INDIA
Meat called bad for morals
The pros and cons of meat-eating may be a subject of debate for nutritionists, but one school textbook is clear: A fleshy diet will make you lie, steal and even commit sex crimes. The unusual moral guidance appeared in a schoolbook for 11-year-olds, purporting to offer guidance on issues from health and hygiene, to sex education and exercise, the NDTV news channel reported. On a page about non-vegetarians, the book said that they “easily cheat, tell lies, they forget promises, they are dishonest and tell bad words, steal, fight, and turn to violence and commit sex crimes.” The book’s marriage advice was also questionable, suggesting women should find a husband between the ages of 18 and 25. “To get married without a bad name is a dream of every young girl,” it said. Despite a strong culture of vegetarianism and a religious taboo on beef-eating, people are consuming an increasing amount of meat as the economy grows and consumers become better-traveled.
EGYPT
Children die in bus crash
At least 50 people, mostly nursery-school children, were killed yesterday when a train ploughed into their bus in the central Assiut Province, Assiut Governor Yehya Keshk said. The bus, which was taking 60 children on a trip organized by their nursery, was struck on a railway crossing in Manfalut, 356km south of Cairo, police said. The children were aged between four and eight. About 15 children were also injured, but none of them critically, state media reported. Minister of Transport Rashad al-Metini has resigned in the wake of the tragedy, saying he “accepts responsibility” for the accident. President Mohammed Morsi has also accepted the resignation of the Egyptian Railway Authority head.
INIDA
Ethnic violence kills four
Police say four members of a family were fatally shot on Friday night in renewed ethnic violence in a riot-hit district in the remote northeast. Assam State Police Inspector-General GP Singh said yesterday that an indefinite curfew has been imposed in Kokrajhar District after the killings. Other details were not immediately available. Singh said army troops have joined thousands of paramilitary troops and police officers in patroling the region to prevent more violence. Assam State has been simmering with tension since riots broke out between ethnic Bodos and Muslim settlers in late July.
UNITED KINGDOM
Syrian recognition mulled
Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Friday he would decide within days whether to officially recognize the new Syrian opposition after “encouraging” talks with its leaders in London. Hague said he had pressed Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib and his two deputies — on their first visit to a Western capital since a united Syrian opposition was formed last weekend — on the need to be inclusive and respect rights. “I’m encouraged by what I’ve heard and seen from the leaders of the coalition,” he said after meeting the trio at the Foreign Office, adding that he would make a statement to parliament on the issue next week. Earlier, Hague said in a BBC radio interview that the government was re-examining an EU embargo on arming the Syrian opposition, but said that London was currently only offering non-lethal support. France, Turkey and the Gulf states have granted official recognition to the new Syrian grouping, and Hague said the country was inclined to follow suit.
MEXICO
Police officers to stand trial
Prosecutors and defense lawyers say that seven of the 14 federal police officers charged in the shooting attack on a US embassy vehicle in August have been ordered to stand trial. The ruling means a judge overseeing the case has found sufficient evidence to warrant a trial. The 14 were detained soon after the Aug. 24 ambush left the US car riddled with bullets. They are charged with attempted homicide and damage to property. The two CIA agents in the car suffered non-life-threatening injuries and a Mexican navy captain with them was unharmed in the attack south of Mexico City. A federal official who was not authorized to be quoted by name confirmed the trial ruling on Friday, as did lawyer Enrique Mondragon, who represents two of the officers.
UNITED KINGDOM
DJ suspended amid scandal
A radio station has suspended the radio program of a disc jockey (DJ) who has been arrested as part of a national child sex abuse scandal. Bauer Media says Dave Lee Travis’ weekend show on Magic AM will not be broadcast until the investigation has been resolved. Travis was arrested on Thursday and later freed on bail as part of a wide-ranging police inquiry that began by looking into allegations against the late Jimmy Savile, a BBC TV host suspected of abusing hundreds of underage girls. The 67-year-old Travis has denied any wrongdoing. He told reporters on Friday that he was being investigated for groping two grown women, not for abusing children. Travis was once one of Britain’s best-known DJs. He has not been charged.
UNITED KINGDOM
Christian unfairly demoted
Britain’s High Court has ruled that a Christian was unfairly demoted for posting his opposition to gay marriage on Facebook. Adrian Smith was stripped of his management position with the Trafford Housing Trust and had his salary cut by 40 percent after posting that gay weddings in churches were “an equality too far.” The trust said Smith broke its code of conduct by expressing religious or political views that might upset co-workers. However, High Court judge Michael Briggs ruled on Friday that Smith had been “taken to task for doing nothing wrong” and found his employer guilty of breach of contract. Smith says he is glad the court had backed the principle that “Britain is a free country where people have freedom of speech.”
FRANCE
Man arrested after 17 year
A single pubic hair found at the scene of a fatal strangling 17 years ago has led to police arresting a gendarme on suspicion of murder, police sources said on Friday. The 39-year-old officer has been in custody since Thursday in connection with the murder of Stephanie Fauviaux, an 18-year-old student who was found strangled in the bath in her apartment in Lille in May 1995. The only significant clue in a case that had baffled detectives was the solitary hair recovered from a bath robe that did not come from the victim. At the request of Fauviaux’s family, the hair was recently re-examined using new forensic techniques and the DNA traces it contained enabled the police to place the suspect at the scene of the crime. The gendarme, who knew the victim, was arrested in Nice and was expected to be transferred to Lille and indicted for murder.
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images. The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children. Regulators in the two Southeast Asian
ICE DISPUTE: The Trump administration has sought to paint Good as a ‘domestic terrorist,’ insisting that the agent who fatally shot her was acting in self-defense Thousands of demonstrators chanting the name of the woman killed by a US federal agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, took to the city’s streets on Saturday, amid widespread anger at use of force in the immigration crackdown of US President Donald Trump. Organizers said more than 1,000 events were planned across the US under the slogan “ICE, Out for Good” — referring to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is drawing growing opposition over its execution of Trump’s effort at mass deportations. The slogan is also a reference to Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother shot dead on Wednesday in her
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