Briton found guilty of false rape claim
London: A British woman was on Monday found guilty of lying about being gang-raped in Cyprus by Israeli youths.
She had been arrested after she withdrew an allegation that she was attacked by 12 young Israelis in Ayia Napa in July, the BBC reported.
The woman, who was 19 at the time, had said Cypriot police made her falsely confess to lying about the incident – but the police denied this claim.
She was found guilty on a charge of causing public mischief, at a court in Paralimni.
Prosecutors said she willingly wrote and signed a statement retracting her initial claims. Twelve Israelis were arrested in connection with the allegations but were later released and returned home. The trial began at the start of October but the verdict was delayed until now.
The BBC said that the woman’s family spent Christmas with her on the Mediterranean island.
It added that lawyers representing the woman had indicated they were willing to appeal the case as far as the European Court of Human Rights. (IANS)
Japan shrine displays giant mouse for New Year’’s
Tokyo: A shrine in Japan is displaying a giant sculpture of a mouse, the zodiac animal for the year 2020.
On Sunday, members of a volunteer group and local children put the three-meter-tall mouse at the entrance of Tatsumizu Shrine in Misato toen, Mie prefecture, public broadcaster NHK reported.
The group makes a giant zodiac sign every year to pray for people’s happiness and an abundant harvest.
It took about a month to create the polystyrene sculpture.
The golden mouse is holding a torch as the members hope that many Japanese athletes will win gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. The jumbo zodiac sign will be on display at the shrine until the end of February. (IANS)
Climate grandma satire causes German broadcaster headache
Berlin: A German public broadcaster has pulled a satirical ditty sung by a children’s choir about a grandmother’s environmentally questionable habits and apologized after the song drew a wave of criticism.
A video featuring broadcaster WDR’s children’s choir singing an altered version of “My grandma rides a motorbike in the chicken coop,” something of a German children’s classic, was pulled from a WDR channel’s Facebook page on Friday evening. On Saturday, WDR boss Tom Buhrow apologized personally “with no ifs and buts.” Critics, many of them online, took offense at a section in the altered song that had the grandmother driving to the doctor in an SUV and declared: “My grandma is an old environmental pig.” The governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state, where WDR is based, was among those who weren’t amused.
“The debate about the best climate protection is increasingly being escalated by some into a generational conflict,” Armin Laschet wrote on Twitter. He added that WDR’s song “crossed the limits of style and respect for older people. Instrumentalizing the young against the old is not acceptable.”
Mass-circulation daily Bild gave the flap front-page treatment on Monday, saying in an editorial that people born in the 1950s did a lot “to hand over a better, rich, peaceful country to their children and grandchildren.” The government’s efforts to combat climate change have been a top political issue in Germany over recent months. Environmental activists have criticized them for not going far enough. (AP)