TURKEY
Channel fined for condom bit
The Radio and Television Supreme Council has fined a private channel over a show where the characters discussed the merits of strawberry-flavored condoms, the Hurriyet daily reported over the weekend. The increasingly stringent watchdog fined the TV 2 channel 12,353 Turkish lira (US$5,320) for broadcasting a segment from French-produced sketch show Vous Les Femmes, which in Turkish is broadcast as Ah Biz Kadinlar. “There was a discussion on the topic of strawberry condoms. There should have been warning, given this was during the period when children are watching,” it said in a ruling quoted by Hurriyet’s Web site. The council has been accused of imposing moral censorship in recent months for a number of stern rulings.
CHINA
Xinjiang ‘mobsters’ killed
A group of “mobsters” tried to set off an explosive device in a business district in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, prompting police to shoot six of them dead, the local government said yesterday. Police in Shule County acted on a tip-off about “a suspicious person carrying an explosive device,” the Xinjiang Government said on its official news site. An axe-wielding individual tried to attack police officers and set off an explosive device, prompting the officers to shoot him, it said. The report added that police trying to dispose of an explosive device were attacked by five “thugs” who sought to detonate it, but did not make clear if this was a separate incident. Aside from the suspects there were no other casualties, the report said, but gave no details of the assailants. The incident comes two months after 15 people were killed when a group threw explosives into a crowded street of vendors.
TANZANIA
FGM targets return home
Hundreds of schoolgirls yesterday returned home after spending three months hiding in safe houses to escape genital mutilation (FGM), state TV said. FGM can range from hacking off the clitoris, to the removal of the entire genitalia. About 800 school girls fled to shelters run by charities and church organizations, which offer protection during the months FGM is traditionally carried out: from October to December. Some of the shelters are given police protection to ensure the girls remain safe. Minister of Labor and Employment Gaudensia Kabaka called on traditional leaders to use their influence to stop “this retrograde practice.” At a center run by a Protestant church, one of the girls said: “My mother supported me, she did not want me to be cut, but my father began to beat me so I decided to come here.” FGM was outlawed in 1998 and carries a punishment of up to 15 years in prison, but is still carried out regularly.
CHINA
Japanese minister draws fire
The Ministry of Defense yesterday criticized Japanese Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani for the first time, saying it is “firmly opposed” to his comments that Beijing has repeatedly engaged in “dangerous actions” in the East China Sea. Nakatani last week accused the nation of violating Japan’s territorial waters, saying Beijing had locked fire-control radar on Japanese ships, set up an air defense identification zone and “flown its fighter jets abnormally close” to Japanese aircraft. The ministry hit back on its Web site, saying its military activities in the sea and air were “completely legitimate.” “The leader of Japan’s defense department ignores the facts and keeps on rehashing the same tune, playing up the ‘China military threat,’” it said.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
PROTESTS: A crowd near Congress waved placards that read: ‘How can we have freedom without education?’ and: ‘No peace for the government’ Argentine President Javier Milei has made good on threats to veto proposed increases to university funding, with the measure made official early yesterday after a day of major student-led protests. Thousands of people joined the demonstration on Wednesday in defense of the country’s public university system — the second large-scale protest in six months on the issue. The law, which would have guaranteed funding for universities, was criticized by Milei, a self-professed “anarcho-capitalist” who came to power vowing to take a figurative chainsaw to public spending to tame chronically high inflation and eliminate the deficit. A huge crowd packed a square outside Congress
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