Russian court bans painting showing Mickey Mouse as Christ
Moscow: A court in Russia has banned a painting that depicted Mickey Mouse as Jesus Christ, saying it was “extremist”.
Alexander Savko’s “Sermon on the Mount” painting – part of a series titled “Mickey Mouse’s Travels Though Art History” – was first shown at a controversial 2007 exhibition called “Forbidden Art”.
The painting has been banned by the Kaluga region court from exhibitions, newspapers, magazines or television.
“During the court hearing, it was established that Savko’s technique of uniting the image of Jesus Christ, which is sacred for Christians, and the comical image of Mickey Mouse, which in this situation is vulgar, has turned the graphic work into a caricature of Jesus Christ,” a statement said.
“The Gospel story is therefore presented by the artist in the form of a comic, which is an extremely cynical and mocking insult to the religious beliefs and feelings of Orthodox Christian believers,” it said.
A probe into the legality of the painting was launched in 2007 after a Christian organisation accused the Forbidden Art curators of defacing religious symbols.
The Moscow City Court in 2010 ruled that the exhibition organisers were guilty of inciting national and religious hatred. (IANS)
China fights rats with stray cats
Beijing: More than 100 stray cats that used to roam the streets in a Chinese province have now been collected and organised into a team to fight rodents that are destroying crops.
The “cat army” has been formed in northwest Xinjiang Uygur region, Xinhua reported.
The team was released by the pest control office into the grassland in May, and have adapted to their new life and proven to be good rat hunters, said Li Hua, a forest worker in Xinjiang’s Bole city.
To make the cats comfortable in the grassland, forest workers have built pens for them near water sources.
Li and his colleagues have observed fewer rats in areas where the cats wander.
“Local herders also say they have seen fewer rat holes,” he said.
At least 5.4 million hectares of Xinjiang’s cropland was hit by rats this spring.
“In winter, when the minimum temperature drops to minus 30 degrees Celsius, they will stay in local herders’ homes – these herders will get government subsidies in return,” said Li.
He said cats are as efficient as foxes and eagles in hunting rodents.
“We hope to promote the practice to the entire region and to other parts of the country,” he said.
Officials say stray cats are an apparent consequence of China’s fast urbanisation over the past three decades. Many old homes are being demolished and pets are left behind when their owners move.
These deserted animals, often roam around restaurants, relying on food provided by kind-hearted people or rummaging through garbage bins. (IANS)
Chicken on flight makes Indian origin vegetarian sick
Sydney: An Indian-origin vegetarian woman, who had never eaten meat or eggs, fell sick after being served chicken by mistake on a Singapore Airlines flight from New Zealand to India.
The woman – 56-year-old Pushplata Sharma, of Blenheim, New Zealand – is a Hindu who, as part of her religion, does not eat meat or eggs, said the Sydney Morning Herald.
She inadvertently ate the chicken that was served to her on a Singapore Airlines flight to New Delhi in February.
Singapore Airlines has said it was concerned that Sharma was served the wrong food, but claimed her booking did not ask for any special meal.
Sharma claimed to have asked for an Indian meal free of meat and eggs, which was reportedly shown on the itinerary given to her.
However, there was a mix-up between her travel agent and the airline, and the request was forgotten and the wrong meal was served.
Sharma said that when she was given the food, she thought it was cheese. She realised it was chicken only after she had eaten some, and immediately felt sick.
The Indian woman could speak very little English, and a crew members who understood her immediately apologised and brought her rice, chickpeas and bread, but she did not eat.
She said she felt sick whenever she thought of the meal, and had to go a doctor for treatment for depression.
Singapore Airlines New Zealand official Murray Wild said the company took the incident seriously.
“We are concerned to learn of this incident, and we regret any distress this may have caused,” he said. (IANS)
Derailed streetcar kills five
Rio de Janeiro: At least five people died and close to 30 were injured when a streetcar went off the rails in Rio de Janeiro’s tourist neighbourhood of Santa Teresa, firefighters said.
The accident occurred as the streetcar descended one of the neighborhood’s steep streets, and for reasons not yet determined, it went off the track, flipped over and was completely destroyed.
Firefighters who rushed to help the victims said that four people died at the scene of the accident and another died after being admitted to Souza Aguiar Hospital, where all the injured were taken.
Rio’s Health Secretariat confirmed that the accident left five people dead and about 30 injured, but has not established whether any of the victims were foreigners.
The streetcar left downtown Rio de Janeiro and went over the Lapa Arches, the old Roman-style aqueduct that provided the city’s water supply in colonial times, to arrive at its destination.
Santa Teresa, a bohemian Rio neighborhood, is a favorite of Brazilian and foreign tourists for its gastronomic and cultural attractions, its nightlife and the spectacular views of Guanabara Bay from high up its steep streets. (IANS)
German city to tax prostitutes
London: Germany’s former capital Bonn will now tax prostitutes, it was reported here.
Prostitutes working the streets of Bonn will have to buy tickets from roadside vending machines that once dispensed tickets to the city’s motorists. A night’s ticket will set a prostitute back 5.30 pounds, irrespective of the number of clients they have, The Telegraph said.
Like parking meters, the machines also tell users the time of day when a ticket is necessary: in this case between the hours of 8.15 p.m. and 6 a.m., Monday to Sunday.
The ticket machines would bring street prostitutes into fiscal line with their peers in registered sex establishments, the newspaper quoted Monika Frombgen, a spokeswoman for Bonn city council, as saying.
“This is an act of tax fairness,” she said. “Prostitutes in fixed establishments such as brothels and sauna clubs already pay tax.”
She added that with many foreign-born street prostitutes, previous attempts to tax them had floundered on a widespread inability to comprehend a German income tax form.
The machines, Bonn hopes, will provide an easy-to-understand system of taxation, the newspaper added.
This is the first time tax tickets have been sold on the streets in Germany, it said. (IANS)