January 06, 2008
Hostess jailed for hanky-panky blackmail
HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong karaoke hostess was jailed for three years Wednesday for blackmailing a senior government official by threatening to go public with a steamy videotape, a spokeswoman at the judiciary said.
Hui Wing, 36, had threatened to expose her relationship with the official, referred to as Mr. X to protect his identity during the trial, unless he paid her HK$590,000 ($75,000).
The Hong Kong official, who is married with children, had appeared in court behind a screen as Hui spilled details of the liaison, including descriptions of sex in his office and how she had accompanied him on business visits to neighboring Macau and Guangdong.
District court judge Andrew Chan sentenced Hui to three years' jail on each of two counts of blackmail, with the sentences to run concurrently.
Chan said, however, he believed Hui and Mr. X had developed a loving relationship during their four-month affair, even calling each other husband and wife before it soured.
Hui, from the Chinese province of Hubei, met Mr. X in a Hong Kong karaoke club in late 2006.
Posted by ronnie at 12:47 PM | Comments (0)
December 28, 2007
Miss France keeps crown after photo controversy
PARIS (Reuters) - Miss France 2008 has kept her crown, contest organizers said Friday, after a row over suggestive photographs that saw members of parliament, a bishop and the minister for overseas territories spring to her defense.
However she will not be able to compete in the Miss World or Miss Universe contests, where she will be replaced by Miss New Caledonia.
Valerie Begue, 22, from Reunion, won the beauty pageant, which is taken more seriously in France than in many other countries, in a televised ceremony on December 8.
But her reign threatened to be short-lived after a magazine published a risque series of photographs in which she was seen lying in a crucifixion-like pose while wearing a bikini or licking condensed milk in a suggestive manner.
The rules of the contest forbid participants from appearing in nude or provocative photographs and the head of the Miss France contest, Genevieve de Fontenay, called for Begue to renounce her title when the pictures emerged.
Begue refused, saying the photographs, taken three years ago, had been published without her consent and in the face of wide public support, the organizers relented.
"We felt that, as she had been elected in front of 9 million television viewers, faced with this public that had never seen the photographs, we couldn't take the title from her," de Fontenay told a news conference in Paris.
The affair stirred a major controversy in Reunion, the French Indian Ocean department (region) that Begue comes from, and several members of parliament and local politicians spoke out in her defense.
The bishop of Saint-Denis de La Reunion said that while the photograph of Begue lying on a cross like Christ insulted Christians, it was a "youthful error" and he refused to be used as an ally by those seeking to strip her of her title.
Christian Estrosi, minister for overseas territories, also defended Begue on French radio during the week and he welcomed the decision.
"Reunion, beyond any political and social differences has defended Valerie Begue with heart and talent but has also defended the image of a courageous, determined and successful Reunion," he said in a statement.
Posted by ronnie at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2007
Firemen told to abstain from sexual bribes
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has banned fire department officials from receiving sexual favors as bribes from companies seeking their business, local media reported on Friday.
Fire department officials were also banned from letting their spouses and children run fire-fighting companies and market fire-fighting products, part of an anti-corruption drive outlined in a notice posted on the Public Security ministry Web site.
Apart from taking cash and "other valuables," the order forbade officials from receiving "cheap or free house renovations," "having children entered into schools" and "receiving sexual services" provided by third parties.
"We must remind ourselves that we cannot ignore the problems regarding the opportunism of a minority of officials when enforcing the law," the notice said.
A commentary carried by the official Xinhua news agency on Friday praised the order -- officially abbreviated as the "Four Strictly Forbiddens" -- as timely.
"For every 10 corrupt officials, nine are involved in illicit sex. This old tune has already been proved by statistics from disciplinary organs many times," Xinhua said.
"The people believe that the trade of authority for sex is still comparatively serious," the commentary said.
Posted by ronnie at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2007
Singapore bans Microsoft's video game for sex scene
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore has banned a Microsoft video game which contains a scene showing a human woman and an alien woman kissing and caressing each other, a local newspaper reported on Thursday. The Straits Times said "Mass Effect" -- a highly anticipated futuristic space adventure game from Microsoft -- was banned by Singapore's Media Development Authority.
In October, Singapore's parliament decided to keep a ban on sex between men, and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that the city-state should keep its conservative values and not allow special rights for homosexuals.
Singapore is the only country to have banned the game, so far, and it is the first Microsoft video game to be banned in the city-state, The Straits Times said.
The move has caused an outcry among local and international gamers who said the decision was too strict, the newspaper said.
The report said Singapore has in the past, banned at least two other video games -- Sony Corp's "God Of War 2", for nudity, and unlisted Top Cow Productions' "The Darkness", for excessive violence and religiously offensive expletives.
Posted by ronnie at 08:07 AM | Comments (0)
October 28, 2007
Family values party dumps candidate for porn pics
CANBERRA (Reuters) - A family values campaigner accused of taking pornographic photographs of himself has been dumped as a candidate for Australia's November election by the Christian-values Family First Party.
Sydney music teacher Andrew Quah, 21, admitted photographs showing his penis and circulating widely on gay websites had embarrassed his party and made his candidacy untenable.
"But that's not my penis," Quah told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, adding one of the images may have been digitally altered.
"I might have been drunk off my face, or my political enemies might have drugged me," Quah said. "It was a mistake that I would not have committed had I been of right mind. All I know, I have been humiliated."
Family First leader and upper house Senator Steve Fielding spoke to Quah at the weekend and dumped him as the party's candidate for a western Sydney seat because his actions contradicted the party's strong family values platform.
"Andrew has admitted to the party that two of the photos were of himself, but he denied that a third photo was of himself," party spokeswoman Felicity de Fombelle told Reuters.
"He denied uploading the photos, but he also admitted that he personally used pornography, so his views are at odds with the values of the party," she said.
Quah, nicknamed "Australia's Smallest Loser" in a parody of a popular television series after the photos came to light, had been a member of Family First for 11 months, de Fombelle said.
Family First was founded in 2002 and its first lawmaker to win election was former Assemblies of God pastor Andrew Evans, who won a place in South Australia's state parliament.
In 2004 the party won one national Senate seat, running on a secular platform with strong religious roots.
Family First candidates did crucial voting deals with the conservative Liberal Party of Prime Minister John Howard, who is fighting poor polls ahead of the November 24 national election.
Quah said the photos were more than two years old and were taken and shared while he was drunk. He denied the genitalia in one picture was his, but said he did pose for two photos in an "inappropriate position."
"I hope that my behavior will not reflect badly on my colleagues and friends who share the desire to make Australia the best place in the world to raise a family," he said.
Posted by ronnie at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)
August 25, 2007
Nigerian state wants film ban after sex scandal
LAGOS (Reuters) - The government of Nigeria's predominantly Muslim state of Kano has called for a one-year ban on local film-making to "sanitize" the industry after a sex video of a local actress circulated widely on mobile phones.
The eight-minute clip, recorded for private use by the actress's boyfriend on a mobile phone and showing the two of them naked, caused a public outcry among conservative Muslims in northern Nigeria.
The state's Filmmakers Association expelled 17 of its members for suspected involvement in "immoral acts such as drunkenness and fornication," even though they were not connected to the clip.
The actress in question has gone into hiding.
But the state's Directorate of Societal Orientation said the expulsions were not enough to clean up the industry.
Shooting of films in the local Hausa language should be suspended for a year, the directorate's Bala Muhammad was quoted as saying on the state-run News Agency of Nigeria.
Nigeria's hugely successful English-language video industry, known as Nollywood, is mostly based in the south of the country which is predominantly Christian and considered less conservative.
In the past few years a Hausa-language home video industry has sprung up in the north and has also become very popular.
Kano is among 12 northern states that started enforcing Islamic Sharia law in 2000, increasing tensions between the Muslim majority and sizeable Christian minorities all over northern Nigeria. Thousands have died in several bouts of sectarian violence since then.
Posted by ronnie at 07:40 AM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2007
Sex video causes outrage
ABUJA (Reuters) - An amateur video of a northern Nigerian film actress in a sex scene has caused a public outcry in the Muslim north, prompting a movie industry body to expel actors deemed "immoral," a local newspaper reported Monday.
Leadership newspaper said the eight-minute video clip, recorded for private use on a mobile phone by the actress's boyfriend and showing the two of them naked, had circulated widely among mobile phone users across the north.
"This was the first time such exposure involving Hausa-Fulani persons was witnessed in the country," Leadership said, referring to the dominant ethnic groups in the generally conservative north.
Muslim clerics have condemned the clip and radio programs have been full of complaints about immorality in the film industry. The actress, who was not named by the paper, has gone into hiding, Leadership said.
Nigeria's hugely successful home video industry, known as Nollywood, is mostly based in the south of the country which is predominantly Christian and considered less conservative.
In the past few years a Hausa-language home video industry has sprung up in the north and has also become very popular.
Leadership said the Kano state Filmmakers' Association had reacted to the scandal over the sex video by expelling 17 actors deemed to have brought the industry into ill repute.
The 17 were not connected to the video clip but were "thought to be involved in immoral acts such as drunkenness and fornication," the newspaper reported.
Kano is among 12 northern states that started enforcing Islamic Sharia law in 2000, increasing tensions between the Muslim majority and sizeable Christian minorities all over the north. Thousands died in several bouts of sectarian violence.
Posted by ronnie at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)
July 22, 2007
Spain in uproar after royal sex cartoon banned
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish media on Saturday poured scorn at a judge's decision to pull a satirical magazine that published a cartoon of the heir to the throne having sex, saying it trampled freedom of expression in a first world democracy.
On Friday, Juan del Olmo ordered police to round up copies of El Jueves, whose front page carried a drawing of Crown Prince Felipe having sex with his wife and commenting on a government plan to give parents 2,500 euros (1,700 pounds) for each child born.
"Just imagine if you end up pregnant," Felipe says to his wife, Letizia, who is kneeling on the bed in front of him. "This will be the closest thing to work I've ever done in my life."
Under Spanish law, anybody who insults the royal family can face up to two years in prison.
Media tend to steer clear of reporting anything more than the royal family's official engagements -- a world apart from Britain where any royal pecadillo is pounced on by the press -- but on Saturday they railed against the El Jueves decision.
"The El Jueves cartoon is crude and in bad taste but it's hard to say it intended the sort of damage that would make it a crime," top-selling El Pais wrote in an editorial.
Right-leaning El Mundo said the cartoon could offend people but insisted it was "within what is permissible in a society where freedom of expression is a fundamental value".
Barcelona-based el Periodico went further and slammed the decision as anachronistic and a flashback to the years when Francisco Franco pulled papers for criticising his dictatorship.
Only right-wing ABC supported the ban -- the first in about 20 years -- saying the cartoon was symptomatic of "a climate in which civic and moral values are ever more relaxed and seen as relative".
All the papers agreed that pulling the royal cartoon only served to draw attention to it and spread it around many more people than El Jueves's usual 80,000 readers.
"The picture, which had been seen by thousands of people, was posted on numerous Web sites in Spain and abroad and will now have been seen by tens of millions of people," El Mundo said. "Not even the Crown's worst enemy could have had that effect.
Posted by ronnie at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)
June 04, 2007
Blair in naked war portrait
LONDON (AFP) - A huge drawing showing a naked Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie leaving the Downing Street office was unveiled Wednesday as his premiership enters its last days.
The charcoal work, measuring 4.5 metres by 1.5 metres, by artist Michael Sandle is going on display at London's Royal Academy of Arts as part of its prestigious annual summer exhibition.
The work entitled "Iraq Triptych", which has won the top Hugh Casson prize for drawing, shows Blair and his wife covering their genitals and is based on medieval biblical paintings of Adam and Eve leaving the Garden of Eden in disgrace.
With the famous black door of 10 Downing Street behind them, the figures are flanked by piles of bones, body parts and skulls.
"I wasn't going to submit this year but I suddenly felt overcome with anger at the way Blair has messed up," Sandle told The Guardian newspaper.
He has nicknamed the work "Corporal Payne's Chorus," the broadsheet said -- a nod to Britain's first convicted war criminal jailed for a year and thrown out of the army in April after admitting inhumane conduct towards Iraqis.
The artist has also accused Blair of "vanity" for supporting the United States in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and said Britain had a habit of "interfering overseas."
"He doesn't appear to feel a twinge of conscience about Iraq because he is so sure that he did the right thing," Sandle told The Guardian.
"They have talked about the original perpetrators of violence being the ones who should apologise, but what about the 650,000 Iraqis who have died since the invasion?
"Who is going to apologise to them, and how?"
Blair is stepping down as prime minister on June 27 and will be succeeded by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown.
Posted by ronnie at 10:51 AM | Comments (0)
June 03, 2007
Hustler offers $1 million for sex smut on Congress
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hustler magazine is looking for some scandalous sex in Washington again, and willing to pay for it.
"Have you had a sexual encounter with a current member of the United States Congress or a high-ranking government official?" read a full-page advertisement taken out by Larry Flynt's pornographic magazine in Sunday's Washington Post.
It offered $1 million (500,000 pounds) for documented evidence of illicit intimate relations with a congressman, senator or other prominent officeholder. A toll-free number and e-mail address were provided.
The last time Flynt made such an offer was in October 1998 during the drive to impeach President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
In the following months, the pornographic publishing mogul threatened to expose one or tow members of the Republican Congress pushing for the impeachment, according to media reports at the time.
That long-awaited expose, published months after Clinton's trial, dropped no bombshells, according to a 1999 Slate.com article, but Flynt's efforts played a role in the resignation of House-speaker designate Bob Livingston of Louisiana.
Flynt's target this time, if he has one, was not immediately
known.
Posted by ronnie at 02:24 PM | Comments (0)
May 27, 2007
Cultural bigotry rises as India sees social change
MUMBAI (Reuters) - A barrage of kisses on Shilpa Shetty's cheeks, paintings of naked Hindu gods, Valentine's Day, Fashion TV and sex education -- all are unacceptable according to India's increasingly sensitive moral police.
Small but growing and ever more vocal groups of cultural vigilantes are attacking anything that does not conform to their notion of purity and morality, from paintings, books and films to modern dress, Western attitudes and even beauty salons.
It is an assault some ascribe to the dislocation caused by a booming economy, and the gap between an affluent, urban youth embracing Western values and the more traditional rest of society, whether older or poorer.
"Lopsided economic growth has created a dispossessed population which cannot relate to Western cultural values and norms," said S. Parasuraman, head of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. "The political class exploits this."
More often than not, the religious card gets played.
As the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party tries to reach out to the moderate centre of Indian politics and redefine itself after its national election defeat in 2004, its radical fringe is looking for issues to reinvigorate itself.
With a profusion of 24-hour television news channels, these groups get disproportionate air time and publicity which media analysts say only emboldens them further.
Earlier this month, an art student was beaten up and his exhibition destroyed for portraying Hindu deities in the nude. The student, Chandramohan, was himself arrested on charges of offending religious sentiments, but later freed on bail.
No charges have been laid against the vandals, who were surely encouraged by the success of like-minded radicals in forcing one of India's top painters, M.F. Husain, into exile about a year ago for a similar offence.
In April, effigies of Hollywood star Richard Gere and Bollywood actress and "Celebrity Big Brother" winner Shilpa Shetty were burnt after they kissed at a public event. An Indian court even ordered Gere's arrest to face charges of obscenity.
Meanwhile, anything from Valentine's Day to sex education in schools is denounced as an alien Western import. Lovers are beaten up for kissing or even holding hands in public.
"Western countries are fighting psychological warfare to influence Indian youth," said Abhimanyu Gulati, a BJP leader.
"We are saving the country from cultural anarchy and they call us the Indian Taliban."
UNEQUAL LIBERALISM?
But Hindu radicals are not the only ones trying to reshape society through direct action.
In Kashmir, an 18-year-old insurgency against Indian rule has radicalized a section of the Muslim population -- with the encouragement of neighboring Pakistan.
Muslim women activists have raided and shut down beauty salons and even attacked women who don't wear the burqa.
Many Indians see the radicals as a national embarrassment. But politicians, police and the courts have often turned a blind or conniving eye.
The book and film "The Da Vinci Code" was banned in several states after protests by Christian groups. Dance bars were banned in 2005 in the western state of Maharashtra because they were said to corrupt young minds and breed prostitution.
And in New Delhi, the central government occasionally bans channels like Fashion TV or AXN for showing too much female flesh or too many raunchy advertisements.
Part of the problem, according to commentators like Vir Sanghvi and Pratap Bhanu Mehta, is that India has failed to engage in serious debate about the balance between art and religion, and between freedom of expression and the defense of religious sentiments.
"There is a perception, right or wrong, that when Hindu gods or goddesses are lampooned, free speech is mobilized as an argument; but a lampooning of Islamic symbols is seen as an anti-minority move," Mehta wrote in the Indian Express.
For Mehta, the right of free expression should apply equally.
"I find it the height of impropriety and hubris that we humans are in the business of protecting our gods rather than the other way round."
Liberals in India fail to apply the same standards to all religions, agrees Sanghvi, and have never engaged in any serious debate about what should be allowed to be shown in public.
"Our problem in India is that we have no standards, no barriers and no sense of what is acceptable and what is not," he wrote.
"Each time the issue erupts we engage in the same finger-pointing debates, and call each other names."
Posted by ronnie at 06:41 PM | Comments (0)
May 15, 2007
France's presidential palace has racy past
PARIS (Reuters) - The Elysee Palace, Nicolas Sarkozy's home for the next five years after he became president on Wednesday, has a rich and racy history.
Built in 1718, the Elysee first entered the history books when the Marquise de Pompadour, King Louis XV's favourite mistress, bought the building in 1753.
Opponents showed their distaste for the regime by hanging signs on the gates reading: "Home of the King's whore".
Situated on the chic Faubourg Saint-Honore, just off the Champs Elysees avenue, the elegant building served successively during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars as a furniture warehouse, a print factory and a dance hall.
Russian Cossacks camped at the Elysee when they occupied Paris in 1814.
Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was the first president to make it his residence in 1848, before declaring himself emperor Napoleon III and moving to the nearby Tuileries Palace.
But the emperor kept the Elysee as a discreet place to meet his mistresses, moving between the two palaces through a secret underground passage which has since been destroyed.
Even after the republic was restored in 1870, the Elysee's occupants maintained the building's racy reputation, particularly President Felix Faure, who died there suddenly in the arms of his mistress Marguerite Steinheil in 1899.
French history records the words of his valet when a priest was hastily brought into the bedroom for the last rites and asked: "Does the president still have his "connaissance?'".
The priest used the term to mean 'consciousness', but the valet understood its other French meaning, 'acquaintance', and answered: "No, we ushered her out by the back door."
MONKEY BUSINESS
During World War One, a gorilla escaped from a nearby menagerie, entered the palace and was said to have tried to haul the wife of President Raymond Poincare into a tree only to be foiled by Elysee guards.
President Paul Deschanel, who resigned in 1920 because of madness, was said to have been so impressed by the gorilla's feat that, to the alarm of his guests, he took to jumping into trees during state receptions.
Elysee was closed up during World War Two -- the Nazis never used the building -- and left empty until after the war. It was then occupied from 1959 to 1969 by President Charles de Gaulle, who frowned on its reputation and lack of privacy.
He had another luxurious building nearby purchased so he could receive official state guests there rather than at the Elysee itself. "I do not like the idea of meeting kings walking around my corridors in their pyjamas" he said.
Socialist President Francois Mitterrand, who ruled from 1981-1995, is said hardly to have used its private apartments.
He preferred returning at night to his own home on the bohemian Left Bank or to a discreet flat in another district occupied by the mother of his illegitimate daughter Mazarine, whose existence was only revealed to the public in 1994.
By contrast, outgoing
President Jacques Chirac lived in the Elysee apartments with his wife Bernadette, but it was not clear if Sarkozy's wife Cecilia was set to move in with her husband.
She has been barely seen in recent months and, a long time ago, expressed doubts about life at the Elysee.
Posted by ronnie at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)
May 08, 2007
Muslim-Christian soccer tie scrapped after sex row
OSLO (Reuters) - Muslim and Christian leaders in Oslo scrapped a soccer match meant to foster understanding between religions Saturday after the imams refused to play a team that included women priests.
The imams said physical contact with women would be inappropriate, NRK public television said, and the Norwegian Christians refused a proposal of a male-only clash. The match was to have followed talks meant to build bridges between faiths in Norway.
"Some say that bodily contact is the problem. It leads to special feelings that can lead to something forbidden," imam Senaid Kobilica told NRK public television in explanation.
A woman priest from Norway's Lutheran state church, who was part of the Christian team, said that barring women from the pitch would be discrimination.
"It's disappointing because it means deciding to sacrifice someone from one's own side -- women, who historically are those who have had to give way," priest Kjersti Oestland Tveit said. "It's a setback for sexual equality in 2007."
Her objection prompted the Christian captain to cancel the match. "There are both men and women priests in Oslo, and you can't have a dialogue in which everyone can take part and then have a game where only men are allowed," Trond Bakkevig said.
Posted by ronnie at 08:33 AM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2007
Israel envoy recalled over bondage gear street shame
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after police found him on the streets of the capital blind drunk and wearing nothing but bondage gear.
"The reports published in the Israeli media were confirmed," a foreign ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity Monday.
"Our ambassador to El Salvador has been recalled immediately and will be replaced within the shortest possible time."
According to a story initially published in Israel's tabloid-style Maariv newspaper, police in the Salvadoran capital found Israeli ambassador Tsuriel Rephael on the streets two weeks ago bound and gagged with sado-masochistic sex accessories.
Despite his inebriated state, Rephael clearly identified himself to officers as Israel's ambassador to the central American state.
"During the 60 years of the State of Israel, some of our diplomats have caused us embarrassment, as happens in every country, but an ambassador behaving indecently on a public thoroughfare, that has never happened before.
"It's the last straw," the foreign ministry official said.
It was the first time Rephael, who had held a technical position in the ministry before his posting to San Salvador, had ever distingished himself in any way, the official added.
Posted by ronnie at 12:55 AM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2007
Steamy e-mails from U.S. astronaut case released
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Astronaut Lisa Nowak carried copies of steamy e-mails that her NASA lover had written to his new girlfriend the night she raced cross-country in a diaper to confront her rival, according to documents released on Tuesday.
Florida prosecutors released copies of the e-mails, police statements and other evidence in the case against Nowak, 43.
Nowak has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted kidnapping, burglary and battery after confronting her rival at the Orlando International Airport last month.
"Lots of love coming your way ... and kisses and a great big giant hug with my legs around you," Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman e-mailed to space shuttle pilot Bill Oefelein on January 8.
Oefelein responded: "You must really have me around your finger that I can't even function without you here, and with you here, I am slightly smarter than a slug."
Nowak had copies of the e-mail when she was arrested, prosecutors said.
In his statement to police, Oefelein, 42, said that he had been involved in a "somewhat exclusive" romantic relationship with Nowak, who was married, for about three years until meeting Shipman in November. He said he told Nowak in mid-January that he was in love with Shipman and wanted to pursue an exclusive relationship with her.
"She seemed a little disappointed, um, but she seemed to be accepting of that," Oefelein said in the statement, referring to Nowak.
Shipman, who lives in Cape Canaveral, said in her police statement that while staying with Oefelein in his Houston apartment the weekend before the attack, Oefelein accidentally called her "Lisa" in bed one night.
Police said Nowak drove from her Houston home to the Orlando airport to meet Shipman's flight after the weekend tryst with Oefelein.
Nowak disguised herself in a wig and trench coat, and carried a bag that contained weapons, including a loaded BB gun, four-inch (10-cm) knife, rubber hose and pepper spray.
Shipman told police that Nowak chased her to her car, tried to open the door and sprayed pepper spray in the window.
Nowak told police she only wanted to talk to Shipman about Oefelein. Police reports said Nowak waited to confront Shipman in a deserted parking lot.
Nowak is free on bond but required to wear a global positioning device that will alert authorities if she returns to Florida.
Posted by ronnie at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)
January 03, 2007
Cyberspace sex scandal heads to trial
WASHINGTON - When Robert Steinbuch discovered his girlfriend had discussed intimate details about their sex life in her online diary, the Capitol Hill staffer didn't just get mad. He got a lawyer.
Soon, though, the racy tidbits about the sex lives of the two Senate aides faded from the front pages and the gossip pages. Steinbuch accepted a teaching job in Arkansas, leaving Washington and Jessica Cutler's "Washingtonienne" Web log behind.
While sex scandals turn over quickly in this city, lawsuits do not. Steinbuch's case over the embarrassing, sexually charged blog appears headed for an embarrassing, sexually charged trial.
Lurid testimony about spanking, handcuffs and prostitution aside, the Washingtonienne case could help establish whether people who keep online diaries are obligated to protect the privacy of the people they interact with offline.
Cutler, a former aide to Sen. Mike DeWine (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, says she created the blog in 2004 to keep a few friends up to date on her social life. Like a digital version of the sex-themed banter from a "Sex and the City" episode, Cutler described the thrill and tribulations of juggling sexual relationships with six men.
One of those men was Steinbuch, a counsel to DeWine on the Judiciary Committee. Cutler called him the "current favorite" and said he resembled George Clooney, liked spanking and disliked condoms.
"He's very upfront about sex," she wrote. "He likes talking dirty and stuff, and he told me that he likes submissive women."
When Ana Marie Cox, then the editor of the popular gossip Web site Wonkette.com, discovered and linked to Cutler's blog, the story spun out of control. Cutler was fired and Steinbuch says he was publicly humiliated. He went to court seeking more than $20 million in damages.
The case is embroiled in thorny pretrial issues, with each side demanding personal information from the other. Steinbuch wants to know how much money Cutler received from the man she called her "sugar daddy." Cutler demanded Steinbuch's student evaluations from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law School, where he teaches.
Steinbuch also recently added Cox as a defendant in the case, though he has not served her with court papers. A trial date has not been set, but Matthew Billips, Cutler's attorney, said there are no settlement talks that might head off a trial.
"I have no idea what he wants," Billips said. "He's never said, 'This is what I think should be done.'"
Neither Steinbuch nor his attorney returned phone calls seeking comment. In court, attorney Jonathan Rosen said Steinbuch wants to restore his good name. Students in his legal ethics class all search the Internet and learn about the blog, Rosen said.
"It's not funny and it's damaging," Rosen told a judge. "It's horrible, absolutely horrible."
To win, Steinbuch will have to prove that the details of their sexual relationship were private and publishing them was highly offensive. Billips argues that Cutler never intended to make the blog public but, in the information age, data is easily copied and distributed beyond its intended audience.
If the case goes to trial, its outcome will be important both to bloggers and to people who chronicle their lives on social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said he may teach the Washingtonienne case this spring during his class at Georgetown Law School.
"Anybody who wants to reveal their own private life has a right to do that. It's a different question when you reveal someone else's private life," he said, adding that simply calling something a diary doesn't make it one. "It's not sitting in a nice, leather-bound book under a pillow. It's online where a million people can find it."
Rotenberg asked, what if Cutler had secretly videotaped the encounters and sold the videos without Steinbuch's consent? There has to be a line somewhere, he said.
Since being fired, Cutler moved back to New York, wrote a novel based on the scandal, posed nude for Playboy and started a new Web site, where she solicits donations "for slutty clothes and drugs."
She wouldn't discuss the case but said she's amazed by what has happened.
"The fact that anyone was interested in the first place was a surprise," she said. "The fact that there was a lawsuit in the first place was a surprise. That it's still going on is a surprise."
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman was surprised, too.
"I don't know why we're here in federal court to begin with," Friedman told attorneys for both sides in April. "I don't know why this guy thought it was smart to file a lawsuit and lay out all of his private, intimate details."
In that sense, the Washingtonienne lawsuit has become a study into when to make a federal case out of something and when to just let it go away. It's a question lawyers wrestle with all the time.
Lanny Davis, the former special counsel to President Clinton who now advises companies during times of crisis, tells clients to decide whether they want justice or simply to set the record straight and get a message across.
"If you're looking for justice, the court system is the only thing you have," Davis said. "If you're looking to get the full story, good and bad, into one coherent narrative, the court system is perhaps the worst possible forum."
Posted by ronnie at 05:05 PM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2006
Lawmaker quits parliament over sex video
JAKARTA, Dec 8 (Reuters Life!) - An Indonesian member of parliament at the center of an Internet sex scandal has quit the assembly in the latest morality-related incident to shake the world's most populous Muslim nation.
MP Yahya Zaini, a member of the country's biggest party and also the former head of its religious affairs department, gave up his seat after meeting party leaders late on Thursday.
"After he became news although there has been no legal process, he gallantly resigned. We are concerned on how a private matter could enter the public realm," Andi Matalatta, a senior member of Zaini's Golkar party, told Elshinta radio.
Zaini became headline news after a shaky, one-minute video that appears to show him frolicking naked with Indonesian pop singer Maria Eva made it onto the Internet.
Eva, whose celebrity status has soared since the video became public, has admitted to taking the footage with her mobile phone, but denies distributing it on the Web. She also said she had lost her mobile phone.
Zaini could not be reached for comment and has not made any public remarks since the clip spread like wildfire in Indonesia.
The video is one of several incidents that has shocked mainly conservative Indonesia recently, where sex remains a taboo topic.
News of a popular Islamic cleric taking a second wife has triggered a public debate in Indonesia over polygamy, while this week has also seen the start of an indecency trial against the editor of Playboy's franchise.
Indonesia has also been debating for years a draft anti-smut law, which opponents say could proscribe kissing in public and censor art and cultural activities, laying bare deep divisions within society.
Posted by ronnie at 03:46 PM | Comments (0)
August 05, 2006
Scottish sex scandal court case nears climax
LONDON (Reuters) - Spanking, four-in-a-bed sex, ice cubes rubbed over naked bodies, a charismatic politician, his glamorous wife and a former prostitute called "Christy Babe."
Even by the standards of British political sex scandals, the allegations made in court over the past month during the case of Scottish politician Tommy Sheridan have been salacious.
Sheridan, a 42-year-old socialist member of the Scottish parliament with a round-the-year suntan and a taste for sharp suits, is suing the News of the World newspaper over allegations it made in 2004.
Under headlines like "My kinky 4-in-a-bed orgy with Tommy," the newspaper claimed Sheridan cheated on his wife and went to seedy night clubs for group sex.
Sheridan denies the claims and is seeking damages. In doing so, he has opened a Pandora's Box of colorful accusations and denials, all reported in full by Britain's tabloid newspapers.
"From four in a bed to five in a bed. From five in a bed to sex clubs, from sex clubs to champagne, from champagne to cocaine and from cocaine to orgies in a hotel slap bang in the middle of Glasgow," Sheridan told the court Wednesday, summing up the case against him.
"The allegations in the course of this case have been as numerous as grains of sand in the Sahara Desert ..."
"Christy Babe" -- real name Fiona McGuire -- is a 32-year-old former prostitute who said she had sex with Sheridan over four years, starting shortly after the politician's marriage to childhood sweetheart Gail in 2000.
McGuire's allegations, and those of two other women, formed the basis of the News of the World reports. The paper is standing by its stories, saying the guts of them -- if not every last detail -- are true.
To add to the drama, Sheridan sacked his entire legal team half way through the case and called his wife as a witness.
Gail Sheridan, 42, gave a passionate defense of her husband and said she would have killed him and dumped his body in Glasgow's river Clyde if she believed the allegations.
"You would be in the Clyde with a piece of concrete tied round you and I would be in court for your murder," she said.
Gail Sheridan also said McGuire had obviously never had sex with her husband because, if she had, she would have mentioned his hairy body in her kiss-and-tell revelations.
"You are like a monkey, so anybody rolling an ice cube around your body would end up with a hairball ..." she told her husband across the packed court room. "There is more hair on your body than there is on your head."
In a slightly back-handed defense of her husband, Gail Sheridan told the court he was "boring" and was more interested in playing Scrabble than socializing. He was not the kind of man who would indulge in group sex, she said.
The prosecution is to wrap up its case Thursday.
If Sheridan wins, the News of the World will face a libel bill of several hundred thousand pounds. If he loses, he faces financial ruin.
"It's my life and reputation that is on the line," he said.
Posted by ronnie at 02:26 PM | Comments (0)
May 18, 2006
Ark. Mayor Accused in Sex-For-Water Case
WALDRON, Ark. - Waldron's mayor was released on a signature bond Wednesday after being accused of soliciting two women for sex after they fell behind on their water bills.
Troy Anderson, 72, is accused of abusing the public trust and patronizing a prostitute. After hearing complaints about delinquent water bills, Anderson solicited sex from the women, authorities said.
In January, a woman who said she had refused Anderson's requests went to the mayor for help in getting her granddaughter out of state Department of Health and Human Services custody. The mayor told the woman he might be able to help, and that she should meet him at an apartment, the affidavit said.
The woman wore a recording device when she met Anderson at the apartment, and Anderson offered her $100 for sex, the affidavit said. She said the mayor grabbed her and exposed himself.
Another woman told investigators that she'd been having sex with Anderson for money for the past eight to 10 years. She said Anderson paid her $25 per encounter and that he allowed her to change the name on her overdue water bill, which kept her water turned on, the affidavit said.
The mayor also gave the woman $60 to pay a late water deposit in exchange for sex, the affidavit said. The woman's bill was $617 overdue, the affidavit said.
In February, the second woman wore a recording device when Anderson picked her up for a sexual encounter that netted her $20, authorities said.
Anderson did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday and Wednesday.
The mayor was charged with two counts of abuse of public trust — a felony — and four counts of patronizing a prostitute, a misdemeanor.
Judge Donald Goodner on Wednesday said Anderson was not a flight risk and released him on signature bond, according to the Scott County Circuit Clerk's Office. Goodner set an arraignment for July 6.
Posted by ronnie at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)