South China
Morning Post
22 April 2019
Unlucky coin toss lands another Chinese airline
passenger in trouble
A woman in
southern China has been detained for flipping six coins at a plane to pray for
a safe trip, in the fifth such incident this year. The pony-tailed passenger
was seen on surveillance camera footage throwing coins just before boarding
China Southern Airlines flight CZ8427 from Nanning, capital of the Guangxi
Zhuang autonomous region, to Bangkok on Saturday. […]
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New York Times
23 April 2019
A Fairy-Tale Baddie, the Wolf, Is Back in Germany, and
Anti-Migrant Forces Pounce
[…] Wolves have been slipping
across the Polish border for years, gradually settling into rural Germany.
There are only a few hundred of them. But to hear some politicians tell it, the
country is facing an invasion. And the way they talk about wolves is strikingly
similar to how they talk about immigrants, turning the animal into an object of
terror — and the discussion into an allegory for the nation’s simmering culture
wars. […]
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Ada Derana [Sri Lanka]
23 April 2019
Two remanded over false rumors of poisoned water
Two suspects who had spread false
rumors that poison had been mixed into the water supply of several areas in the
country have been arrested. […] False news of poison being mixed into the water
supply of Kiribatgoda, Kelaniya, and Ja-Ela areas was circulated among the public
yesterday (22). […]
[These rumors follow the terrorist
attacks on 21 April that killed over 300 people. Nearly 12 years ago I posted
another water supply poisoning rumor from Sri Lanka. The link for that is dead,
so here is the report in full.]
Daily Mirror [Sri Lanka]
30 November 2007
Rumours flow like river, but water is safe
By Supun Dias and Shane Seneviratne
Amid rumours flowing like a river that the water
supply had been poisoned, the Water Board reassured yesterday that the supplies
were safe for drinking while an expert said it was virtually impossible to
obtain large quantities of deadly poison to contaminate the water.
Colombo University’s Chemistry Department Head Dr. M.P
De Costa said more than a cyanide capsule was necessary to poison the water in
the Colombo City and a person wanting to do so might
need about ten sacks of deadly poison.
This was done after rumors floated around Colombo
yesterday that the water supply to the Colombo City had been poisoned. The
official reiterated that the Water Board was on 24-hour alert and that the
water was examined for safety throughout the day.
Meanwhile the Kandy Municipal Council Industrial
Engineer scotched rumors of water being poisoned and said the Kandy pumping
station was under high security.
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Dawn [Pakistan]
24 April 2019
Rumours fuel resistance to polio vaccines in KP
PESHAWAR: The polio vaccination
campaign in many areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was halted as mass hysteria
persisted on Tuesday following rumours that some children had allegedly
suffered reactions, even deaths, because of polio vaccines, leading to refusal
rate in thousands. […]