■ Guatemala
Government admits guilt
Guatemala formerly recognized the role of its government in the 1993 slaying of journalist and politician Jorge Carpio Nicolle before an international human rights tribunal Monday. More than 30 gunmen, most wearing hoods, ambushed the 60-year-old Carpio Nicolle as he drove in a caravan along a rural highway in the highlands province of Quiche on July 3, 1993. He died at a nearby hospital several hours later. Carpio Nicolle was editor and publisher of the Guatemala City daily newspaper El Grafico and ran for president in 1985 and 1992, finishing second both times.
■ United States
Radio stations hail Elvis
More than 1,250 radio stations across the United States celebrated one of the defining moments in rock 'n' roll on Monday when they simultaneously played That's All Right, a tune recorded exactly 50 years ago by a young truck driver called Elvis Presley. Influential guitarist Scotty Moore, who played with the late "king of rock 'n' roll" on that track along with bass player Bill Black, kicked off the event at 11 am CDT (1600 GMT). Moore flipped a switch on a reel-to-reel tape at the legendary Sun Studio in Presley's adopted home town. The live feed was also broadcast globally by the Sirius satellite radio network.
■ Japan
`Spider-Man 2' in the money
The director of summer blockbuster Spider-Man 2 is "flabbergasted" by the film's record-breaking success at the box office, but Sam Raimi said yesterday that he's too busy writing Part Three to relax and enjoy the victory. The film already has outdone the original Spider-Man, pulling in a record US$180 million in its first six days in North American theaters, opening just ahead of the Fourth of July holiday weekend in the US.
■ United Kingdom
Freedom, Simpsons style
Lisa Simpson, the pointy-haired schoolgirl of the U.S television hit series The Simpsons, is to embrace the cause of Cornish independence. In a Christmas Day special edition of the animated comedy, Lisa will run around the Simpsons' home in Springfield shouting "Rydhsys rag Kernow lemmyn," which translates as "Free Cornwall Now." Matthew Clarke, of the Cornish Language Fellowship, told the Independent newspaper yesterday he was contacted in an e-mail by The Simpsons executive producer Tim Long asking for translation help. Nationalists in Cornwall think the area should be accorded the status Wales and Scotland enjoy, having devolved powers if not outright independence.
RSS