PAKISTAN
Chinese engineers attacked
Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) militants yesterday attacked a convoy carrying Chinese engineers to the Beijing-financed Gwadar Port in the southwest, the group said. “BLA Majeed Brigade today targeted a convoy of Chinese engineers in Gwadar. The attack is still ongoing,” the separatist group said in a statement. Security sources confirmed an attack on a convoy carrying Chinese engineers, but there was no immediate official response. No injuries were reported within the convoy, China’s Global Times said, citing unidentified “Chinese personnel” in Gwadar. One militant was killed and three were wounded in a gunfight with security forces, Aaj News reported.
INDONESIA
Miss Universe cuts ties
The Miss Universe Organization said it was cutting ties with its Indonesian franchisee and canceling this year’s Malaysia pageant after contestants accused local organizers of sexual harassment. The US-based organization said in an e-mailed statement late on Saturday that it had severed its contract with PT Capella Swastika Karya and its national director Poppy Capella, who also holds the license for Miss Universe Malaysia. Six Miss Universe Indonesia contestants filed complaints with police accusing organizers of sexual harassment, saying they were subjected to topless “body checks,” their lawyer said on Tuesday last week. “It has become clear that this franchise has not lived up to our brand standards, ethics, or expectations as outlined in our franchise handbook and code of conduct,” the Miss Universe Organization said.
COLOMBIA
Survivor abused: prosecutors
Prosecutors on Saturday announced sexual abuse charges against the father of two of the four indigenous children who survived a May plane crash in the Amazon. The children went missing after the small plane they were traveling in went down, killing their mother and two other adults. In a statement, prosecutors accused Manuel Ranoque of sexually abusing his 13-year-old stepdaughter, who was widely credited with ensuring that she and her younger siblings survived the more than five-week-long ordeal in the Amazon that garnered headlines across the globe. Ranoque, who was arrested on Friday, stands accused of abusing his stepfedaughter since she was 10 years old, the statement said.
UNITED STATES
Child influencer law passed
Illinois is the first state to ensure that child social media influencers are compensated for their work, said Illinois Senator David Koehler, who sponsored a bill that was signed into law on Friday and goes into effect on July 1 next year. “The rise of social media has given children new opportunities to earn a profit,” Koehler said in an e-mailed press release after the bill was signed Friday afternoon. “Many parents have taken this opportunity to pocket the money, while making their children continue to work in these digital environments.” The idea for the law, which covers children under the age of 16 featured in monetized online platforms, including video blogs, was brought to Koehler by a 15-year-old in his district, the Democratic senator said. Besides coordinated dances and funny toddler comments, family vlogs might share intimate details of their children’s lives — grades, potty training, illnesses, misbehaviors and first periods — for countless strangers to view. Brand deals featuring children can reap tens of thousands of dollars per video, but so far there are minimal regulations for the “sharenthood” industry.
Showcasing phallus-shaped portable shrines and pink penis candies, Japan’s annual fertility festival yesterday teemed with tourists, couples and families elated by its open display of sex. The spring Kanamara Matsuri near Tokyo features colorfully dressed worshipers carrying a trio of giant phallic-shaped objects as they parade through the street with glee. The festival, as legend has it, honors a local blacksmith in the Edo Period (1603-1868) who forged an iron dildo to break the teeth of a sharp-toothed demon inhabiting a woman’s vagina that had been castrating young men on their wedding nights. A 1m black steel phallus sits in the courtyard of
JAN. 1 CLAUSE: As military service is voluntary, applications for permission to stay abroad for over three months for men up to age 45 must, in principle, be granted A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has triggered an uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime. The legislation, which went into effect on Jan. 1 aims to bolster the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription. If the “modernized” model fails to pull in enough recruits, parliament will be compelled to discuss the reintroduction of compulsory service, German
Filipino farmers like Romeo Wagayan have been left with little choice but to let their vegetables rot in the field rather than sell them at a loss, as rising oil prices linked to the Iran war drive up the cost of harvesting, labor and transport. “There’s nothing we can do,” said Wagayan, a 57-year old vegetable farmer in the northern Philippine province of Benguet. “If we harvest it, our losses only increase because of labor, transportation and packing costs. We don’t earn anything from it. That’s why we decided not to harvest at all,” he said. Soaring costs caused by the Middle East
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s officially declared wealth is fairly modest: some savings and a jointly owned villa in Budapest. However, voters in what Transparency International deems the EU’s most corrupt country believe otherwise — and they might make Orban pay in a general election this Sunday that could spell an end to his 16-year rule. The wealth amassed by Orban’s inner circle is fueling the increasingly palpable frustration of a population grappling with sluggish growth, high inflation and worsening public services. “The government’s communication machine worked well as long as our economic situation remained relatively good,” said Zoltan Ranschburg, a political analyst
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