China mourns ‘psychic’ cat that predicted outcome of six World Cup games

A “psychic” cat in China, orange-furred tabby, named “Baidian’er”, which means “white spot” in Chinese that correctly predicted the outcome of six World Cup games has met an untimely end, prompting thousands to pour out their grief on Chinese social media.

"Baidian’er”, a stray, prowled around the Palace Museum in Beijing’s Forbidden City; he was offered two bowls of food, with the flags of competing World Cup teams stuck in the ground behind them. Baidian’er correctly predicted the results; eventually, of six World Cup games. He achieved such fame that the Palace Museum even set up an account for him on China’s Weibo, a popular Twitter-like platform. Unfortunately, Baidian’er’s correct prediction of an Argentinian win against Nigeria turned out to be his last.

The museum said the cat fell ill and finally announced its death on Monday, sparking almost 10,000 comments on Weibo.

Pune school asks girl students to wear only skin, white coloured innerwear?

A Pune school kicked off a storm when it reportedly asked girl students to wear only skin, white coloured inner-wear

Reports say that parents and students of Pune’s Maeer’s MIT School on Wednesday staged a protest against the school’s diktat asking its girls students to wear only white or skin colour inner-wear. The school has even specified the length of the skirt to be worn by girls. Apart from this, it is also alleged that the school has restricted students from using the washroom other than the specified time slots.

Protester climbs Statue of Liberty on Independence Day

Reportedly, six protestors were arrested after they put a banner calling for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal on 4 July. 

Sources quoting the authorities say, a person was scaling the statue’s base. Jerry Willis, National Park Service spokesman said, the climber was at the base beneath the statue’s foot around 4 pm. The climber, has been named by US media as, Therese Okoumou, a 44-year-old immigrant from DR Congo. Though, it was still unclear whether the climb was related to the 'banner demonstration'. Willis said federal regulations prohibit hanging banners from the monument.

Lt Governor bound to listen to Delhi government’s advice, rules top court

In a major boost to AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) the apex court ruled that Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor (LG) is bound to listen to the city’s democratically elected government and cannot act independently.

PTI reported, “The L-G is bound by the aid and advice of the council of ministers,” said a five-judge bench in a majority verdict after hearing appeals filed by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s government against a Delhi high court judgment declaring L-G as the sole administrator of the city.

The L-G’s special power -- that of referring matters to the President -- needs to be exercised in exceptional circumstances and not routinely, said the Supreme Court.

All decisions by Delhi’s council of ministers, who are elected representatives, must be communicated to the L-G but that does not mean his concurrence is required. “There is no room for absolutism and there is no room for anarchism also,” said the court.

The judgement -- pronounced by Chief Justice Dipak Misra -- also held that the LG cannot act as an “obstructionist”. , according to news agency PTI.

Israel: Netanyahu visits Golan Heights, cautions Israel's enemies

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a rare visit to the occupied Golan Heights, peering across the nearby border into Syria and warning Israel’s enemies not to “test” its resolve.
 

Netanyahu was accompanied to a hilltop observation point, some three kilometres (two miles) from a 1974 ceasefire line, by his security cabinet. He has been cautioning against any attempt by Iran to deepen its military foothold in Syria or construct missile factories in neighboring Lebanon.

Netanyahu, very assertively told in broadcast remarks that, "We seek peace but are prepared for any scenario and I wouldn’t suggest to anyone that they test us.”

Hong Kong: Court frees three democracy leaders, but warns against future acts of dissent

A panel of five judges at Hong Kong’s highest court, Court of Final Appeal, led by Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma freed three young leaders of the city’s pro-democracy movement on Tuesday, including the public face of the protests, Joshua Wong, in a stark reversal of an earlier ruling. 

But Wong, 21, Nathan Law and Alex Chow were warned against future acts of dissent, before that, a magistrate’s court had ruled the activists should serve community service and a suspended sentence for a charge of “unlawful assembly” after they and others stormed into a fenced-off area in front of government headquarters in September 2014.

That sparked a night-long standoff with police and was seen as a key trigger for the “Umbrella Movement” that blocked major roads in the city for 79 days in a push for full democracy, presenting Communist Party rulers in Beijing with one of their biggest political challenges in decades.

But this non-jail sentence was challenged by Hong Kong’s Department of Justice that pushed for a review, eventually leading the Court of Appeal to impose jail terms.

The five judges, including a non-permanent foreign judge, Lord Leonard Hoffmann, said in the judgment that they had “quashed the sentences of imprisonment” by the Court of Appeal. They stressed, however, that “future offenders involved in large-scale unlawful assemblies involving violence” will be subject to stricter guidelines laid down by the Court of Appeal.