Don't Sit For Too Long!

Source: Orange

Park officials in China have found a way to stop people from hogging their benches for too long - by fitting steel spikes on a coin-operated timer.

If visitors at the Yantai Park in Shangdong province, eastern China, linger too long without feeding the meter, dozens of sharp spikes shoot through the seat.

The spikes are too short to cause any serious harm - but long enough to prevent people from sitting on them comfortably.

Park bosses got the idea from an art installation in Germany where sculptor Fabian Brunsing created a similar bench as a protest against the commercialisation of modern life.

"He thought he was exaggerating. He didn't foresee that a very practical country like China might actually use them for real," said one critic.

Parks in China suffer from chronic overcrowding at weekends when millions of people try to escape the country's teeming cities.

"We have to make sure the facilities are shared out evenly and this seems like a fair way to stop people grabbing a bench at dawn and staying there all day," said one park official.

It's mostly young couple hogging the benches and making out.. so I don't know about the effectiveness of these so-called spikes.

Nose for a nose, ear for an ear

A Pakistani court has ordered the noses and ears of two men cut off after they did the same thing to a young woman whose family spurned one of the men's marriage proposal, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

The anti-terrorism court in the eastern city of Lahore said it was applying Islamic law by ordering the punishment.

Lahore prosecutor Chaudhry Ali Ahmed said one of the accused, Sher Mohammad, was a cousin of the 19-year-old woman and wanted to marry her. Her parents refused his proposal.

Sher Mohammad and a friend, Amanat Mohammad, were accused of kidnapping the woman and cutting off her ears and nose in late September in the Raiwind area of Lahore.

The court on Monday also sentenced each man to 50 years in prison and told them to pay fines and compensation to the woman amounting to several thousand dollars, the prosecutor said.

Pakistan's legal system has Islamic elements that sometimes lead to orders for harsh punishments, but the sentences are often overturned and rarely carried out. Serious crimes are often referred to anti-terrorism courts in Pakistan because they move faster.

Violence against women, especially attacks by spurned lovers, also occurs frequently in this impoverished South Asian nation.

The men have seven days to appeal the ruling, Ahmed said.

Wow! Is marrying cousins allowed? What is the custom?
The parents were correct in refusing to let their daughter marry a cousin right?

This is the right punishment!

Honey! Make Sure You Come Home On Time!

Source: The Straits Times

POLICE have detained a Malaysian woman who allegedly stabbed her husband in the chest for coming home late after watching a football match between Manchester United and Malaysia, an official said on Tuesday.

The man had promised to come back immediately after the match in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday evening, but his wife was 'very angry' when he returned after midnight, said district police chief Abdul Jalil Hassan.

The woman stabbed him twice in the chest with a kitchen knife and then took him to a hospital, where a doctor reported the incident to police, Abdul Jalil told The Associated Press.

'He was with friends after the match, so that's why he came home late,' Abdul Jalil said.

The man was recovering in the hospital, he said.

Police have not decided whether to charge the woman with any offense.

The English Premier League champions defeated Malaysia 3-2 on Saturday in their opening match on a preseason Asian tour.

Sheesh! If he's just going out the guys, no need to stab him! But this is probably the last drop that overflows the full glass of water. There must have been a history of him coming home late and cheating on her.

OR it could be that people lose their mind over soccer.

As they say: Mass genocide is the most exhausting activity one can engage in, outside of soccer.

4-month prison term for groping

Source: Breitbart

Kazuhide Uekusa, once a well-known TV commentator and economist, will get four months in prison for molesting a female high school student on a Tokyo train in 2006 as a petty bench of the Supreme Court decided earlier this week to turn down his final appeal.

Presiding Judge Takaharu Kondo of the third petty bench made the decision Thursday, upholding the 4-month prison term handed down in district and high court trials against Uekusa for public indecency.

According to the lower courts' rulings, Uekusa, 48, put his hand up the high school student's skirt and touched her body on the night of Sept. 13, 2006, on a commuter train between Shinagawa and Kamata stations on the Keihin Kyuko Line.

Uekusa pleaded not guilty, saying he was mistaken for the real perpetrator.

But the Tokyo District Court convicted Uekusa based on eyewitnesses' testimonies, and the Tokyo High Court affirmed the ruling.

Earlier, Uekusa was convicted of public indecency and fined 500,000 yen for trying to look up a female high school student's skirt using a mirror at a Tokyo railway station in April 2004. He was a professor at Waseda University at that time.

Sad isn't it. Well known tv presenter, experct economist, charged in petty court. I'm sure he had everything, probably was married. He's known for his criminal events. It's just an illness isn't it :(

China detains 40 over exam cheating: state media

Source: Yahoo!

Chinese police have detained 40 people in multiple cases of alleged high-tech cheating on the country's make-or-break university entrance exams, state media reported.

In north Shanxi province, six people were detained for allegedly selling receivers to students so they could be fed the correct answers during the June 7-9 tests, the Xinhua news agency said late Sunday.

The detainees included four students and one middle school teacher, according to the agency.

In northeastern Jilin province, a total of 34 suspects have been detained for trying to cheat during the exams, Xinhua said.

It was not immediately clear if the suspects had been charged, or what the charges would be.

Ten million students sat for the highly competitive exams, which are considered crucial for Chinese families, as they can determine whether a student enters the country's educated elite or joins the general work force.

Authorities this year announced stepped-up efforts to crack down on cheating after more than 1,000 applicants were caught cheating on China's civil servant exams, with some using earpieces and wireless transmitters.

As mentioned in the last post, there's an immense amount of pressure for youths to succeed in China. One test at the end of high school makes or breaks your life.

You pass the test you become a somebody and go to a good school. You fail the test, you're on the manufacturing line forever.

Chinese waitress walks free after killing official

Source: Google

A Chinese waitress convicted of killing an official who demanded sex walked free from court Tuesday, after a nationwide Internet campaign hailed her as a heroine for standing up to government sleaze.

In a case that sparked widespread outrage, Deng Yujiao, 21, was put on trial for stabbing to death a local official in central China in May, in what she said was self-defence after he tried to force himself on her sexually.

Deng, a waitress at a hotel in the city of Badong, was initially detained on suspicion of murder after the incident, in which she said the man hit her repeatedly after she refused his advances.

She also stood accused of injuring a second official who had made unwanted sexual advances.

Deng was eventually charged with the lesser offence of intentional assault -- still punishable by death, according to the China Daily -- as officials caved in to the massive public pressure generated on the Internet.

Internet users fed up with government corruption, abuse of power and official impunity quickly rallied to Deng's cause, and her case became a symbol of injustice in a society tightly controlled by the ruling Communist Party.

On Tuesday, after a brief trial in Badong in Hubei province, Deng walked free despite being found guilty as charged, on the grounds of diminished responsibility, a judge at the court, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

The judge said the court had decided not to punish her as she had used excessive force in an act of self-defence, she had surrendered to the police, and the officials involved in the incident had made a "major mistake."

.....more

Woohoo. A victory for the commoner! Funny how she's guilty but won't get any jail time. So what's she guilty of? The Chinese are so afraid to be embarassed that they will appeased anyone in fear of a revolt.

I wonder how she'll be be treated from now on. Will she go back to waitressing?

Related: Chinese public outraged over case of Deng Yujiao

You Can Hack Chinese Computers!

Source: BBC

Every PC in China could be at risk of being taken over by malicious hackers because of flaws in compulsory government software.

The potential faults were brought to light by Chinese computer experts who said the flaw could lead to a "large-scale disaster".

The Chinese government has mandated that all computers in the country must have the screening software installed.

It is intended to filter out offensive material from the net.

The Chinese government said that the Green Dam Youth Escort software, as it is known, was intended to push forward the "healthy development of the internet" and "effectively manage harmful material for the public and prevent it from being spread."

"We found a series of software flaws," explained Isaac Mao, a blogger and social entrepreneur in China, as well as a research fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

For example, he said, tests had shown that communications between the software and the servers at the company that developed the program were unencrypted.

.....more

Not a surprise. The criminals are always ahead of the government and police. The more the government wants to censor and peek into people's computer, the hackers an go that same route even faster!

CCTV anchor suspected of spying for Taiwan

Source: China.org

A veteran anchor with China Central Television (CCTV) is under suspicion of spying, sources revealed yesterday.

Fang Jing, the 38-year-old face of CCTV's prime-time military program Defense Watch, is being investigated for possibly spying for Taiwan, colleagues told China Daily.

The security authorities have neither confirmed nor denied the reports.

Fang, a Beijing native with a postgraduate degree, started hosting the program in 2006. Her last on-air appearance was on the Sunday edition on March 1 when she hosted an episode about India's military strength featuring Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong, a military expert at the National Defense University.

Fang's segments often touch upon regional military topics and she compares China's military capacity with foreign powers, often with the help of specialists from the People's Liberation Army.

Zhang, who has been a frequent guest on the show, told China Daily last night that Fang's case is "still under investigation" and "no conclusion has been reached so far".

"She has not been jailed as is being rumored," Zhang said. "But she is not hosting the program anymore, because she is currently being investigated."

He confirmed that Fang quit after the March 1 edition.

Sources with CCTV also confirmed yesterday that Fang had been "taken away for a possible spy probe".

She was rumored to have been seduced by a man from Taiwan who was "eight years younger than her" and to have received money from him, the sources said.

She is SO screwed! It's one thing if she was sent in by Taiwan to spy for China from the start. But to start spying just because of a man? Incredible the things ladies will do for a shot at the ol' pork sword!

North Korean Women Who Flee to China Suffer

Source: Washington Post

For North Korean women who run off to China, rules are rigged on both sides of the border.

North Korea regards them as criminals for leaving. China refuses to recognize them as refugees, sending many back to face interrogation, hard labor and sometimes torture. Others stay on in stateless limbo, sold by brokers to Chinese men in need of fertile women and live-in labor.

Bang Mi Sun, a former actress in North Korea, lived the worst of both worlds. After crossing into China in 2002, she was separated from her two children and sold into marriage to three men. She managed to get away from all three. When she ran for the third time, Chinese police arrested her and sent her back to North Korea, where a police beating mangled her left leg. Permanently maimed, she was sent to a labor camp for reeducation.

"I had to live the life of an animal," said Bang, who fled the North for a second time in 2004 and found her way to South Korea. "If I had a chance to meet with President Obama, I would first like to tell him how North Korean women are being sold like livestock in China and, second, to know that North Korean labor camps are hell on earth."

.....more

OMG! That's an actress. You see how actresses are treated here? Actresses there are starved to death and must flee.

How worse can it get then to run from one communist country, where you go hungry, to another communist country, where they sell you to the bazillion men that they have.

I can't think of a worse scenario. Communism continues to show it's evil. What other ideology would send people climbing over walls, sailing on oceans and running across borders. Flee to China? I think I'd rather get on a little raft and float into the ocean off the North Korean border. I've got a better chance of getting picked up by a Western fleet than surviving China! And if I get shot or torpedoed, all the better.

Hong Kong teacher who had sex with pupil 280 times jailed

Source: Earth Times

A Hong Kong schoolteacher was jailed Monday for 10 years after being convicted of having sex with one of his pupils 280 times starting when she was 12 years old. Chu Chi-wah, 39, was found guilty at a May hearing of 11 counts of having sex with a minor over a two-year period from 2004 to 2006.

A High Court judge described his acts as a "nightmare for parents" at Monday's sentencing and said that by refusing to plead guilty, he forced the girl to testify in court and relive the abuse.

The girl, now 17, testified that she had sex with Chu 10 times a month on average and slept with him around 280 times over the course of their relationship.

Chu, who taught the girl physical education and maths at primary school, started having sex with the girl when he gave her private tutorials after she began high school.

She would have sex with Chu after private tutorials and was even allowed by her mother to stay at his home overnight, the High Court was told.

Chu, who denied all charges, was acquitted on one count of allegedly inducing the girl to have an abortion when she got pregnant early on in their relationship.

280 times? Who counted? Did she write in her diary each time?
And the mom let him stay over? He was probably doin her too.

Journalists sentenced to twelve years of hard labor camps

Source: Reuters

North Korea, facing U.N. sanctions for last month's nuclear test, on Monday raised the stakes in its growing confrontation with Washington by jailing two U.S. journalists to 12 years hard labor for "grave crime."

The sentence follows U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's warning on Sunday the United States was considering putting the North back on its list of states that sponsor terrorism, which would further isolate the impoverished country.

The journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, of U.S. media outlet Current TV, were arrested in March working on a story near the border between North Korea and China. The trial for the two, working for the media outlet founded by former Vice President Al Gore, opened on Thursday.

"The trial confirmed the grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing as they had already been indicted and sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor," the official KCNA news agency said in a brief dispatch.

The harsh sentence is certain to deepen the chill in relations with the United States which has been trying for years, with scant success, to convince North Korea to give up its dreams of becoming a nuclear weapons power.

I was expecting death. The government of North Korea is no joking matter and people who wanted to play nice with them and be their friends and support their policies, this is what their policies are. For those of you who feel this is an injustice, it isn't. It's an injustice to us because we are fortunate to be able to live in a free society. I've escaped communism, this is their normal way of dealing with things. I know there's an immediate outcry that this is wrong. But let's step back and look at the facts.

I'm curious why journalists feel the need to go onsite when doing their reporting when the report is not at all relevant to Current TV. What was this report about? Especially when the journalists are American and the country is North Korea. Why did they feel the need to go to the North Korean border? If it was investigative journalism, maybe they should have realized it wasn't the safest place to be, especially without official military backing. Major new organizations always need passes and credentials to enter any country. Different countries have difference laws, what are you going to do? Argue with them?

Not saying they deserve what happened to them but it was very poor decision-making on their producer's part. Hell, if they did cross into North Korean territory, you can't even claim North Korea is doing anything wrong. There are journalists legally entering North Korea all the time, and secretly snooping around a bit. I've seen the documentaries that gets sneaked out. CBC has reporters there all the time. That's the proper way to do it. In this case, you more or less forfeit your rights to freedom by waltzing in, like these two did. It was a huge mistake.

I feel for them but there isn't much the US can do. They can't be protecting every Tom, Dick and Harry who goes running into all these different countries without permits. And to be frank, these are two small-time unknown reports. It's not like they caught Katie Couric which would really get America all riled up. Of course CBS would never do something this stupid.

Hopefully the North Korea will use the women as a bargaining chip and the government can get them out with just a little food and supplies. Otherwise, there's no way to save them :(

No more rambunctious cuddling games for you, Japan

Source: Kotaku

First Japanese rape games were "banned". Then, they were unbanned — rather, they were never officially banned. Now? Now, they're banned. Like, for real.

The country's Ethics Organization of Computer Software held an emergency meeting today in which nearly 100 representatives from various erotic game companies concluded that the manufacturer and sale of rape-type games should cease. This was not a government decision or even a legal one, but instead a self-policing policy on the part of the EOCS.

None of the representatives thought it was out of line to ban these types of games, and many felt this was the only way to rectify any problems caused by these types of games. Do know: a vote was not taken at this meeting, for whatever that is worth.

.....more

Good! I'm usually against banning anything but these games are pretty extreme. I don't have problem with sex or porn but these video games promote a crime and can psychological influence men to objectify real women in public as objects in a video game. Very disrespectful.

Whatever happened to simple video games... like Frogger!

Chinese public outraged over case of Deng Yujiao

Who is Deng Yujiao you ask?

Source: Times Online

The case of the pedicurist and the lecherous official has galvanised public opinion in China.

Women’s groups, and even the conservative state Women’s Federation, have demanded fair treatment for 21-year-old Deng Yujiao who stabbed a low-ranking government official who demanded she provide him with“special services”.

Civil rights organisations and untold numbers of ordinary Chinese want an explanation for the arrest of a young woman who said she was defending herself against the unwanted advances of the 44-year-old director of the local business promotion office. And they want to know why a Communist Party official was frequenting a hotel that offered massages with “special services” – a euphemism for sex.

Such is the public indignation over Ms Deng’s fate that usually docile newspapers and websites have ignored a government directive issued last week ordering all reports to toe the official line.

The case is particularly emotive since it cuts to the heart of many of the most sensitive issues in Chinese society. These include abuse of the law in favour of vested interests at the expense of the weak, the rapid spread of the sex trade in a country whose Communist leadership prides itself on puritan values not to mention abuse of power. It is being seen as pitting the vulnerable, particularly women struggling to make a living, against the might of the state.

.....more

It could be a landmark case. Usually it doesn't matter if it's self-defense or not. If an offical wants sex he should get it. If she refuses, she's in big trouble. If she stabs the guy, she's in deep shit. That's how China works. Rich and powerful get everything. So will public support pressure the courts into ruling fairly. We'll see.

Would-be suicide jumper pushed off bridge

Source: CNN

A passerby pushed a would-be suicide jumper off a bridge in southern China because he was angry at the jumper's "selfish activity," Chinese media reported Saturday.

It happened Thursday in the city of Guangzhou as Chen Fuchao threatened to jump off Haizhu Bridge, China's Xinhua news agency reported.

The bridge has gained a "macabre" reputation with 11 jumpers having thrown themselves off the bridge since the start of April, Xinhua said.

Traffic was held up for nearly five hours and a crowd gathered as Chen sat on the bridge, threatening to jump, Xinhua reported.

Chen wanted to kill himself because he had 2 million yuan ($294,000) in debt after a failed construction project, Xinhua reported.

Lian Jiansheng, 66, who was passing by the bridge, offered to talk Chen down, Xinhua said. Police refused, but Lian broke through the police cordon and climbed to where Chen was sitting.

Lian greeted Chen with a handshake, then pushed him off the bridge, Xinhua said.

Chen fell 26 feet (8 meters) onto a partially-inflated emergency air cushion, damaging his spine and elbow in the fall, Xinhua said. He is now recovering in a hospital.

.....more

Humanity is fucked up like this. Someone shouldn't think they're doing good by pushing someone off a bridge. And of course a crowd gathers. Everyone wants a view.
Where's the police? The guy only held up traffic for 5 hours! There was nobody there to help this guy. They all just wanted him to jump.

Related: China Digital Times

40 men in sword gang battle in Chill-Chilli Chinatown restaurant

Source: Liverpool Echo

A BLOODY “straightener” erupted in a Liverpool restaurant between two rival Chinese gangs armed with a sickening arsenal of weapons.

Up to 40 men, some wielding meat-cleavers, hammers, two-foot machetes and a Samurai sword, clashed in Chinatown's Chilli Chilli.

In astonishing scenes the mobs sat together and enjoyed drinks before the ringleader and “referee” signalled with his hand for the fight to begin.

During the violence accomplices guarded the front door of the Nelson Street restaurant to stop customers going in.

Inside the Chinese gangs were viciously slashing and chopping their rivals with sharpened blades .One blood-drenched man was left with four stab wounds to his back.

Another suffered a serious hand injury after one attacker brought the lethal Samurai sword crashing down from above his head.

Yesterday Merseyside Police applied to temporarily close down the restaurant with one officer describing the fight as the “most violent seen in my 25 year career”.

.....more

Wot? Worst violent? Liverpool's one of the most violent cities in the world and this cop hasn't seen worse than this in 25 years? Nobody died, which is a shame. Was anyone even arrested?

Hong Kong technician jailed over celebrity sex pics

Can I come out and play now?

Source: Asiaone

A Hong Kong computer technician was Wednesday jailed for eight and a half months for stealing more than 1,000 sexually explicit photos of singer Edison Chen with a string of starlets.

Sze Ho-chun, an employee of computer shop Elite Multimedia, was sentenced by magistrate Tong Man at Kowloon City Magistrates' Court.

Sze had copied 1,300 sex photos from Chen's laptop when the Canadian-born singer-actor brought it in for repairs in 2006.

The prosecution said that the 24-year-old saved the images of Chen and other local celebrities on a compact disc, which he then passed to another of his customers.

The images began spreading online in February last year and sparked one of the city's biggest sex scandals.

The photos, which Chen has admitted taking himself, showed him in compromising positions with celebrities including Canto-pop star Gillian Chung, actress Cecilia Cheung and former actress Bobo Chan.

The scandal saw Chen flee to his childhood home of Canada and damaged the careers of several of the stars involved.

Sze had been found guilty at an earlier hearing on three counts of obtaining access to a computer with a view to dishonest gain for himself or another.

Eight and a half months doesn't seem enough.

A) This has been in the news since early 2008 so the ordeal has lasted longer than the sentence will be.

B) The victims involved have lost alot and will continue to lose

C) Alot of normal guys were traumatized after looking at those awful pictures. Where's the justice for them! :)

York school board stands down, reinstates bullied student

Source: Globe and Mail

A 15-year-old black belt who was suspended for breaking the nose of a classmate who racially abused him will return to school Tuesday after a sudden change of heart at the York Region board.

The reversal represents a dramatic victory for the Asian student, who was suspended a maximum 20 days last week. He had received a letter from the school board – later retracted – that said his principal recommended he be expelled from all schools in the region.

The 15-year-old will return to Keswick High School this morning with the suspension removed from his academic record and his upcoming expulsion hearing cancelled, the boy's father said Monday.

The turnabout began Monday when the student and his parents were invited to a hastily convened reconciliation session with his antagonist and that boy's parents. At that meeting, the white student apologized for directing a racial slur at the 15-year-old and for punching him in the mouth. The 15-year-old apologized for breaking his classmate's nose.

“He knew he was wrong so I was really glad to hear that,” the Korean-born student said. “I felt bad for breaking his nose so I apologized to him after that.”

The fight broke out April 21 during a gym class game of speedball. The white student called the 15-year-old a “fucking Chinese,” which led to pushing and shoving. After being struck in the mouth, the 15-year-old, a black belt in tae kwon do, struck back with his weaker left hand, which his father, a martial arts master, had taught him was a measure of last resort. Afterward, only the 15-year-old was charged by police. His fellow students, outraged by what they saw as injustice, walked out of school en masse last Monday to protest.

.....more

See? Was that so hard? This should have been done THAT DAY. No need for police or counsellors or hate-crime experts with nothing better to do. The principal of this school is an idiot. Take responsibilty of your own school and resolve this dispute in 10 minutes. These are 15-year old kids who are learning about life.

When we were kids, these things happened all the time. A kid would call another kid a name and then get his teeth bashed in. Principal would call parents and it would blow over.

These two kids have now learned more about each other and don't be surprised if they become good friends because of it.

Related: Teen brawl probed for racial taunts

British woman could face Laos death penalty

Source: CNN

A pregnant British woman facing possible execution in Laos will go on trial this week, the country's foreign affairs ministry said Monday.

Samantha Orobator "is facing death by firing squad for drug trafficking," said Clare Algar, executive director of Reprieve, a London-based human rights group.

Orobator, 20, was arrested on August 5, said Khenthong Nuanthasing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman.

She was alleged to have been carrying just over half a kilogram (1.1 pounds) of heroin, Reprieve lawyer Anna Morris told CNN by phone from Vientiane, the Laotian capital. "For that amount of heroin the sentence is normally the death penalty," she said.

Orobator's mother Jane found out in January her daughter was pregnant -- more than four months after she was arrested, her mother said.

Jane Orobator heard the news from the British Foreign Office, which has been monitoring the case, the mother told CNN by phone from Dublin, where she lives.

She cannot believe her daughter was involved in drug trafficking, and was surprised to learn she was in Laos, she said.

"I don't know" what she was doing there, she said. "The last time she spoke with me, she said she was on holiday in London and she would come to see us in Dublin before returning to the U.K. in July.

"She is not the type of person who would be involved in drugs," she added.

Reprieve is worried about her health, especially given her pregnancy, Anna Morris said.

"She became pregnant in prison. We are concerned that it may not have been consensual and we are concerned that someone who finds herself in prison at 20 is subject to exploitation," she said.

.....more

First of all. "I don't know what she was doing there" and "She is not the type of person who would be involved in drugs," don't go together. If you're a mom and you don't know where your daughter is then you have no idea what she could be involved in.

Secondly, the fact she got pregnant in prison is really scary. Isn't that against the law here? How do you get pregnant in a Laotian prison? Nobody can get into LAOS the country let alone into the prison. Raped by guards and officials is the only think I can assume.

So I'm torn on this issue. Yes you have to follow the countries laws and if it's the death penalty then there's really nothing the Brits can do. 1.1 pounds of heroin is alot! However, when the country is as lawless as Laos is and the prisoner got pregnant in prison!, then something is definitely messed up. All credibility of the officials is now void.

I think if something like this happened here, the case might be thrown out. Someone with a law background might want to confirm or deny that.

Teen brawl probed for racial taunts

Source: Globe And Mail

A hate-crime investigator continues to probe the fight that led to the suspension of a 15-year-old Korean student at a high school in Keswick, Ont.

The youth began his first day at a special centre for suspended students yesterday, still unsure whether the boy he says racially abused and then punched him will face charges.

A spokeswoman for York Regional Police said no further charges have been laid, but police continue to conduct interviews.

"There is a hate crime investigator assigned to look into whether it is a hate crime or hate motivated in some way," Sergeant Laurie Perks said yesterday.

The 15-year-old was suspended for 20 days and will not be able to attend regular classes at Keswick High School. He is also charged with assault causing bodily harm, and will have to attend a local police station next week to be processed and fingerprinted, his father said.

The charge stems from a fight in gym class on April 21. The 15-year-old, who came with his parents to Canada from Korea in 2004, says he got into a dispute with a white classmate. The white student addressed him with a racial slur, calling him "a fucking Chinese," and when confronted he refused to apologize.

The white student threw the first punch, hitting the 15-year-old in the mouth. The 15-year-old, a black belt in tae kwon do, threw a left-handed jab that broke the white student's nose. The 15-year-old was the only one charged, which led to an outcry from the students at his school.

More than 400 walked out of class Monday morning to protest, carrying signs and wearing black clothing as a sign of solidarity.

Why do schools and police complicate things so much. Aren't kids allowed to fight anymore? The white boy called the Asian kid fucking chinese and punched him in the mouth. The Asian kid retaliated and knocked him out. What's the commotion about? We all must have seen this many times during our 12 years of school.

This is an easy job for the principal. Call both boys into his office, call both parents and work it out. What's the point of suspending 15-year old kids?

And a hate crime? "Fucking Chinese" is now a hate crime? Come on, the kid is fucking 15. You're going to charge him? Just get a counsellor and work it out. I bet you anything the two kids will become friends if they spend any amount of time together.

The police better think really hard about this. Take race out of it. If they seriously are going to charge a kid for taking a punch first and then punching back they're going to be in some heat. I might as well go around town taunting and punching people and then taking punches to the face and charing them. Who do the police think they are? The NHL?

Japanese pop star Kusanagi Tsuyoshi arrested

Source: BBC

The career of one of Japan's biggest pop stars, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, appears to hang in the balance after he was arrested for being naked and drunk in a public park.

Japan's interior minister has even weighed in, describing the incident as "one of worst acts one can do".

Roland Buerk reports from Tokyo on a case that is gripping the nation.

Video report

It's a very big blow. As I had mentioned in a previous post. Reports suggest DiCaprio is considering casting famous male group SMAP as the leads in the live action Ninja Scroll. He is said to be intent to “cast with Japanese people” in the adaptation, which he acquired the rights to last year. That's definitely out the window now.

Naked and drunk in a public park? How does that happen? Years and years of hard work being the most popular band in Japan all thrown away in a single night. Now he's screwed himself and affected all those around him. Very sad indeed.

Related: Kusanagi's Arrest to Cost Billions (Japan Zone)
Related: Naked Japanese singer apologises (BBC)