South Korea's ongoing sex crime crisis forms the focus of a gripping new Netflix documentary— Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror. The latest program reveals just the tip of the iceberg of sex crimes in the Asian country, which can be traced back to a "deep-rooted gender inequality " and an increase in gender-based violence, Boram Jang, East Asia Researcher at Amnesty International, told Newsweek. "According to the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice, violent crimes such as murder, robbery and arson are generally decreasing in Korean society, but crimes involving sexual violence are steadily rising," Jang said. Released on Wednesday, the new Netflix documentary follows the exposé of a sexual abuse scandal that saw dozens of women—including minors—allegedly being blackmailed into capturing non-consensual , sexually explicit images and videos of themselves. The footage was shared and sold via online chat rooms—known collectively as the "Nth Room"—on … [Read more...] about ‘Cyber Hell’ only scratches surface of South Korea’s sex crime crisis
Volcanic eruption
UN envoy: US sanctions on Iran worsen humanitarian situation
Sweeping U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran have badly impacted the country’s economy and worsened the humanitarian situation in the Persian Gulf nation, a United Nations special envoy said Wednesday. According to Alena Douhan, the U.N. special rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures, the sanctions have affected Iran’s main export groups, banks and also several companies and nationals, including some pharmaceuticals and food production. This has led to inflation and growing poverty, and depleted state resources for dealing with the basic needs of people with low income and other vulnerable groups, Douhan told reporters during a press conference in Tehran . She singled out those suffering from “severe diseases, disabled people, Afghan refugees, women-led households and children” as being badly affected by the measures. Douhan, a Belarusian who was appointed in 2020 and reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council, also said that the “”sanctions have been substantially … [Read more...] about UN envoy: US sanctions on Iran worsen humanitarian situation
Calcutta HC directs CBI to question Bengal Minister over daughter’s appointment
The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to interrogate West Bengal Minister of State for Education Paresh Chandra Adhikari over the appointment of his daughter as a teacher in a state-run school. Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay directed that the Minister should appear before the CBI authorities by Tuesday evening for interrogation over the allegations. A petitioner had approached the Court alleging that she was deprived from the job while the daughter of the minister got the job. The petitioner’s lawyer Firdous Shamim claimed that his client’s rank was 20 but suddenly it became 21 in the merit list. “Today it has become clear my client had secured 77 marks in the recruitment examination, while the minister’s daughter got only 61,” the lawyer said. Babita Sarkar, the petitioner, said that just before the counseling, her rank had slipped from 20 to 21 and the name of the minister’s daughter, who was not in the earlier list, was included in the … [Read more...] about Calcutta HC directs CBI to question Bengal Minister over daughter’s appointment