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Denmark’s prime minister slams asylum status for ‘Lucky’ the pirate

Denmark’s prime minister slams asylum status for ‘Lucky’ the pirate
The Gulf of Guinea, which extends for 5,700km from Senegal to Angola, was once plagued by piracy but is now much safer thanks to joint efforts from European navies and local forces. (AFP)
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Updated 24 January 2024
AFP
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Denmark’s prime minister slams asylum status for ‘Lucky’ the pirate

Denmark’s prime minister slams asylum status for ‘Lucky’ the pirate
  • Four men on a skiff were killed in an exchange of fire with Danish naval forces in the Gulf Guinea, a fifth went overboard, and three were arrested before being released at sea
  • ‘Lucky’ wasn’t released because his leg had to be amputated on the spot after he was hit and he was later transferred to Denmark for further treatment
Updated 24 January 2024
AFP
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COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s prime minister expressed her indignation Tuesday after a Nigerian who has been found guilty of engaging in an exchange of fire with Danish sailors was granted asylum in the Nordic country.
The affair, which dates to 2021, has been a long-running source of embarrassment for the Danish government.
“I cannot defend this decision,” said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, whose administration has taken a hard line against migration and asylum requests.
In November 2021, alleged pirates in the Gulf of Guinea opened fire on Danish naval forces on an anti-piracy patrol.
Four men on a skiff were killed in the exchange, a fifth went overboard, and three were arrested before being released at sea.
But another man, who presented himself as being from Nigeria and going by the name “Lucky,” wasn’t released because his leg had to be amputated on the spot after he was hit.
He was later transferred to Denmark for further treatment.
“He doesn’t belong here. If he’s here, it’s solely because of international obligations,” Frederiksen said during a press conference.
Once in Denmark, “Lucky” was found guilty of putting the lives of Danish soldiers in danger, but wasn’t sentenced to prison.
He applied for asylum while in a center waiting to be sent back to Nigeria.
His lawyer didn’t respond to requests for comment on how he was granted asylum.
The Gulf of Guinea, which extends for 5,700 kilometers (3,350 miles) from Senegal to Angola, was once plagued by piracy but is now much safer thanks to joint efforts from European navies and local forces.

Topics: Denmark Mette Frederiksen gulf of guinea piracy

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Crypto boss eats banana art he bought for $6.2 million

Crypto boss eats banana art he bought for $6.2 million
Updated 29 November 2024
AFP
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Crypto boss eats banana art he bought for $6.2 million

Crypto boss eats banana art he bought for $6.2 million
  • Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun on Friday fulfilled a promise he made after spending $6.2 million on an artwork featuring a banana duct-taped to a wall
Updated 29 November 2024
AFP

HONG KONG: Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun on Friday fulfilled a promise he made after spending $6.2 million on an artwork featuring a banana duct-taped to a wall — by eating the fruit.
At one of Hong Kong’s priciest hotels, Sun chomped down on a banana in front of dozens of journalists and influencers after giving a speech hailing the work as “iconic” and drew parallels between conceptual art and cryptocurrency.
“It’s much better than other bananas,” Sun said after getting his first taste.
“It’s really quite good.”
Titled “Comedian,” the conceptual work created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York last week, with Sun among seven bidders.
Sun said he felt “disbelief” in the first 10 seconds after he won the bid, before realizing “this could become something big.”
In the 10 seconds after that, he decided he would eat the banana.
“Eating it at a press conference can also become a part of the artwork’s history,” he said Friday.
The debut of the edible creation at the 2019 Art Basel show in Miami Beach sparked controversy and raised questions about whether it should be considered art — Cattelan’s stated aim.
And Sun on Friday compared conceptual art like “Comedian” to NFT art and decentralized blockchain technology.
“Most of its objects and ideas exist as (intellectual property) and on the Internet, as opposed to something physical,” he said.
Sun also this week disclosed a $30 million investment in World Liberty Financial, a crypto project backed by US president-elect Donald Trump.
The crypto businessman was last year charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission with offering and selling unregistered securities in relation to his crypto project Tron. The case is ongoing.
At a function room at the Peninsula hotel in Hong Kong, two men dressed as auction house staff stood in front of a featureless wall with the yellow banana offering the only splash of color.
Sun said he only recently decided to bid for the artwork, adding he had “dumb questions” such as whether the banana had decayed and how to value the work.
The artwork owner is given a certificate of authenticity that the work was created by Cattelan as well as instructions about how to replace the fruit when it goes bad.
Event attendees on Friday each received a roll of duct tape and a banana as a souvenir.
“Everyone has a banana to eat,” he said.

Topics: Banana

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs denied bail a third time as he awaits sex trafficking trial

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs denied bail a third time as he awaits sex trafficking trial
Updated 28 November 2024
AP
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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs denied bail a third time as he awaits sex trafficking trial

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs denied bail a third time as he awaits sex trafficking trial
  • Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he coerced and abused women for years, aided by associates and employees
Updated 28 November 2024
AP

NEW YORK: Sean “Diddy” Combs was denied bail on Wednesday as he awaits a May sex trafficking trial by a judge who cited evidence showing him to be a serious risk of witness tampering and proof that he has violated regulations in jail.
US District Judge Arun Subramanian made the decision in a written ruling following a bail hearing last week, when lawyers for the hip-hop mogul argued that a $50 million bail package they proposed would be sufficient to ensure Combs doesn’t flee and doesn’t try to intimidate prospective trial witnesses.
Two other judges previously had been persuaded by prosecutors’ arguments that the Bad Boy Records founder was a danger to the community if he is not behind bars.
Lawyers did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on the decision.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he coerced and abused women for years, aided by associates and employees. An indictment alleges that he silenced victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
A federal appeals court judge last month denied Combs’ immediate release while a three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan considers his bail request.
Prosecutors have insisted that no bail conditions would be sufficient to protect the public and prevent the “I’ll Be Missing You” singer from fleeing.
They say that even in a federal lockup in Brooklyn, Combs has orchestrated social media campaigns designed to influence prospective jurors and tried to publicly leak materials he thinks can help his case. They say he also has contacted potential witnesses through third parties.
Lawyers for Combs say any alleged sexual abuse described in the indictment occurred during consensual relations between adults and that new evidence refutes allegations that Combs used his “power and prestige” to induce female victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male sex workers known as “Freak Offs.”

Topics: Diddy sex trafficking

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New Zealanders save more than 30 stranded whales

New Zealanders save more than 30 stranded whales
Updated 25 November 2024
AP
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New Zealanders save more than 30 stranded whales

New Zealanders save more than 30 stranded whales
  • New Zealand is a whale stranding hotspot and pilot whales are especially prolific stranders
  • New Zealand has recorded more than 5,000 whale strandings since 1840
Updated 25 November 2024
AP

WELLINGTON: More than 30 pilot whales that stranded themselves on a beach in New Zealand were safely returned to the ocean after conservation workers and residents helped to refloat them by lifting them on sheets. Four of the pilot whales died, New Zealand’s conservation agency said.
New Zealand is a whale stranding hotspot and pilot whales are especially prolific stranders.
A team was monitoring Ruakaka Beach near the city of Whangarei in New Zealand’s north on Monday to ensure there were no signs of the whales saved Sunday stranding again, the Department of Conservation said. The agency praised as “incredible” the efforts made by hundreds of people to help save the foundering pod.
“It’s amazing to witness the genuine care and compassion people have shown toward these magnificent animals,” Joel Lauterbach, a Department of Conservation spokesperson, said in a statement. “This response demonstrates the deep connection we all share with our marine environment.”
A Maori cultural ceremony for the three adult whales and one calf that died in the stranding took place on Monday. New Zealand’s Indigenous people consider whales a taonga – a sacred treasure – of cultural significance.
New Zealand has recorded more than 5,000 whale strandings since 1840. The largest pilot whale stranding was of an estimated 1,000 whales at the Chatham Islands in 1918, according to the Department of Conservation.
It’s often not clear why strandings happen but the island nation’s geography is believed to be a factor. Both the North and South Islands feature stretches of protruding coastline with shallow, sloping beaches that can confuse species such as pilot whales – which rely on echolocation to navigate.

Topics: wildlife New Zealand

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Cheating on your spouse is no longer a crime in New York, with the repeal of a little-known 1907 law

Cheating on your spouse is no longer a crime in New York, with the repeal of a little-known 1907 law
Updated 23 November 2024
AP
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Cheating on your spouse is no longer a crime in New York, with the repeal of a little-known 1907 law

Cheating on your spouse is no longer a crime in New York, with the repeal of a little-known 1907 law
Updated 23 November 2024
AP

ALBANY, N.Y.: New York on Friday repealed a seldom-used, more than century-old law that made it a crime to cheat on your spouse — a misdemeanor that once could have landed adulterers in jail for three months.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill repealing the statute, which dates back to 1907 and has long been considered antiquated as well as difficult to enforce.
“While I’ve been fortunate to share a loving married life with my husband for 40 years — making it somewhat ironic for me to sign a bill decriminalizing adultery — I know that people often have complex relationships,” she said. “These matters should clearly be handled by these individuals and not our criminal justice system. Let’s take this silly, outdated statute off the books, once and for all.”
Adultery bans are actually law in several states and were enacted to make it harder to get a divorce at a time when proving a spouse cheated was the only way to get a legal separation. Charges have been rare and convictions even rarer. Some states have also moved to repeal their adultery laws in recent years.
New York defined adultery as when a person “engages in sexual intercourse with another person at a time when he has a living spouse, or the other person has a living spouse.” The state’s law was first used a few weeks after it went into effect, according to a New York Times article, to arrest a married man and 25-year-old woman.
State Assemblymember Charles Lavine, sponsor of the bill, said about a dozen people have been charged under the law since the 1970s, and just five of those cases resulted in convictions.
“Laws are meant to protect our community and to serve as a deterrent to anti-social behavior. New York’s adultery law advanced neither purpose,” Lavine said in a statement Friday.
The state’s law appears to have last been used in 2010, against a woman who was caught engaging in a sex act in a park, but the adultery charge was later dropped as part of a plea deal.
New York came close to repealing the law in the 1960s after a state commission tasked with evaluating the penal code said it was nearly impossible to enforce.
At the time, lawmakers were initially on board with removing the ban but eventually decided to keep it after a politician argued that repealing it would make it seem like the state was officially endorsing infidelity, according to a New York Times article from 1965.

Banana taped to a wall sells for $6.2 million in New York

Banana taped to a wall sells for $6.2 million in New York
Updated 21 November 2024
AFP
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Banana taped to a wall sells for $6.2 million in New York

Banana taped to a wall sells for $6.2 million in New York
  • Chinese-born crypto founder Justin Sun forks over more than six million for the fruit and its single strip of silver duct tape
  • Given the shelf life of a banana, Sun is essentially buying a certificate of authenticity that the work was created by Maurizio Cattelan
Updated 21 November 2024
AFP

NEW YORK: A fresh banana taped to a wall — a provocative work of conceptual art by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan — was bought for $6.2 million on Wednesday by a cryptocurrency entrepreneur at a New York auction, Sotheby’s announced in a statement.
The debut of the edible creation entitled “Comedian” at the Art Basel show in Miami Beach in 2019 sparked controversy and raised questions about whether it should be considered art — Cattelan’s stated aim.
Chinese-born crypto founder Justin Sun on Wednesday forked over more than six million for the fruit and its single strip of silver duct tape, which went on sale for 120,000 dollars five years ago.
“This is not just an artwork. It represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community,” Sun was quoted as saying in the Sotheby’s statement.
“I believe this piece will inspire more thought and discussion in the future and will become a part of history.”
The sale featured seven potential buyers and smashed expectations, with the auction house issuing a guide price of $1-1.5 million before the bidding.
Given the shelf life of a banana, Sun is essentially buying a certificate of authenticity that the work was created by Cattelan as well as instructions about how to replace the fruit when it goes bad.
The installation auctioned on Wednesday was the third iteration — with the first one eaten by performance artist David Datuna, who said he felt “hungry” while inspecting it at the Miami show.
Sun, who founded cryptomoney exchange Tron, said that he intended to eat his investment too.
“In the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience, honoring its place in both art history and popular culture,” he said.
As well as his banana work, Cattelan is also known for producing an 18-carat, fully functioning gold toilet called “America” that was offered to Donald Trump during his first term in the White House.
His work is often humorous and deliberately provocative, with a 1999 sculpture of the pope stuck by a meteor titled “The Ninth Hour.”
He has explained the banana work as a critical commentary on the art market, which he has criticized in the past for being speculative and failing to help artists.
The asking price of $120,000 for “Comedian” in 2019 was seen at the time as evidence that the market was “bananas” and the art world had “gone mad,” as The New York Post said in a front-page article.
The banana sold on Wednesday was bought for 35 cents from a Bangladeshi fruit seller on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, according to The New York Times.
Sun has hit headlines in the past as an art collector and as a major player in the murky cryptocurrency world.
He was charged last year by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for alleged market manipulation and unregistered sales of crypto assets, which he promoted with celebrity endorsements, including from Lindsay Lohan.
In 2021, he bought Alberto Giacometti’s “Le Nez” for $78.4 million, which was hailed by Sotheby’s at the time as signaling “an influx of younger, tech-savvy collectors.”
Global art markets have been dropping in value in recent years due to higher interest rates, as well as concern about geopolitical instability, experts say.
“Empire of Light” (“L’Empire des lumieres“), a painting by Rene Magritte, shattered an auction record for the surrealist artist on Tuesday, however, selling for more than $121 million at Christie’s in New York.

Topics: art

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