Russia bans drivers with sex, gender 'disorders'

Extending Russia's legal campaign against homosexuality, a new law aimed at reducing traffic deaths denies driver's licences to people with "disorders" involving sexual preference and gender identity.

The decree, signed Dec. 29 by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, empowers officials to ban transsexual and transgender people from driving, along with others suffering from such "mental disorders" as fetishism, exhibitionism, voyeurism, compulsive theft or "pathological" gambling, the BBC and Mashable reported Thursday.

Specifically, the decree — "to promote public health" — applies to those with "gender identity disorders, disorders of sexual preference and psychological and behavioral disorders associated with sexual development and orientation."

The rules also apply to people with schizophrenia, "mood" disorders and "neurotic, stress-related" problems.

"The decisions are aimed at reducing deaths from vehicular accidents," the decreedeclares, according to a translation provided to USA TODAY.

Nearly 28,000 fatalities -- 55 per 100,000 vehicles -- occurred on Russian roads in 2012, according to the most recent statistics available. (The United States recorded 8,000 more traffic deaths the same year, but the per-100,000-vehicle rate was only 13.6.)

Russia defends the restrictions by citing the World Health Organization's International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. However, the compendium contains this note: "Sexual orientation by itself is not to be regarded as a disorder."

The move has been condemned by Russian psychiatrists and human rights lawyers, while the country's Professional Drivers Union endorsed the restrictions for pros (trucks and bus drivers, for instance) to improve safety on the country's notoriously deadly roads.

Mikhail Strakhov, a psychiatric expert in Russia, told the BBC Russian Service that the definition of "personality disorders" was too vague and that some disorders would not affect anyone's ability to drive safely.

Valery Evtushenko, from the Russian Psychiatric Association, told the BBC he worries that some people would avoid seeking psychiatric help, fearing a driving ban.

The new law is "discriminatory," the Association of Russian Lawyers for Human Rights said, adding that it would ask the Russian Constitutional Court for clarification.

Citing the country's many road deaths, the head of the Professional Drivers Union, Alexander Kotov, told the BBC that "toughening medical requirements for applicants is fully justified" for pros but too strict for others.

In 2013, Russia outlawed "promoting non-traditional lifestyles," a measure aimed at gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people.

                                      

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Malaysian admits sex with 31 boys in Singapore

Court told Ipoh-born man made friends on Facebook, had sex with boys in public places.

SINGAPORE: An Ipoh-born quality assurance engineer has admitted having sex with 31 boys aged between 11 and 15 after befriending them on Facebook under different names.

Yap Weng Wah pleaded guilty on Friday to 12 charges of sex with boys, with 64 other charges to be taken into account for his sentencing.

Prosecutors told the court that he and 30 of the boys engaged in sexual acts at his rented flat, toilets of shopping centres and swimming complexes, hotel rooms and a public park.

He recorded the sex acts on his mobile phone, storing them in his laptop computer, in folders indicating each boy’s name, age and year they met, the Straits Times reported.

He also asked a 12-year-old to send a video of the boy performing a lewd act, the Straits Times reported.

Police found more than 2,000 video clips in his computer when they raided his home after one of the boys made a report.

On Friday, Yap pleaded guilty in court to 12 charges, while 63 other charges of sexual penetration of a minor and one for procuring a child to commit an indecent act will be taken into consideration at sentencing.

The prosecutor seeks a penalty of at least 30 years’ jail and 24 strokes of the rotan.

Yap was reported to have come to Singapore in 2009. His two younger siblings and mother live in Ipoh. His father moved to New Zealand when he was eight years old, the report said.

                                            

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The mysterious world of 'lightbombing': Dazzling art illuminates the streets

The Art of Movement is a monthly show that highlights the most significant innovations in science and technology that are helping shape our modern world.

Birmingham, England (CNN)It's 4 o'clock in the morning. Most of Birmingham, the second most populated city in England, is fast asleep. But like a thief in the dead of night, a solitary figure slips through the city's deserted streets. Arriving at a derelict warehouse, he is brandishing what looks like a lightsaber as he makes his way to the roof.

Using the resting metropolis as a backdrop, "Sola" draws swift shapes in the air with the light wand. Thirty seconds later, the camera shutter clicks and the light artist grabs his kit, disappearing once more into the night.

Welcome to the elusive, magical world of "lightbombing."

"Sola" is the street artist alter ego of 40-year-old photographer Peter Medlicott,who has been capturing the urban landscape of Birmingham streets since shortly after relocating there in 2000. Much of the city had become ex-industrial space and Sola recalls how upon first appearances, the city seemed somewhat run down. But a chance late-night shoot revealed the transformativMeeting in the heart of the city's creative quarter, Sola greets me warmly before grabbing a coffee and sitting down. Dressed casually in a sweatshirt, jeans and sneakers, his face lights up with enthusiasm as he begins to explain the art of lightbombing.

"I look like a complete nutter"

Lightbombing is long-exposure photography where the artist draws intricate designs, patterns or words using hand-held lights in front of a camera in pitch black darkness. While many artists around the world experiment with long-exposure photography and light art, Sola coined the term "lightbombing."

"It's me, the drunks and the burglars," he says grinning. "To the average casual observer who just happens to come across me, I look like a complete nutter. I'm in the street waving a torch around. It's so dark you can't see my camera 90% of the time. And you're looking at this dude running around, thinking 'What the hell is going on?!'"

His technique borrows elements from graffiti, including "bombing," where the artist gets to a location, does the work and is gone. Sola's physical process lasts mere seconds and leaves a continuous, fluctuating stroke on the final photograph as if by magic..

"It's like drawing on the page and when I move the light in front of a camera, it leaves that mark. If you go faster, it leaves a thinner mark and if you go slower, it leaves a brighter mark," explains the artist.

Then for just a brief moment, Sola's face becomes solemn. Although striking and entertaining to see, lightbombing isn't some frivolous hobby. Explaining his vocation, Sola's voice is filled with passion for his work as he reiterates that what you see is what he shoots. He's adamant that the camera should capture the moment and only permits himself to edit the photographs in as much as a darkroom would allow.

"I never edit my photos. You should shoot it for real," he says. "When I grew up with film, you had to make it in the camera. There was no messing around. You couldn't do much afterwards in post edit. Yet some of the most iconic imagery of all-time was shot on film and very little touches with a brush afterwards on the print. I think there is something important about that."e nature of nightfall on the city. What were once dead spaces became a textural stage for the photographer to illuminate.

He adds: "I very purposefully don't shoot under direct light. I don't hang around. I don't wear bright clothing. I wish I wore some crazy ninja Zentai suit or something."

"I'm not going to get arrested"

Often he will spend weeks scouting the perfect location for his latest collection. And while he's always eager to find a new space, he says he has no desire to be arrested.

"As long as I don't break anything to get in, I'm not forcing entry. If there is a fence down, there's a fence down. I'm just wandering around. By and large, it is never my intention to trespass. I'm walking around and if there is a way into a space, I might use it."

The popularity of Sola's light art has offered the photographer some exciting opportunities in the last few years, including working with commercial partners such as Nike for ad campaigns and traveling to Dubai for a three-week collaboration with local artists. He has also shot scenes in the British countryside and during the Glastonbury annual music festival.

Using the city as his playground, he never returns to the same location twice -- explaining that he thinks it helps keep his work "fresh." But just for once, tonight he has driven me to an abandoned car park he recently shot at. As he expertly unfurls his tripod and snaps his camera in to place, Sola claims anyone can duplicate his method -- all you need is a light source and a camera.

"The first few I did were with road safety maintenance lights that you have in your car. You can use anything, you could use your phone. You can use anything that has got a light. I use certain items -- I'm not a painter but they are my brushes and also my sculptor's tools as well. Different ones do different things. Different filters go onto them and to help me realize what I need that light form to do."

2 pilots break long distance balloon-traveling record

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. –  Two pilots from the U.S. and Russia have traveled farther and longer in a gas balloon than anyone in history, trying to eliminate any remaining debate over a century of records in long-distance ballooning.

The Two Eagles pilots surpassed the distance and duration records that have held since the 1970s and 1980s, and were aiming Saturday for a safe landing somewhere on a beach in Mexico's Baja California peninsula.

Troy Bradley of Albuquerque and Leonid Tiukhtyaev (too-kh-TY'-yev) of Russia lifted off from Japan Sunday morning, and by Friday, they beat what's considered the "holy grail" of ballooning achievements, the 137-hour duration record set in 1978 by the Double Eagle crew of Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman in the first balloon flight across the Atlantic.

By early Saturday morning, the Two Eagles team had been in the air nearly 155 hours and was smashing the distance record, having traveled more than 6,500 miles, including the crossing of the Pacific Ocean.

"The technology has improved so much in the last couple of years. I don't think there's going to be any question about the records," said Katie Griggs, a regional director with the nonprofit Balloon Federation of America.

The world has been tracking their progress online and through social media sites. Still, the official distance and time of the Two Eagles flight must be confirmed by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, which requires staying aloft 1 percent longer and farther than the previous record.

The balloon is outfitted with an array of monitors and other instruments that are tracking its course and compiling the data, using technology that didn't exist in decades past, leaving some claims unproven.

Their first target was the official distance record of 5,209 miles set by the Double Eagle V team during the first trans-Pacific flight in 1981. They surpassed that on Thursday.

The journey has been tough on the pilots, who have been on oxygen for days; high altitude can take a physical toll. But they've been managing to crack jokes when checking in with mission control and their families.

The flight's mission control director, Steve Shope, said their priority now is getting the balloon to a safe landing after bad weather along the U.S. West Coast forced them to make a sharp right turn toward Mexico.

"Right now we have a big job ahead of us to get this balloon down," Shope said.

A chase crew of volunteers and members of the mission were en route Friday to record their arrival, help tether their craft and gather the balloon.

The pilots plan to come in low and drop thick trailing ropes into the ocean to help slow the balloon before setting down on some dunes in Baja California. Once they reach the sand, they will have traveled more than 6,800 miles.

"We're very excited. The pilots are excited. I think they're ready to land," Shope said.

Gas Blast at Mexico Children's Hospital, at Least 2 Dead

Injured and bleeding, mothers carrying infants fled from a maternity hospital shattered by a powerful gas explosion on Thursday, and rescuers swung sledgehammers to break through fallen concrete in hunt for others who may have been trapped.

At least two people were killed and 56 injured, said Claudia Dominguez, spokeswoman forMexico City's civil defense agency. Officials earlier said at least four had been killed.

Thirty-five-year-old Felicitas Hernandez wept as she frantically questioned people outside the mostly collapsed building, hoping for word of her month-old baby, who had been hospitalized since birth with respiratory problems.

"They wouldn't let me sleep with him," said Hernandez, who said she had come to the city-run Maternity and Children's Hospital of Cuajimalpa because she had no money.

The explosion occurred when the tanker was making a routine, early morning delivery of gas to the hospital kitchen and gas started to leak. Witnesses said the tanker workers struggled frantically for 15 or 20 minutes to repair the leak while a large cloud of gas formed.

"The hose broke. The two gas workers tried to stop it, but they were very nervous. They yelled for people to get out," said Laura Diaz Pacheco, a laboratory technician.

"Everyone's initial reaction was to go inside, away from the gas," she added. "Maybe as many as 10 of us were able to get out ... The rest stayed inside."

Workers on the truck yelled: "Call the firefighters, call the firefighters!" said 66-year-old anesthesiologist Agustin Herrera. People started to evacuate the hospital, and then came the massive explosion that sent up an enormous fireball and plumes of dust and smoke.

Herrera saw injured mothers walking out carrying babies. He said there had been nine babies in the 35-bed hospital's nursery, one in very serious condition before the explosion.

"We avoided a much bigger tragedy because the oxygen tanks are right beside (the area) and they didn't explode," Herrera said. The most affected parts of the hospital were the neonatology, reception and emergency reception units, he added.

Miguel Angel Garcia, smoked a cigarette outside Hospital ABC-Santa Fe, trying to calm his nerves while he waited to see his wife and new baby daughter, who had been moved there.

Garcia, 22, had been driving a bus when he heard about the explosion at the hospital where his wife had given birth to their second child just the day before. He dropped off his passengers, then his bus and took off for the hospital.

"When I arrived and saw it in pieces, I thought the worst," Garcia said. He waited for an hour before authorities told him his wife and daughter had been taken to the Santa Fe hospital. A nurse there told him both were fine, but he hadn't been allowed to see them yet.

As the day wore on, people arrived to offer diapers and baby formula. There was an hour-long wait to donate blood.

The driver and two employees were hospitalized but are also in custody, said a Mexico City government spokesman, who could not be named because she was not authorized to speak to the press.

Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera earlier told the Televisa network that at least 54 people were injured, 22 of them children. Most of the injuries were relatively minor, he said, many caused by flying glass.

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RABOBANK EMBROILED IN CALIFORNIA MONEY LAUNDERING INVESTIGATION

The United States Justice Department is investigating whether Rabobank ignored signs of money laundering at its US branches in California. The investigation could lead to additional enforcement action against Rabobank, Bloomberg reports

The investigation comes after Rabobank was connected with previous cases of money laundering by the banks clients in the US. The United States seized assets from Rabobank accounts in at least two criminal cases in 2011 and 2013, Bloomberg reports. In 2011 the money was tied to a Mexican cocaine trafficking operation. In 2013 the funds belonged to a San Diego customs broker, who pleaded guilty to money laundering.

Rabobank currently has more than 120 branches in the United States.

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