Tourists Horrified as Theme Park 'Fairy' Impales Live Butterflies on Dress

Flickr/PFSullivan1056

Tourism officials in China have been criticised for using live butterflies pinned to a woman's dress in a promotional stunt to highlight the attractions of a local beauty spot.

Bosses at the Bao Tianman Scenic Spot, located in Nanzhao County in Henan Province, decided to stage a Butterfly Festival to highlight the area's natural beauty.

Eco-tourism has been identified in China as one of the fastest-growing economic sectors. In an attempt to drum up more visitors and business, the organisers of the first Bao Tianman Scenic Spot Butterfly Festival came up with the idea of making the highlight of the festival "A living butterfly fairy making an appearance that is sure to delight young and old."

But children burst into tears and adults stood up in disgust and left when the woman appeared with dozens of living butterflies impaled on her "fairy" dress.

Eyewitness Xiu Shih, 37, told the Sunday Express: "The butterflies seem to be still alive, and many were beating their wings obviously trying to fly away from the dress but they couldn't because they had steel pins through their bodies pinning them to the fabric.

"It was really shocking and I saw some children crying and their parents taking them away. This was supposed to be a celebration of the beauty of the butterfly and of the natural beauty of the region. The whole thing just left me speechless."

Spokesman Ning Wang: "We wanted the Festival to encourage people's love of insects and the natural world and to encourage them to protect our fellow creatures instead of catching and killing them so relentlessly."

Rio Favela Launches 'Ghetto TV', Giving Residents Their Own Voice

The Rocinha slum in Rio de Janeiro (Reuters)

Angered at being represented as drug dealers, prostitutes and thieves, the denizens of a Brazilian favela have started the world's first "ghetto TV station".

Residents of Rio de Janeiro's largest shanty town, Rocinha, will produce, direct and act in prorammes broadcast on Evolution Television, which will stream its content through broadband to thousands of impoverished households.

"We are opening up a new way of speaking, a new way of being heard and a different way of accessing television for our communities," Joilson Pinheiro, the network's creator and channel president, told the Independent on Sunday.

"For decades we've been portrayed as domestics, labourers, thieves and illiterate nobodies who only have their lives reported on when there is an outbreak of violence, drug-related shootings, a tragedy or a protest."

According to Pinheiro, the station will depict "the humour, the drama, the difficulties we face and our aspirations".

Partnering with one of Brazil's newest cable operators, Sim TV, ETV will broadcast alongside channels showing World Cup coverage, news, and soap operas.

The plan is to pay the channel's 50 staff, who have been working 12-hour days on top of holding down full-time jobs, through channel sponsorship.

Locals have donated equipment and technical know-how, and pilot episodes for a number of shows are now ready for broadcast.

Valquiria Santana, ETV's executive director, is producing a daily magazine chat show with music. "What really matters is empowering our people, allowing them to get involved, giving them a chance to take charge of their own image and to tell their own stories," she said.

The channel's creators said they were spurred to action by the refusal of Brazil's main cable operators to install satellite dishes and receivers in shanty homes.

ETV aims to provide 35 favelas with a 30% cheaper TV deal, with funding from influential samba schools and local technicians to help install technology.

Though Rocinha has a better infrastructure than other favelas, with most homes having basic sanitation, plumbing and electricity it is still regarded by many as a dangerous area.

Residents believe they are often stereotyped as criminals in local media reports, with TV crews only setting up to report murders or protests.

Permanent police bases have been established in favelas throughout the city in the run to this summer's World Cup and next year's Olympic Games, bringing relative stability after years of criminal violence.

"People in Rocinha are excited about the arrival of ETV. We still have a degree of unpredictable violence here but we no longer have drug gangs dictating how we operate and demanding a cut of our profits," said Luciano Viana, a local internet installation technician who is responsible for helping to roll out the channel.

'Dedicated and Fearless' UK Teacher Anne-Marie Drozdz Murdered in Bali

Street in Ubud, Bali (WikiCommons)

A murder investigation has been launched following the death of a British woman on the tropical island of Bali.

The Foreign Office has confirmed the death of a UK National on the island on the Indonesian archipelago, whom reports have named as Anne-Marie Drozdz, 49.

A 32-year-old construction worker was arrested in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, where police believe he fled after the crime.

News agency AFP quoted a police source saying that her body was found in a villa in the tourist district of Ubud, a popular resort.

A police spokesman told AFP: "She was found by the owner of the villa lying dead on the floor with a black cloth over her face.

"The door was damaged and there were dried pools of blood on the floor."

The source added that Drozdz, an English and drama teacher from Leicestershire, had been renting the villa since May 17.

The suspect, named by police as Hambali, was yesterday returned to Bali for questioning.

"Indications, evidence and other information gathered from the crime scene point to Hambali as the perpetrator of the crime," Refi Pribadi, the police commissioner, said.

"The suspect was a construction worker employed near where the crime took place. Based on the initial investigation, only one perpetrator has been identified. We continue to develop the case," the police chief added.

Gregory Drozdz, 55, told the Telegraph that his sister had travelled to the island to set up a social enterprise to help young people on the island.

"Her death is a tragic loss to us as her family and also to her friends," he said.

"She was dedicated to working with younger people but was also very courageous, as the countries she worked in were especially wary of westerners. That didn't worry her though. She always took the bull by the horns and was fearless."

He added: "As a family we are overwhelmed with the burden of our grief. It has only been a few days and I do not think we have totally taken in what has happened. We just want to know what happened to her and why."

Ida Bagus Putu Alitin, the head of forensics at Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar on the island, told AFP that the woman's body showed bruises on the neck and around the mouth.

"But we will wait until permission from her family and police to carry out an autopsy," Alitin said.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: "We are aware of the death of a British national in Bali on 22 May.

"We are providing consular assistance to the family."

Man Killed By Crocodile in Philippines

Wikimedia Commons

Coastguards in the Philippines have discovered the body of a fisherman clamped in the powerful jaws of a crocodile.

The coastguards shot the crocodile in an attempt to free the man, who was still attached to a rope he had attached to his fishing vessel for safety.

He was discovered on Thursday by coastguards in the crocodile-infested waters of the Rio Tuba, about 710km from the capital, Manila.

It was reported the man found himself adrift in the river while fishing for sea cucumbers.

Lieutenant Greanata Jude told the Australian news website news.com.au that the fisherman had attached himself by rope to the fishing vessel in order to keep the boat close: "On the side of the boat was the body of the victim being bitten by a crocodile. The body was tied to the boat".

After coastguards had shot the crocodile it released the body. It was recovered by villagers, but the man was already dead. The reptile escaped back into the river.

The fisherman was from a nearby village. The attack follows that of another man, killed by a crocodile in the same region, who was eaten in 2011 while gathering wood.

Demonstrators Arrested in Jerusalem Ahead of Pope Francis' Visit to Israel

Vatican flag hung just outside Jerusalem's Old City in preparation for Pope Francis' visit, his first to the regionReuters

Police arrested 26 people at a demonstration by Jewish nationalists on Saturday after they seized King David's Tomb in Jerusalem.

Some people believe the site was also the location of Jesus' Last Supper.

Over 150 activists, including one soldier, are protesting against Pope Francis' trip to Israel. Jewish protesters have gathered at King David's Tomb several times this month to denounce what they say are Israeli plans to hand over parts of the site to the Vatican.

Israeli authorities deny this. The Foreign Ministry said in response that "there is no intention of handing over or granting any rights to the Last Supper Room to the Vatican – neither during the Pope's visit to Israel nor afterwards. The State of Israel is maintaining its traditional stance that the Last Supper Room and any other part of the compound on Mount Zion will not be handed over to Vatican ownership or possession in any way."

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Reuters that 150 people took part in Sunday's demonstration and that some protesters threw rocks at police forces, who took 26 people into custody.

According to police, a soldier was arrested for threatening an officer with his weapon to prevent a friend's arrest.

Several officers were wounded and a police cruiser suffered some damage.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, who represented some of the arrested activists, told Ynetnews that "the police behaved with brutality and violence towards the youths who were attempting to protest the evacuation of King David's Tomb for the Pope's visit."

He added that "a local court ruled Friday that protests against the pope were allowed 150 metres away from the site, but it looks like the police are trying to silence the protest."

In preparation for Pope Francis' visit, local police units have been reinforced. Around 8,500 police officers will be posted around Jerusalem.

Pope Francis Calls for End to Bloodshed in Syria and a 'Just Solution' to Palestine Crisis

Pope Francis and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas (back L) review the honor guard upon Francis' arrival to the West Bank town of Bethlehem May 25, 2014.Reuters

Pope Francis has called for immediate steps to end the prolonged bloodshed in Syria as he began a four-day tour of the Middle East aimed mainly at lifting the sagging spirit of believers in a region where Christianity was born.

Before arriving in Bethlehem in the Israel-occupied West Bank on the second day of his tour, the pope praised Jordan's King Abdullah as "an artisan for peace," saying the monarch made efforts to create "lasting peace for the entire region".

In Amman, the spiritual leader of more than a billion Catholics called for a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis and "a just solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Jordan has hosted a large number of people who fled the violence in neighbouring Syria. A large number of Christians have fled Syria in the aftermath of the rise of the hard-line Islamic outfits fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Francis called for religious rights of all peoples to be protected, echoing concerns raised by Christians in strife-torn Syria.

"Religious freedom is in fact a fundamental human right and I cannot fail to express my hope that it will be upheld throughout the Middle East and the entire world," he said.

As many as 20,000 believers thronged a stadium in Amman to attend a Mass led by the pope.

On Sunday, about 8,000 people are expected to attend a Mass the pope will hold in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Later he will travel to Tel Aviv, where he will be welcomed by Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Later in Jerusalem, the pope will attend a function commemorating the 50th anniversary of a pact made between Catholics and the Orthodox Church.

He will also meet the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and celebrate mass at the foot of the Mount of Olives.