Man who punched woman in viral video sentenced to 6 months in prison

(CNN)A man has been sentenced to six months in prison for punching a woman in the face in Paris when she told him to "shut up" after she said he sexually harassed her, a spokesman for the Paris prosecutor told CNN on Thursday.

The sentence also included a suspended term of six months. The man was not named by the prosecutor.

Closed-circuit TV footage that showed the moment the man hit Marie Laguerre on July 24 went viral after she shared it on her Facebook page, sparking a national discussion about the harassment women face.

Laguerre said she was walking home when a man on the street started whistling and making "very degrading and humiliating" noises at her.

"It put me in a rage and I told him to shut up," Laguerre told CNN in August. "I didn't think he'd hear me, but he did. He actually got really mad and then he threw an ashtray at me. After that, I insulted him and after that, he rushed back to punch me."

The encounter lasts a few seconds. In the video, the man can be seen walking past a cafe terrace, where he picks up an ashtray from a table and throws it in her direction. He then comes face to face with Laguerre and strikes her before swiftly walking away as witnesses stand up to confront him.

Police arrested him in August.

"I took the punch with the most pride I could, because I didn't want to show him any sign of weakness or any sign that he was actually going to put me down," Laguerre said.

After the video was posted online, Laguerre said she received hundreds of messages from women sharing their experiences with harassment, and from men who told her they hadn't realized things were so bad.

She said it "was powerful to read, because it gave me hope that now, men -- thanks to this video -- they realize it's a really bad situation when we are in the street. We don't feel safe."

Laguerre said she is grateful the attack was caught on video.

"It's helpful for the case, but more importantly, it's really raising awareness of the gravity of the situation that every woman faces.""This video shocked a lot of people, because they could actually see what could actually happen to women when she says no," Laguerre said. "They can also see that it's not about seduction, it's about domination, and it's raising awareness that we need to listen to women, because they've been talking about this issue for years."

A 2015 survey for the French Institute for Demographic Studies found that 20% of the female respondents reported receiving wolf whistles, 8% reported receiving insults and 3% reported being followed in public spaces over a span of a year. Physical violence was reported by 1.3% of women, according to the survey, which had 27,000 respondents.

In July, France's National Assembly passed a law banning sexual or sexist comments that are "degrading, humiliating, intimidating, hostile or offensive." Harassment in public could warrant hefty, on-the-spot fines from 90 euros to 750 euros ($104 to $863).

The first man to be prosecuted under the "anti-catcalling" law was given a fine of 300 euros ($345) in September for sexually assaulting a woman on a bus near Paris.

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Vladimir Putin plays hockey and cuddles a puppy in new 2019 calendars

Moscow (CNN)In their book "Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin," Russia analysts Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy note Russian President Vladimir Putin's "endless number of guises," all meant to telegraph his status as Russia's First Person.

"As president and prime minister, Mr. Putin has turned himself into the ultimate political performance artist," they wrote. "Over the last several years, his public relations team has pushed his image in multiple directions, pitching him as everything from big game hunter and conservationist to scuba diver to biker -- even nightclub crooner."

One thing, however, unites the different guises of Putin. They all project an image of manliness, strength and robust health. In nearly all of his photo opportunities, Putin plays the role of Man of Action, and the Putin photo calendars that hit the market each year in Russia all showcase his macho athleticism.

Next year's calendar selection is no exception.

One 2019 calendar newly on sale -- called Putin VVP (the initials of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, universally known in Russia) -- show him engaging in some of his robust and athletic hobbies. There's Putin playing ice hockey, Putin fishing in a river, Putin in snorkeling gear.

And there's the obligatory bare-chested Putin: The 2019 Putin VVP calendar also features the shirtless President taking the plunge in icy waters to mark Russian Orthodox Epiphany.

Putin calendars also showcase the leader's gentler side, as benevolent father of his nation. The Putin VVP calendar also has an image of Putin holding a puppy, and standing contemplatively in a field of wheat.

Putin is famously known as a lover of the outdoors and is frequently portrayed as a defender of wildlife. The 2019 Medny Vsadnik (Bronze Horseman) calendar shows Putin with a leopard cub, and wearing a traditional costume of furs in a horse's saddle.

So who is the real Putin? Whatever the guise, the Kremlin leader is always the man in charge.

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Blasphemy ruling could signal strength of hardliners in Pakistan

(CNN)On Monday, Pakistan's Supreme Court heard the final appeal of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy in November 2010.

The verdict, not yet issued, could well signal if the hardline Islamists, who seek to create a full-blown theocracy, are gaining influence throughout the country and helping to shape its future.

Bibi's case began on June 14, 2009, when an ordinary altercation between women working in a field in an area north of Lahore turned into a feud over their faiths. Three women did not want to share a cup of water with Bibi because she was Christian and they were Muslim. After a heated argument, the three women trooped off to complain to the village cleric, claiming she had sullied the name of the Prophet Mohammed.

Rafia Zakaria

As Bibi's lawyer, Saiful Malook, argued on Monday, the legal case against her is weak at best, featuring blatant contradictions between witness statements. The cleric, who actually registered the case and made the allegations against Bibi, was not even present when the altercation between the women took place, and he did not have permission from the appropriate officials to register the case. These legal and evidentiary issues would likely be determinative in any other case, but in this one they may have little impact on the outcome.

The murky facts of Bibi's case may make it hard to discern whether the case, filed at a time when the region was seeing an increase in recruitment by hardline Islamists, was filed at the behest of a particular group. It is known that in the decade since then, hardline groups -- the Tehreek-e-Labbaik in particular -- have gunned down politicians and lawyers who have dared question the validity of the blasphemy law or championed the cause of blasphemy defendants.

In January 2011, a little over a month after the trial court sentenced Asia Bibi to death, Salman Taseer, a Punjab governor, was gunned down by his bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri, because he had visited Bibi in prison and questioned her conviction. Qadri, a member of Tehreek-e-Labbaik, said he had been protecting the honor of the prophet and that he had killed Taseer because of his support for Bibi. Qadri himself was executed in 2016, an event which brought out thousands of mourners affiliated with various hardline groups to the street.

Pakistan's blasphemy laws persecute the weakest of the weak

Pakistan's blasphemy laws persecute the weakest of the weak

These are not the only deaths. In March 2011, Pakistan's Federal Minister of Minority Affairs, a Christian man named Shahbaz Bhatti, was gunned down after calling for reform of Pakistan's blasphemy law. In 2014, gunmen barged into the office of Rashid Rehman, a human rights lawyer who had been representing another blasphemy suspect, and killed him.

Pakistan has never executed anyone convicted of blasphemy. Until very recently, Pakistan was not executing many people at all. But a moratorium on the death penalty was lifted in 2015, reflecting Pakistan's rightward political swing.

According to Amnesty International, though there was a 31% decrease in executions from the previous year, Pakistan still executed 60 people in 2017, while nearly 7,000 people languished on death row. When this inclination to execute is combined with the pressures of groups like Tehreek-e-Labbaik, and the fact that Bibi is a Christian woman in an increasingly misogynistic and xenophobic atmosphere, there seems almost no cause for hope.

But it doesn't have to be this way. The three justices who heard Bibi's final appeal could do the right thing, take note of the many holes in the case, the baselessness of the allegations themselves, the contradictions between witness accounts and exonerate a poor woman who has been wrongfully accused and imprisoned.

Under Imran Khan's leadership, what does the future of Pakistan look like? 

Under Imran Khan's leadership, what does the future of Pakistan look like?

The military, which has worked so diligently to eradicate terrorism in Pakistan, could crack down on groups like Tehreek-e-Labbaik that make ordinary Pakistanis pawns in their game of blood and terror. They could promise added protection to all involved in the case and deploy forces in sensitive areas of the country, such that Tehreek-e-Labbaik and their threats of violence cannot materialize.

Pakistan's new administration, led by the swashbuckling former cricketer Prime Minister Imran Khan, could also take a stance against the intimidation of Tehreek-e-Labbaik, whose leaders have demanded that Khan fulfill his promises to make Pakistan an "Islamic state" and that "Asia Bibi should be hanged keeping international pressure aside." Khan could respond to this by noting that Pakistan is already an Islamic Republic and that, according to the Quran, Pakistan cannot execute an innocent woman for any crime.

Instead of snubbing the international community, one that Islamists see as impinging on Pakistan's move toward a full theocracy, Khan could emphasize the need to embrace it and to work with it. In other words, Khan could choose to stand with the innocent woman instead of the rabid and bloodthirsty extremists.

Saving Bibi need not only be a Pakistani campaign. The Supreme Court of Pakistan, likely fearing violence by hardliners, has instructed Pakistani media to refrain from discussions of Bibi's case until the verdict is issued. This places responsibility on international media and human rights groups to step up their efforts and fill the vacuum.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan would never admit to being permeable to international campaigns for a particular accused, but judges exist in the same larger political context as all the rest of us. A groundswell of international protest and attention, via media and social media, could drown out the venal voices of hardliners demanding death and replace them with activists insisting on life.

The verdict is not in yet on Bibi's case; there is time still to write and tweet and petition. Global attention may well add up to the difference between life and death for a woman sitting alone in a cell in a Pakistani prison.

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Queensland storm: Tornadoes and huge hailstones wreak damage

Tornadoes and a thunderstorm "supercell" have swept across Queensland in Australia, injuring four people and causing widespread damage.

The dangerous weather system hit the state's south-east on Thursday, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said.

One tornado struck Tansey, a town 250km (155 miles) north of Brisbane, snapping trees and ripping roofs from houses.

Elsewhere, four people were injured when tennis ball-sized hail shattered car windscreens, authorities said.

One, Fiona Simpson, posted images online of bruises and scrapes across her body.

"I covered my infant with my body to stop her from getting badly injured.... never drive in a hail storm," she wrote of the incident in the town of Kingaroy.

The nation's strongest tornadoes form during supercells - a type of storm that is also frequently accompanied by damaging hail.

But Australia's funnels are typically smaller and weaker than in the US, University of Queensland geographer Prof Hamish McGowan told The Australian.

On Thursday, large hailstones and winds gusting up to 98km/h (60mph) caused extensive damage to buildings and crops. Social media users also reported injuries to animals.

Local man Steven Harland described the storm as "pretty intense", telling the BBC he had seen "flash flooding, countless trees down, and damage to vehicles from the hail".

"It's just a reminder what Mother Nature can do in such a short period of time," he said.

Authorities said they had fielded more than 300 calls for help, including for a driver trapped by a fallen tree.

Almost 10,000 properties remained without power on Friday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

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Hurricane Michael leaves 'unimaginable destruction'

Hurricane Michael left "unimaginable destruction" as it ploughed into coastal areas of Florida, the state's governor, Rick Scott says.

"So many lives have been changed forever," he said. "So many families have lost everything."

The worst hit areas of Florida's northwest coast saw houses ripped from their foundations, trees felled, and power lines strewn across streets.

Hurricane Michael struck on Wednesday with winds of 155mph (250km/h).

It weakened to a storm as it moved inland towards the north-east, but at least six people have died, most of them in Florida.More than 370,000 people in Florida were ordered to evacuate but officials believe many ignored the warning.

Governor Scott said the US Coast Guard carried out 10 missions overnight, saving at least 27 people.

Which areas are worst affected?

Michael ploughed into Florida's Panhandle coast near the town of Mexico Beach at 14:00 (18:00 GMT) on Wednesday, one of the strongest storms to ever hit the US mainland.

Ranked four on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale and with a storm surge of 9ft (2.7m), it lifted homes from their foundations and heavily damaged others in districts closest to the sea in Mexico Beach, CNN helicopter footage showed.

Twenty survivors were found in the town overnight, AP reports, but 285 had refused to obey warnings to evacuate.

Head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, called Mexico Beach "ground zero" due to the damage.

Trees were downed in Panama City, northwest of Mexico Beach, buildings flattened, boats and electrical cables scattered.

Apalachicola, with 2,300 residents, was also badly affected, the mayor reporting that downed cables were making it difficult to get through the town.

Debris and floodwater are also making some of the worst-hit areas difficult to reach.

Governor Scott urged residents not to return until the authorities "make sure things are safe", given the danger from power lines and other debris.

Silence and sun

By Gary O'Donoghue, BBC News, Mexico Beach, Florida

One of the first things you notice as you walk into Mexico Beach is the stillness.

No wind, almost no-one on the street, just the beating hot Sun and the debris: debris everywhere, tossed and scattered - the calling card of a monstrous storm.

And then you hear faint bleeping sounds coming from all directions - a dissonant symphony of high-pitched notes that turn out to be myriad small alarms, still transmitting their warnings from the batteries which power them.

On the left, as we walk, there's a mattress slumped at the roadside, on the right a Dean Koontz novel lies in the dirt.

Picking our way through a mass of rubble and detritus that was once a house, we spot an American flag on the ground; in amongst it all there is also a toy car and a cracked glass plate from a microwave.

A little further on, and a woman, accompanied by a friend, is sifting through the remains of her home, loading what she can salvage into the boot of a car. This was her dream retirement place she tells me - the last four years spent doing it up. "I'll never step back in there," she says through her tears.

The sheer force of Hurricane Michael has been well analysed, but it's only when you see the everyday stuff of people's lives crushed, broken, smashed to pieces, that you realise they will be living with this long after we have gone.

Who are the victims?

Six deaths have been confirmed - four in Florida,

one in Georgia and one in North Carolina.

Florida officials say one man died when he was crushed in an incident involving a tree in Gadsden County.

In Seminole County, Georgia, a metal car-shelter lifted by a gust of wind hit a mobile home, killing a girl of 11.

Travis Brooks, director of Seminole County's emergency management agency, told ABC News there was "complete and total devastation".

Michael earlier reportedly killed at least 13 people as it passed through Central America: six in Honduras, four in Nicaragua and three in El Salvador.

Winds have knocked out power to more than 900,000 homes and businesses across Florida, Alabama, the Carolinas and Georgia.

Around 6,000 are thought to have sought refuge in official shelters, mainly in Florida.

What is the storm doing now?

With reduced winds of 50mph, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Michael has moved north-east crossing Georgia and is now bringing heavy rain to North Carolina and Virginia.

The NHC warned that communities in north-west Florida and North Carolina faced the threat of life-threatening flooding as rising water moved inland from the coast.

The Carolinas are still recovering from the floods of Hurricane Florence.

States of emergency have been declared in all or parts of Florida, Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina.

And further north, in Virginia 202,000 people are without power, officials said.

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South Korea's Moon optimistic about end to Korean War

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has told the BBC that it is only a matter of time before the US and North Korea declare an end to their state of war on the Korean peninsula.

The war ended in 1953 with an armistice but a peace treaty was never signed.

Mr Moon, the son of North Korean refugees, also said there could be more diplomatic "bumps and bruises" as he tries to persuade Kim Jong-un to give up his nuclear weapons.

But he described Mr Kim as "candid".

In an interview with the BBC's Laura Bicker in Seoul he also said he hoped European leaders would help him to mediate between Mr Kim and US President Donald Trump if negotiations stalled.

Mr Moon has met Mr Kim three times this year and has acted as a mediator between him and Mr Trump.

He said that he had had "ample discussions" with President Trump and other US officials about an end of war declaration.

"If North Korea takes certain measures, the end of war declaration would be a political statement that would announce that the longstanding hostile relations between Pyongyang and Washington had ended," he said.

Mr Moon said he wanted this to happen at the "earliest possible date" and he believed there was a "shared understanding between Washington and Seoul regarding this view".Last month, he became the first South Korean leader to give a speech to the North Korean public during a trip to Pyongyang. He spoke at the Arirang Games - a major propaganda event - and received a standing ovation from 150,000 people.

"I was actually quite nervous to give the speech," he said. "I had to address the problem of denuclearisation and had to receive positive vibes from the North Korean people. And also I had to satisfy the Korean public as well as the global public. So it was not an easy task for me."

He said that Mr Kim had not set any restrictions for the speech.

"He didn't even want to know what I was going to say before the speech. I believe this demonstrates the changes that are happening in North Korea right now."

President Moon told the BBC that he became president of South Korea to help prevent war returning to the peninsula and said that he acutely felt the pain of war and separation.

Mr Moon's parents fled North Korea in 1953 and they never saw their family again.

Where are we in terms of negotiations?

There have been ups and down since a landmark June meeting between Mr Kim and Mr Trump in Singapore saw an agreement to work toward denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula but with few specifics in terms of actions that would be taken.

President Moon went to Pyongyang in September to reinvigorate the stalled negotiations.He returned with concessions that analysts said exceeded expectations. Mr Kim agreed to shut one of the country's main missile testing and launch sites - the Tongchang-ri facility. Significantly, North Korea said international experts would be able to observe and verify the dismantlement.

The South's defence minister and the head of the North Korean army also signed an agreement to reduce military tensions, with a buffer zone to be established along the border to prevent accidental clashes.

But the US has called for further actions - including a full disclosure of North Korea's weapons and nuclear facilities.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited North Korea for the fourth time on Sunday, and held talks with Mr Kim.

"While there's still a long way to go and much work to do, we can now see a path where we will achieve [our] ultimate goal, which is the full and final verified denuclearisation of North Korea," he said on Tuesday at the White House.

He added that international inspectors could soon be arriving at two North Korean nuclear sites.

A second meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Kim will be held after the US mid-term elections, President Trump also said earlier this week.

He has praised Mr Kim on several occasions and again asserted that they had a "very good relationship".

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