Global Quickies: Ebola, Blasphemy, and the Holy Grail

JAPAN

Yoshiki Sasai, a co-author of the now-retracted Nature papers claiming to have found an easy way to create stem cells has committed suicide.

CHINA

A city in northwestern China has banned people with large beards or Islamic clothing from boarding buses, claiming it’s for security reasons. The region has a majority Muslim population.

INDIA

An Indian fashion shoot showing a woman being groped on a bus has caused anger, with social media users saying it glamorizes the 2012 Delhi gang rape.

PAKISTAN

A mob killed a seven-year-old and her baby sister along with their grandmother, a member of the Ahmadi sect, after another follower was accused of posting blasphemous material on Facebook.

LIBERIA

In a meeting of the Liberia Council of Churches, more than 100 ministers and bishops endorsed a resolution in response to the Ebola epidemic. The resolution says that god is angry with Liberia, and that Liberians have to pray and seek god’s forgiveness over the corruption and immoral acts (such as homosexualism, etc.)

SENEGAL

To help boost the number of women in Senegal’s IT sector, four female computer engineers have set up the country’s first technology hub run by and for women.

UK

Police raided a village pub searching for a stolen Holy Grail relic but only found a salad bowl.

Featured image: The stolen Nanteos Cup, believed by some to be the Holy Grail.