CAMBODIA
Court releases ‘First Lady’
A war crimes court yesterday ordered the release of Ieng Thirith, dubbed the “First Lady” of the murderous Khmer Rouge regime, saying she was unfit to stand trial. “As there is no prospect that the accused can be tried in the foreseeable future, the trial chamber has confirmed the severance of the charges [against the 80-year-old],” a statement from the UN-backed tribunal said. Explaining its decision to stay proceedings against Ieng Thirith — who was the sister-in-law of regime leader Pol Pot — the court said her “cognitive impairment is likely irreversible.” One of only a handful of people ever brought before a court over the 1975-1979 regime, blamed for the deaths of up to 2 million people, Ieng Thirith was accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Three other ageing top former regime leaders — including her husband, former foreign minister Ieng Sary — remain on trial.
SOUTH KOREA
Transgender show pulled
A TV channel yesterday said it had pulled the plug on a newly launched talk show aimed at the transgender community, following strong objections from viewers. KBS Joy, an entertainment subsidiary of KBS TV, said on its Web site that it had reached the decision after “taking viewers’ opinions into account.” The midnight program, titled XY That Girl, was only launched last week, but the first airing sparked uproar from conservative groups, who staged protests outside the broadcaster and took out newspaper ads denouncing the show. The program invited transgender individuals to appear in person or to phone in to discuss their experiences living in the transgender community. Gay and transgender Koreans remain largely under the radar in a country that remains deeply conservative about matters of sexual identity and where many still regard homosexuality as a foreign phenomenon. Various teacher and parent groups bought a newspaper ad in which they attacked KBS Joy for “fanning” gay sexuality and warned that “children will blindly follow in the steps of transgenders.”
SWEDEN
Thief leaves man on tracks
Police are searching for a thief who found an inebriated man unconscious on subway tracks, stole his valuables and then left him there to be hit by a train. A surveillance camera captured the incident at a Stockholm subway station early on Sunday. A video clip broadcast on Wednesday by SVT showed the middle-aged man falling down from the platform. Another man in a blue jacket sees him and jumps down on the tracks, but instead of helping the man, he robs him, climbs back on the platform and walks away. Moments later the man is struck by a train. Police spokesman Dan Ostman said one of the man’s feet was crushed and he was also injured in the face and shoulder, but he survived.
DENMARK
Elephants go for a stroll
Two elephants said goodbye to the circus and took a walk along a Copenhagen street packed with rush-hour traffic on Wednesday, one following the other with trunk linked to tail. Sonia, 31, and Vana Mana, 41, star turns at the Circus Benneweis, strolled down the multi-lane Borups Alle in the Danish capital for about 200m before their trainer caught up with them. “They were walking past the morning traffic trunk-to-tail,” a police officer told Danish news agency Ritzau. Police blocked the road so the elephants could return to the circus site unhurt. “Nobody was hurt, so it was just two elephants out for a stroll,” the police officer said.
UNITED STATES
‘Ben & Cherry’ DVDs recalled
A movie studio has agreed to recall pornographic DVDs whose titles and packaging mimic those of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Caballero Video also agreed to stop marketing and to destroy materials used to make 10 titles in its “Ben & Cherry’s” X-rated film series while a lawsuit against it is pending. Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc sued Caballero on Sept. 5 for trademark infringement. It complained that its DVD titles, such as Boston Cream Thighs, Chocolate Fudge Babes and Peanut Butter D-Cups, were too similar to its ice cream flavors Boston Cream Pie, Chocolate Fudge Brownie and Peanut Butter Cup. Ben & Jerry’s also said Caballero’s packaging played off its own with images of puffy white clouds and grazing cows, just as the slogan, “Porno’s Finest,” punned on “Vermont’s Finest.”
BRAZIL
‘Husband’ breaks into palace
A woman claiming to be “the husband” of President Dilma Rousseff was overpowered as she tried to force her way into the presidential palace, officials said on Wednesday. The 29-year-old woman, identified as Edileine Celestino da Silva and sporting men’s clothes and haircut, showed at the palace late on Tuesday and tried to enter through a restricted entrance, the Correio Braziliense daily reported. A presidential guard warned her to stay away and fired his weapon into the ground to frighten her. However, the two “traded blows and rolled down the ramp” until security agents intervened, the paper said. “I came here to propose to Dilma. I am her husband,” the sobbing woman said. “I am not crying because of the blows I received. I am crying because I am in love,” she said. The woman was taken to hospital before being transferred to a police station.
UNITED KINGDOM
Roger Moore alleges abuse
Former James Bond actor Roger Moore on Wednesday said he was a victim of domestic violence during his first two marriages. The 84-year-old British star, who first played Agent 007 in 1973’s Live and Let Die, said his former wives, Doorn Van Steyn and Dorothy Squires, subjected him to a string of attacks in both of their doomed marriages. Van Steyn, an ice skater who married Moore when he was 19, once threw a teapot at him, he told TV presenter Piers Morgan in an interview due to be broadcast today. Moore, who is on his fourth marriage, said that on one occasion, Van Steyn had even attacked a doctor who was treating a cut on his hand. “She said to him: ‘Aren’t you going to do anything?’ and punched him,” he said. “Which made a change, because normally she punched me.” Moore divorced Van Steyn in 1953 and soon after married Welsh singer Dorothy Squires. However, this marriage was also stormy, and she once hit him over the head with a guitar, he said.
GUATEMALA
Villagers kill murder suspect
Angry villagers killed a man by setting fire to him after he allegedly hacked two children to death with a machete, authorities said. The villagers in Tactic, about 85km north of Guatemala City, grabbed the 35-year-old suspect, identified as Julio Saquil, doused him with gasoline and set him ablaze, local authorities said on Wednesday. “He walked into to one of the classrooms and assaulted the students, completely beheading a 13-year-old boy and slitting the throat of an eight-year-old girl with a machete,” Tactic firefighter Wilson Cahuec said. Local security officials said the dead man had a history of drug problems and violence, but they have not yet identified a motive for the attack.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
RSS