weird news - Jailed for singing national anthem badly

China has been cracking down on dissent for some time. Given that the country is a dictatorship, the decision making process in the country can be quite unique. Leaders at different positions in the hierarchy have been dethroned for allowing certain levels of openness, or not showing ideological purity. In the current situation, the Great Firewall is meant to ensure that citizens do not get exposed to information that could corrupt them, or show something that portray the country or its leaders in a bad light. Anything pops up, there are censors present to remove the information quickly.
As a part of the leadership portrayal of any current leadership, there was a law that threatened persecution for anybody who could take an action that is construed as disrespect of the national anthem, and when such laws are present, there will be pressure to take action. So it was in this case when there was a 10 second section of an online broadcase that was interpreted as disrespect to the national anthem and the online pop singer was punished accordingly (link to article):

Shanghai police said this weekend they punished Yang Kaili, one of China's most-followed online celebrities, with five days of "administrative detention" after she bumbled through the first line of the Chinese national anthem while wearing fuzzy moose ears and waving her arms cartoonishly during a live stream. The offending segment, broadcast from what looked like Yang's bedroom on Oct. 7 to some of her 2 million followers on the "Huya" app, lasted barely 10 seconds. But it was enough to have violated China's new national anthem law that prohibits playing or singing the "March of the Volunteers" in a "distorted or disrespectful way in public," police said. "The national anthem is an embodiment and symbol of our country, and all citizens and organizations should respect and defend the honor of the anthem," Shanghai police said in a social media announcement. "Live-streaming webcast is not lawless territory and users should obey the law and uphold moral standards. The police will resolutely crack down on such behaviors that challenge the legal bottom line or public order and good social morals, in order to purify the Internet's public sphere."

Weird news - Toddler burned because her parents owed money

Sometimes you read news which makes you feel that people can be incredibly cruel, heartless. When you consider the case of toddlers and infants, they are essentially helpless to protect themselves or take care of themselves. In such a case, if there is news of somebody torturing a toddler for punishment of what their parent would have done, it seems something that only a heartless person could do, and the punishment for such an action needs to be accordingly harsh. One does know that people feel strongly when they see such mistreatment, and when you consider the parents, they can put whatever effort it takes to ensure that their children are safe. It is all the more problematic when the child has been tortured because of debt that their parents owed; however, no matter what the reason, it is not permissible to torture a small child who does not know what is happening and whose screams would surely be traumatic to hear (link to article):

According to police, Seema and her husband Ranith tortured a two year-old girl, Bhuvaneswari, daughter of Lakshmi and Ashwin Kumar of Bengaluru after they reportedly failed to repay a debt of Rs 3,000. Seema and Lakshmi worked together in a brick kiln near Bengaluru five months ago. “Lakshmi borrowed Rs 3,000 from Seema while they were working in the kiln. After the contract work in the kiln got over, Seema asked Lakshmi to come to Tirupattur and work here to repay the debt. She came along with her husband and two children and was living in rented house in Ambedkar Nagar in the town,” said the police official.

Weird news: In South Korea, you can now have an extra-marital affair

When living with the practices of the modern world, the presence or absence of love in a marriage is a private affair between the married people, and it cannot be a criminal offence if one of them decides that the love between them is lost and strikes out for an extra-marital affair. The only one who has a right to feel affected is the spouse who has been cheated, and he/she is the one who can take further steps - such as filing for separation, seeking alimony, etc. However, when nations and laws get guided (or forced) by religious considerations, then society steps in and decides what is wrong and what is right, and specifically this case of extra-marital affairs is deemed adultery, and there can be numerous punishments.
In the case of societies run on strong Islamic laws, there are severe laws against adultery, which can be extremely barbaric such as the one followed by the Taliban, and more so by the recent terror Islamic State, where a woman could be accused of adultery and sentenced to be stoned to death (with lashes happening before that), and men can also be accused and sentenced for the same 'crime'. However, it was surprising that a country seen to be extremely developed, such as South Korea had a similar law on its books, with the sentence for adultery being 2 years in prison. Even though being sent to jail was rare, there were numerous people charged with the law. Finally the courts have realized that an affair is not a criminal act, and has decided to drop the law. (link to article):

A South Korean court on Thursday abolished a 62-year-old law that criminalized extramarital affairs, and the stock price of a prominent condom maker immediately shot up 15%. The Constitutional Court's ruling that the law suppressed personal freedoms could affect many of the more than 5,400 people who have been charged with adultery since 2008, when the court earlier upheld the legislation, according to court law. Any current charges against those people could be thrown out and those who have received guilty verdicts will be eligible for retrials, according to a court official who declined to be named, citing office rules. Under the law, having sex with a married person who is not your spouse was punishable by up to two years in prison. Nearly 53,000 South Koreans have been indicted on adultery charges since 1985, but prison terms have been rare.

The co-relation was interesting though. With the striking down of this law, the share price of a leading condom maker shot up significantly.

Weird news - Minor Girl in Maldives to be flogged for having sex

The concept of punishing somebody for having sex outside of marriage is something that seems very strange to most people in the world. The right or freedom to have sex can be considered outside the cultural mores of many cultures, but punishing it as part of the legal framework seems weird. It is one of the most fundamental of individual rights and is also a sign of progress in terms of the right of women and their freedoms.
In this case, it is even more strange that this punishment is being levied on a girl who is not even of age. In most societies of the world, any such sexual behavior by a minor is condemned as being caused by those around her, she is not held responsible for her actions, being of an age where she can be influenced by others around her. In fact, anybody who enters into sexual relations with her is accused of committing the crime of rape, and would be prosecuted accordingly. Unfortunately, in this case, the legal system, influenced by a specific interpretation of Islamic criminal code, the minor girl is held guilty and is sought to be given a barbaric punishment. 

During a police probe into allegations that the girl had been raped by her stepfather, investigators uncovered evidence that she had had consensual sex with another man. "Though she has been sentenced she will be lashed once she turns 18," the court official, who asked not to be named, told AFP. "But the sentence will be enforced immediately if she wants it to be carried out now." Premarital sex is illegal under the Indian Ocean nation's strict Islamic law. The premarital sex charge against the teenager has been condemned by rights groups and the government has urged leniency towards the girl, saying she had been traumatised by the repeated rapes by her stepfather.

Weird news - Woman beheaded over sorcery claims in Saudi Arabia

Witchcraft was a major problem for women in the medieval ages, with the official law and order system of countries actually trying women and killing them for the same. This was with the sanction of the Church, but was something that was stopped many centuries. However, even now, in many parts of the world, you hear of some poor lady or the other being accused of witchcraft (this provides somebody who is suffering an outlet to blame somebody for their problems, and when combined with societies where people believe in magic) and being killed. However, these are not officially sanctioned, and are more individual or mob actions.
So it was very surprising when I read this news article about a woman being beheaded in Saudi Arabia for practising sorcery. Does Saudi Arabia believe that a person could actually know magic, and yet not be able to save herself from being accused and executed for such a crime ? Apparently yes, since the news report makes it clear that the conviction was for forgery, which led to a beheading (link to article):

A Saudi woman was beheaded on Monday after being convicted of practising sorcery, which is banned in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the interior ministry said.
Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar was executed in the northern province of Jawf for "practising witchcraft and sorcery," the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.

Ancient Paganism: The Sorcery of the Fallen Angels

Sorcery

The Path: A Practical Approach to Sorcery

Weird news - Man sentenced to 500 lashes for blasphemy

When you pick up novels about medieval times, you see so many cases where people were sentenced to many sorts of different sentences for crimes against God, such as the extreme one of being burned at the stake for blasphemy. A number of people were convicted and killed in such a manner, which even encompassed acts such as proposing that the universe did not center around the earth, rather that the earth moved around the sun. But these were all stories of what used to happen many centuries earlier.
So, it seems very surprising that such cases happen even now, primarily in Islamic countries where uttering anything that could be construed to be against god can actually be punished by death. And this is not a hypothetical case, there have been numerous cases where people have been convicted of blasphemy on flimsy evidence, or in the more horrid cases, mobs have believed about these utterances of blasphemy and lynched people. Consider this case, where a person on the Haj was convicted of uttering something against the relatives of the Prophet Mohammed and sentenced to a prison term as well as 500 lashes (which could actually kill him) (link to article)

Mansor Almaribe, 45, was found guilty of blasphemy after he was arrested last month in Medina while on a pilgrimage, Australian officials said.
It's unclear what Almaribe, a Shia Muslim from Victoria state, said or did to get arrested.
"The ambassador has urgently contacted Saudi authorities and will make strong representations, including to key figures in the Saudi government, seeking leniency," said Kate Sieper, a foreign affairs spokeswoman.

Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedom Worldwide

Is Critique Secular?: Blasphemy, Injury, and Free Speech

Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam (Liturgy, Worship and Society Series)

Weird news - Iranian actress sentenced to an year in jail and lashes

It is always bad to be generic, but it has typically been found that Islamic societies tend to be more conservative than western countries, frowning upon expressions that are fine with other countries. For example, Saudi Arabia tends to be very conservative on the rights of women, not even allowing them to drive, or to move around with men who are not related to them. Iran is also conservative, but it gets more difficult since Iran lives in the condition of paranoia, especially when it comes to something that is like the expression of freedom or against the power of the theocratic state. Consider how this actress was sentenced to a relatively harsh punishment for her portrayal of scenes from inside homes in Iran, and was objected to by the censors inside Iran (link to article):

Actress Marzieh Vafamehr has been sentenced to a year in jail and 90 lashes by an Iranian court for her role in an Australian film on the limits imposed on artists in the Islamic republic.
The film My Tehran for Sale which won the 2009 Independent Spirit Inside Film award and the jury award for best feature film at the Trimedia Film Festival in 2010 has been directed by Iranian-Australian Granaz Moussavi.
It was a production of Adelaide-based Cyan Films and the movie tells the story of a young actress in Tehran whose theatre work is banned by the authorities.

Weird news - An eye for an eye - Iranian man to be blinded for throwing acid in girl's face

This is a moral dilemma for many people. What do you consider the just punishment for a man who stalked and pursued after a girl, and when she said No, was angry enough that he decided to punish her for this refusal by throwing acid in her face. Now, getting acid on the face is a grievous and horrible fate, since the acid causes immense pain by burning the skin, and in her case, went into the eyes, blinding her. The acid also dissolves some of the structures of the skin, causing the face to become disfigured, and a huge number of victims of acid attacks never fully recover even after a number of plastic surgeries.
This happened in Iran, where there was a twist. The judicial system is based on the Sharia, which allows the victim to claim the same punishment on the accused as he has done, and the victim demanded this revenge. She refused to accept blood money, and pushed for reciprocal punishment, and the judicial system of Iran is delivering, where the accused is due to get 5 drops of Sulphuric acid in each eye, which will cause blindness. Causing blindness did not cause as much pain as the prospect of being blinded, and the accused is very repentant. However, this is also seen as a form of punishment that is barbaric, and is being opposed by many other countries who have filed protests (link to article):

A human rights group on Saturday urged Iranian authorities not to put acid in the eyes of a man found guilty of blinding a woman who scorned him. Majid Movahedi is scheduled to be blinded by having five drops of acid in each eye Saturday, according to Amnesty International.
Movahedi was convicted in 2008 of throwing a bucket of acid on Ameneh Bahrami.
The attack blinded Bahrami, who sought to have authorities render the ancient punishment of "an eye for an eye" in accordance with Islamic law. The rights group is urging Iran to forgo the acid punishment. "It is unbelievable that the Iranian authorities would consider implementing such a punishment," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, an Amnesty International deputy director.

Weird news - Bangladeshi airport shows porn for 5 minutes, investigations on

In Islamic countries, the public display of porn and sex is a strict taboo. So, for example, somebody committing adultery can be punished by death under Sharia laws, and couple who have kissed in public or shown other emotions can be lashed or subjected to other penalties. It would be very difficult to believe that in such countries, there can be such a thing such as showing porn publicly (one can expect some severe penalties to happen to anybody who does such a thing). Well, consider the case of the airport in Bangladesh (a Muslim majority country) where a porn clip was shown for 5 mistakes (a grievous mistake no doubt, but still something that could cause some head chopping if it happened in Saudi Arabia) (link to article):

Travellers at Bangladesh's main airport were taken in by shock when a huge display screen meant to air programmes about the country showed a porn video, prompting the civil aviation authority to launch a probe into the incident. Bangladesh Civil Aviation Authority has launched an investigation into a scandal at the Hazrat Shahjalal Airport where the huge display screen aired for five minutes a pornographic movie, officials said today.
"An investigation is under way while the people responsible for the scandal were already taken to task," a Civil Aviation Authority spokesman told PTI without elaborating. Another official said the operator was handed down two months of jail term instantly after a summary trial by an on duty magistrate at the airport.

Weird news - Considering how to deliberately cause paralysis in Saudi Arabia

People are generally shocked when they get to know about some of the punishments that they see or hear about in areas governed by a harsher versions of Islam, such as stoning for adultery, or cutting off hands or feet for theft, or the many punishments carried out by the Taliban in the areas under their control. However, this is not something that happens infrequently, it is part of the system of jurisprudence, where a crime can be punished by a similar punishment as the crime. However, it still feels very shocking, especially when one reads of cases such as this court in Saudi Arabia wanting to know whether paralysis can be a punishment for somebody who caused paralysis in somebody else (link to article):

Saudi media are reporting that a judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man's spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of attacking another man with a cleaver and paralyzing him. Saudi Arabia enforces Islamic law and on occasion metes out punishments based on the ancient code of an eye-for-an-eye.
The unidentified defendant hit Abdul Aziz Al Mutairi, another Saudi, with a cleaver during a fight more than two years ago and the trial has been delayed because Mutairi is insisting that his attacker suffer the same injury.

Weird - Mother and boyfriend sentenced to more than 5 years for the violent death of her child

The normal image of a mother is one who protects her baby and children at all costs; in fact, in nature, a wild animal is treated as even more dangerous if it is protecting its young - the concept of being a mother is that even nature produces far more hormones to increase this child protection instinct in the mother. So when a baby is found battered with more than 50 injuries, including a broken back and ribs, it would outrage the whole country. What made this crime in England even worse was that social services had the case on their watchlist, and the injured baby escaped inspecting social services workers and a doctor who examined the baby. The workers were fired, and the mother has now been sentenced for a minimum of 5 years (link to article):

Sentencing the mother to a minimum of five years in prison for her role in her toddler's horrific death, Judge Stephen Kramer called the woman "manipulative and self-centered." She and her boyfriend, both of whom cannot be identified for legal reasons, were found guilty of causing the death of the child.
The blonde, blue-eyed toddler had been on a child protection watchlist and was visited dozens of times by social workers. The head of the local children's services, Sharon Shoesmith, initially denied responsibility, but has been fired. She is appealing the decision. The social worker in charge of Baby P's case has also been fired. And the doctor who last saw Baby P and failed to diagnose his broken back and fractured ribs has been dismissed and is no longer able to practice medicine without supervision.

Man died after being beaten up by brethren

There are many communities, especially in backward areas which believe in being a closed society - they run their own version of law and order. When somebody is accused of committing a crime, they do not wait for the legal process of society, but instead do their own process. In this case, the person was accused of being a part of a rape, and of violating religious rules.
For this, over a period of time, he was put in a cage, but with no apparent effect. Finally, he was tied to a pole and left for 9 hours, but when he came down, he was pretty ill and died soon after (link to article):

There have been no arrests for the death of Franz Wieler Kloss, 37, but police said community members thought he was a participant in a two-year mass rape case that was uncovered this summer. “The Mennonites punished Kloss according to their customs and that punishment killed him,” said Col. Miguel Gonzales, special crime unit director.
His final punishment came almost two weeks ago, when his accusers tied him onto a pole and left him there for nine hours. When he was taken down he couldn’t move his arms. He was taken to a hospital a few days later and placed on a respirator, but he died Wednesday, police said. Bolivia’s insular Mennonite community lives traditionally, shunning modern conveniences such as electricity as they farm soybeans, corn and other crops. They use wagons, not cars, for transportation and sew their own clothes.

Being lashed for drinking alcohol

A lot of you would have seen revelries and festivals in many countries. Along with the carnival type of atmosphere, alcohol consumption is an intrinsic part of such celebrations. However, such is not the case everywhere. Alcohol is considered illegal and against religion in many Islamic countries, and people indulging in alcohol can be punished. This happened earlier in Malaysia, and now in the African country of Sudan, a Nigerian footballer was convicted of driving while drunk, and got a double sentence - one for driving drunk, and the other for drinking alcohol (link to article):

The 20-year-old forward, who joined the northern Sudan outfit in October 2008, was found guilty of drinking alcohol and driving under the influence by an east Khartoum court. Alcohol is illegal in the Muslim north of Sudan according to Article 78 of the penal code, although it is not in the semi-autonomous and largely non-Muslim south.
The forward's lawyer has appealed against the punishment for the player who had previously admitted in interviews that he had struggled to adapt to the different culture and religious life in Sudan.

Being lashed for drinking alcohol seems pretty weird, although being punished for driving while drunk is common and should be enforced.

College expels student after discovering she worked in a topless car wash

Malaysia is an Islamic country, and correspondingly, has a higher sense of public decency and morality, sometimes with painful results (there have been earlier stories of people being punished for drinking alcohol if they are Muslims). So, consider the case of this lady from another country (China) who was in Malaysia for college, and close to graduation. She was punished by being expelled from her college since she was one of the girls who took part in a prize ceremony event - the prize was the promise of getting their cars washed by topless cars, and she was one of the girls who went topless (link to article):

According to Sin Chew Daily, the girl was thrown out of college after her photos appeared over the internet. An anonymous letter was also mailed to her school in Singapore, reports the Star Online. The event, organised by a new motoring website in the republic, had given 20 lucky members a chance to witness a topless car wash.
The women donned only bikini bottoms and high heels and were paid nearly $1,400. The student, who has been identified as Angela, was taking an advanced certificate course at a private college and said she was only two months away from graduating.

Malaysian woman to be caned for alcohol drinking

When people start getting out of control in terms of alcohol drinking, they head off to rehabitilation centers to break their habits. Others try to moderate their alcohol limits. However, in many Islamic countries, alcohol is firmly banned, and citizens are not allowed to consume alcohol. Even then, using corporal punishment to deter drinking is another very different step in prevention of alcohol drinking. However, consider the weird situation where a citizen of a country is not allowed to drink while another citizen of the country can drink (difference based on the religion of the person), a woman could be caned for drinking, and the punishment is imposed by a religious court that is parallel to the civil judicial system, and the civil judicial system cannot interfere in this judgment (link to article):

A Malaysian model, who was set to become the first woman to be caned in the southeast Asian country for drinking beer in public, had her sentence postponed Monday until the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. An Islamic, or sharia, court in Pahang had fined Kartika -- a Muslim -- $1,400 (5,000 Malaysian ringgit) and sentenced her to six strokes with a rattan cane for drinking at a hotel bar two years ago.
The caning would have been carried out within seven days of that, making her the first woman to be caned in Malaysia under sharia law. The moderate Muslim country has a dual-track justice system, in which Islamic courts operate alongside civil courts. But the country's civil system also cannot overrule a sharia court sentence.

Such a punishment, caning, for drinking alcohol, seems very harsh. Further, the fact that a country's civil courts cannot over-rule a religious court seems even stranger.

Man faces charges after biting out his son's eyes

A father (or mother) is very important in the life of a child, they are the one who protect their children till the children themselves become adults, and in addition, it would seem impossible to find a parent who can cause their children harm. So what do you say to this boy whose father, in a drug induced frenzy, bit the eye of his 4 year old son, as a result of which the boy may become blind (link to article):

Bakersfield police say 34-year-old Angel Vidal Mendoza appeared to be under the influence of the drug PCP when he attacked the boy April 28, The Bakersfield Californian newspaper reported. Afterwards police say Mendoza rolled his wheelchair outside and began hacking at his own legs with an axe.

Imagine being so much under the influence of drugs that you can no longer recognize what is good and bad.

Having sex while driving

When the passion strikes you, there is a strong urge to engage in amorous relations. So, for example, people have been known to initiate sex in varied locations, including different parts of the house, and even in public (there was this couple in Dubai who were prosecuted for having sex on the beach, and had to spend some prison time). However, in some situations, the behavior of people gets downright weird when it comes to sex. Consider the following case:

A SPEEDY lover faces a big fine and the loss of his licence after police caught him having sex with his girlfriend while travelling at 133km/h on a motorway. The 28-year-old man and his 22-year-old girlfriend were caught in the act by Norwegian traffic police on the E18 highway, some 40km west of Oslo, on Easter Sunday.
“It was veering from one side to the other because the woman was sitting on the man's lap while he was driving and doing the act, shall we say,” said Tor Stein Hagen, a superintendent with Soendre Buskerund district police. “He couldn't see much because her back was in the way. Why they did it on a highway with such a high risk we don't know.”

This couple was indulging in something that was downright stupid, and will have to suffer because of their actions. Having sex while driving (that too at high speed) is extremely dangerous, not only to themselves, but to others on the road as well.

Mom sentenced for killing baby in microwave

I was horrified when I read this. How can a mother do something like this ? There must be some level of insanity that must be running through this lady, else how could a person actually put their own flesh and blood, their own baby into a microwave and kill the baby that way ? This lady has now been convicted of this crime, and sentenced to life in prison:

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- A woman has been sentenced to life in prison without a chance of parole for killing her baby daughter in a microwave oven. Arnold was convicted of aggravated murder in the 2005 death of month-old daughter Paris Talley. She was spared the death penalty because jurors could not reach a consensus on the punishment.
Arnold was accused of killing month-old Paris Talley in 2005. A judge declared a mistrial in February, and the retrial began August 18. The jury found Arnold guilty Friday of aggravated murder.

It is shocking that anybody could put a defenceless 1 month old infant into a microwave, and then proceed to actually go ahead with the task of putting the microwave on and killing the baby.

Man using camera for obscene work arrested in Rome

One of the problems with modern technology is that it can increasingly be used for wrong work; the problems of hidden cameras, miniature cameras, etc can be a serious one. There are actually sites dedicated to displaying upskirt photos where people post their photos related to taking photos under the skirts of women (although people caught taking such photos are prosecuted, the genre seems to be proliferating because it appeals to the baser instincts). Here is the case of one such person caught doing the same in Rome:

Italian police have arrested a man in Venice who was allegedly wandering around St Mark's Square and other city landmarks while secretly filming thousands of women's bottoms, officials said on Tuesday.
"He was very well dressed," paramilitary police Capt Mario Marino said. "He followed her and when she bent over to pick up something he tried to place the tip of the bag under her skirt." Upon inspection, the bag revealed a sophisticated camera which the man had used to film some 3,000 women in the area over more than three years, Marino said. The bag also contained DVDs with the material filmed by the man, he said.

This is a practice that needs to severely discouraged, through strict prosecution if necessary. Women should not worry about having such secretly taken photographs being taken or displayed (especially since this seems to be a pervert).

Saudi professor to be lashed for meeting woman alone

Read this article, and was revolted by what I read. You do read from time to time that people have different cultures and social norms, but there must be some amount of humanity to all norms. Saudi Arabia has strict interpretations of what a female can do and cannot do (more controls on what she cannot do), but the bottom line is that freedoms that others take for granted are not available to her. In this case, a professor in Saudi Arabia is going to be in prison for 8 months and be lashed 150 times for the big crime of meeting a woman alone:

A Saudi Arabian man is to get 150 lashes and spend eight months in prison after he was caught meeting a woman without a chaperone in a coffee shop.
Muhammad Ali Abu Raziza, a psychology professor in Mecca, was arrested by the Kingdom’s feared religious police, the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. He was accused of breaking the Islamic injunctions under the Khilwa code, which restricts the independence of women. It stipulates that women must not meet men alone, other than relatives.

Now, there are many people who would say that this is the way that the society over there is governed and this is the choice that people have made, but that is nonsense. Just because some societies had the policy of apartheid does not mean that the world let that continue; and further, Saudi Arabia is not a democratic country where people have made this choice - this is a decision by the rulers to have such laws so that they get the support of the religious clergy.