Asia in 3 minutes: South Korea decaffeinates schools, LGBT caning shakes Malaysia
A protest organised by Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik condemns a cartoon contest planned by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders. Photo: AP
Hundreds of Islamists marched on Islamabad on Wednesday to demand Imran Khan's new government sever ties with the Netherlands over a "blasphemous" cartoon competition. In June, Geert Wilders, the anti-Islam MP who leads the Netherlands' second largest party, invited submissions of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed, which Islam forbids. The protest was organised by Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), a political party dedicated to the punishment of blasphemy. Last year a similar protest shut down the capital for almost a month. "We can be martyred or arrested," said Peer Afzal Qadri, one TLP leader, "but we will not return until either the cartoon contest is stopped or the Dutch envoy is expelled." The US$10,000 competition is due to start in November and 200 entries have been submitted so far.
Japan's government is banking on a future with flying cars. Photo: AFP
The Japanese government is banking on a future with flying cars, launching an initiative on Wednesday with the private sector to develop futuristic vehicles. The initiative aims to draw up a road map by the end of the year for commercial flying cars. Japanese officials are partnering with companies including Boeing and Airbus, All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, NEC and Toyota-backed Cartivator. "[Flying cars] are expected to solve issues of transport in remote islands or mountainous areas, or rescue operations and goods transport in disaster," trade official Shinji Tokumasu said. "We launched the public-private meeting to cultivate a new industry and make it profitable in the world market."
A Malaysian transgender woman who was beaten in what activists say is part of growing hostility towards LGBT people. Photo: Thomson Reuters Foundation
A Malaysian religious court has postponed the caning of two women convicted of having sex after the sentence prompted an outcry from human rights activists. The women had pleaded guilty to charges under Islamic laws forbidding lesbian sex. They were sentenced to a fine and six strokes of the cane, with the punishment to be carried out on Tuesday. But the sharia High Court in the eastern state of Terengganu postponed the punishment to September 3 due to "technical reasons", media said. "A few agencies will be involved in the punishment, and there are some technical issues that have yet to be resolved," court registrar Nurul Huda Abdul Rahman was quoted as saying. Rights groups, including Amnesty International, said a delay was not enough and urged Malaysia to abolish caning entirely.
The controversial Sun Child statue in Fukushima. Photo: Reuters
The city of Fukushima in Japan will remove a statue of a child clad in a protective suit following criticism that it misleads the public into believing that local people, hit by a nuclear crisis in 2011, need to wear such gear. "We set up the statue as a symbol of people striving for reconstruction but have come to judge that the statue is not accepted by many citizens," mayor Hiroshi Kohata said. The statue of a child in a yellow protective suit, looking up with an adhesive bandage on the cheek, was produced by contemporary artist Kenji Yanobe to express his wish for a world free of nuclear disasters. Yanobe said he was hoping to cheer people up after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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