for this enthusiasm,” the 84-year-old pope said in Italian as mariachi musicians serenaded him in the street. “I’ve made many trips and I’ve never been received with so much enthusiasm. Mexico will always be in my heart. Now I understand why John Paul II said: ‘I feel like a Mexican pope,’” he said, provoking cheers of “Benedict, brother, now you’re Mexican,” from the crowd.
RUSSIA
Pussy Riot ‘work for devil’
A feminist punk band who staged an unsanctioned performance in Moscow’s principal cathedral were doing the work of the devil, according to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Kirill said that “the devil laughed at us” when Pussy Riot performed their song Virgin Mary, Mother of God, Expel Putin! in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior less than a fortnight before presidential elections. Three alleged members of Pussy Riot have been arrested since the “punk prayer.” They remain in prison awaiting trial on hooliganism charges and deny taking part in the Feb. 21 show. All face sentences of up to seven years. Patriarch Kirill appeared annoyed by calls for leniency. There were people who sought to “justify and downplay this sacrilege,” he said. Some members of the Orthodox Church initiated an open letter to the patriarch earlier this month, calling on him to “maintain a Christian attitude” and for all criminal charges against the accused to be dropped.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
‘KAMPAI’: It is said that people in Japan began brewing rice about 2,000 years ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol Traditional Japanese knowledge and skills used in the production of sake and shochu distilled spirits were approved on Wednesday for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a committee of the UN cultural body said It is believed people in the archipelago began brewing rice in a simple way about two millennia ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol. By about 1000 AD, the imperial palace had a department to supervise the manufacturing of sake and its use in rituals, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association said. The multi-staged brewing techniques still used today are
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