SINGAPORE
Leaders review gay sex law
The government is considering how to safeguard its legal position on marriage between a man and a woman, as the government reviews a colonial-era section of the country’s penal code that criminalizes gay sex, the Straits Times reported on Saturday, citing a top official. Many Singaporeans agree that gay sex should not be criminalized, Minister for Home Affairs K. Shanmugam said. Changing Section 377A of the Penal Code, which has not been enforced for more than a decade, should be discussed and decided in parliament, and not in the courts, he added. He said the government “understands” that many Singaporeans do not want the legal definition of marriage changed, and called for moderation in the debate of gay rights or “the ruptures will tear our social fabric apart,” the newspaper reported.
UNITED STATES
Biden tests positive again
President Joe Biden on Saturday again tested positive for COVID-19, slightly more than three days after he was cleared to exit isolation, the White House said, in a rare case of “rebound” following treatment with the anti-viral drug Paxlovid. White House physician Kevin O’Connor wrote in a letter that Biden “has experienced no re-emergence of symptoms, and continues to feel quite well,” adding that “there is no reason to reinitiate treatment at this time.” In accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, Biden is to re-enter isolation for at least five days.
UNITED STATES
US$1.3bn lottery ticket sold
A single ticket bought in a Chicago suburb beat the odds and won a US$1.337 billion Mega Millions jackpot. Megamillions.com said that there was one jackpot-winning ticket in the draw Friday night, and it was bought at a Speedway fuel station and convenience store in Des Plaines, Illinois. The winning numbers were: 13-36-45-57-67, Mega Ball: 14. The jackpot was the nation’s third-largest lottery prize. It grew so large because no one had matched the game’s six selected numbers in 29 consecutive draws since April 15. Lottery officials had estimated the winning take at US$1.28 billion, but on Saturday revised the number up to US$1.337 billion. The total prize is for winners who choose the annuity option, paid annually over 29 years. Most winners opt for the cash option, which for Friday night’s drawing was an estimated US$780.5 million.
SPAIN
Body positive poster edited
A government campaign encouraging women of all shapes and sizes to hit the beach has backfired, after one of the models featured said her prosthetic leg had been edited out. The likeness of Briton Sian Green-Lord features on the far left of the promotional poster, in a white swimsuit with floral patterns. Compared with an image on her Instagram account, the color of her swimsuit has been changed, and a left leg added where her prosthetic limb should be. “I don’t even know how to even explain the amount of anger that I’m feeling right now. I’m literally shaking, I’m so angry,” said the motivational speaker and model, who lost a leg when she was hit by a taxi in New York in 2013. “There’s one thing using my image without my permission, but there’s another thing editing my body, my body with my prosthetic leg. I don’t even know what to say but it’s beyond wrong.” The artist behind the body positive campaign poster, Arte Mapache, has apologized for using the models’ likenesses without their permission, and for using a typeface that she had understood to be free.
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
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