AUSTRALIA
Outrage over PM’s Nazi slur
Prime Minister Tony Abbott was criticized yesterday after referring to the opposition leader as the “Dr Goebbels of economic policy” in a rowdy parliamentary question time, sparking cries of “disgusting.” During a heated exchange about his economic credentials, Abbott said criticism coming from Labor was like “the arsonist complaining about the fire.” He went on to say opposition leader Bill Shorten was “the Dr Goebbels of economic policy,” likening him to Joseph Goebbels, minister for propaganda in Nazi Germany. Abbott quickly withdrew the remark, but not before the opposition erupted in anger, including shadow attorney general Mark Dreyfus and lawmaker Michael Danby, both Jewish. “Slag us as much as you like, but it’s silly to use an example of the ultimate evil in politics. He is the prime minister, he’s supposed to have standards,” Danby said.
JAPAN
Amazon in child porn probe
Authorities are investigating a worker at Amazon over claims he was involved in the sale of child pornography, reports said yesterday. The unidentified man, reportedly in his 40s, posted a graphic picture book for sale that showed nude girls believed to be under the age of 18, Jiji Press news agency and the Asahi Shimbun reported, citing police sources. The temporary distribution worker, who was dispatched to work at Amazon Japan Logistics, an affiliate of the local arm of Amazon.com, was in charge of product management and distribution, the reports said. A customer who purchased the book online returned it and complained that the book appeared to be child pornography, but the employee relisted it on the online store, they added.
INDONESIA
Alleged murderer gives birth
A US teenager on trial in Bali over the murder of her mother, whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase, has given birth to a baby girl, a prison official said on Wednesday. Heather Mack, 19, who could be given the death penalty if found guilty of premeditated murder, was taken from Kerobokan jail on Bali to a hospital on Tuesday and gave birth in the evening, prison chief Sudjonggo said. The baby is in good health and Mack could return to the jail as early as yesterday, he said. “If no family members or other parties can look after the baby, the baby can be cared for in prison until she turns two,” he added. Prisoners in Kerobokan are reported to live in cramped, filthy conditions and drug abuse is widespread. Mack and her boyfriend, 21-year-old Tommy Schaefer, are facing separate trials in Bali over the murder of Sheila von Wiese Mack, 62, whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi outside a resort in Bali in August last year. Schaefer, who also faces the death penalty, confessed during a court appearance last week to killing his girlfriend’s mother, but argued he acted in self-defense after she attacked him.
DENMARK
Six arrested after shootout
Copenhagen police on Wednesday said they had arrested six men after a gang-related shootout in an underground car park of a shopping mall left two people injured. The men were between the ages of 19 and 26 and are linked to criminal gangs, police said in a statement. “The two groups met in the Field’s shopping center ... One group fled to the parking area, where there was gunfire between the groups and two people were hit. One of them is seriously injured,” police said. It was not clear how many shots were fired at the suburban shopping center near Copenhagen’s airport.
GERMANY
Varoufakis video faked: host
A TV presenter on Wednesday admitted to faking a video showing Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis giving the middle-finger gesture to Germany, after the politician vehemently contested its authenticity. Jan Bohermann, host of satirical program Neo Magazin Royale on public broadcaster ZDF, said he had been waiting since Sunday for someone to ask him if he had faked the controversial footage, but no one had questioned him. “Sorry Mr Varoufakis, we won’t do it again,” he said, detailing how a production team had manipulated the video. The footage showed Varoufakis before he became finance minister speaking at a 2013 event in the Croatian capital, Zagreb. In the doctored images Varoufakis talks about the problems facing his debt-laden country and says “stick the finger to Germany,” as he makes the offensive gesture.
UNITED STATES
Durst suicidal: authorities
Robert Durst, the real-estate scion charged with first-degree murder, is suicidal, according to statements released on Wednesday by Louisiana authorities after they moved him to a facility for inmates suffering from acute mental illness. Awaiting extradition to California, the 71-year-old was charged this week in Los Angeles County with killing longtime friend Susan Berman in 2000. He could face the death penalty if convicted. In law enforcement’s sights for decades, Durst has been the focus of investigations across the country. Three of his condominiums in Houston, Texas, were searched on Tuesday and there have also been investigations in northern California, where the disappearances of two teenagers in 1997 raised questions about his whereabouts at the time. The heir to a New York real-estate dynasty was arrested in New Orleans on Saturday last week with a handgun, marijuana, a fake ID and more than US$42,000 in cash, records show.
UNITED STATES
Man arrested over killings
An 18-year-old Burmese man has been arrested in connection with the stabbing deaths of three children in North Carolina, police said on Wednesday. Responding to a report of a person walking down the street with a knife, police disarmed Eh Lar Doh Htoo late on Tuesday at a house in New Bern, where they found the bodies of two of the victims. The third died as he was being taken to a hospital. The dead were brothers aged one, five and 12, and knew their assailant, police said. They were also of Burmese refugees.
MEXICO
Court orders inmate freed
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release of a prisoner who had spent 23 years in jail for a double murder after it concluded he had confessed under torture. Alfonso Martin del Campo Dodd was in his 20s when he was sentenced in 1992 to 50 years in jail over the death of his sister and brother-in-law. The court said there had been no evidence against him except the confession it said had been obtained under torture by police. In throwing out the conviction the court acted on a decade-old recommendation from the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a panel that blamed the state for arbitrary arrest, torture and cruel treatment in this case. One of the reports issued by the commission said that 10 to 12 police had ganged up on Del Campo Dodd, placing a plastic bag over his head to suffocate him. He was also beaten severely in the stomach and head, and kicked in the testicles until he signed a confession for the crime.
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
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
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
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
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