■ MALAYSIA
Reward offered for Homer
Two men believed to be over-exuberant fans of The Simpsons stole a life-sized figurine of Homer Simpson from a theater, more than a month before the premiere of the big-screen version of the US TV cartoon series, a studio official said yesterday. Police are investigating, but 20th Century Fox is offering a reward of 1,000 ringgit (US$285) to anyone who provides information leading to the fiberglass statue's discovery. The 1.2m figurine of Homer holding a TV remote control was part of a display that included the rest of the Simpson family in the lobby of a theater in a shopping mall near Kuala Lumpur.
■ GERMANY
Chinese sculpture falls
A severe storm caused the collapse of an 8m tall work by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei at a major contemporary art show in Kassel on Wednesday, organizers said. Template, an archlike structure being exhibited outdoors, collapsed in on itself "in astonishingly aesthetic fashion," said Catrin Seefranz, a spokeswoman for the Documenta show. No one was injured. Seefranz said that Ai had seen the collapsed work and pronounced it more beautiful than before. She said Ai does not plan to restore it.
■ INDONESIA
Chef said to ignore brother
British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is ignoring pleas for help from his brother who is on trial for drug possession in Bali, Ronald Ramsay's lawyer said yesterday. Ronald Ramsay, 39, is facing up to 10 years in prison for possession of 100mg of heroin he was allegedly found with when arrested in February. He is also charged with using heroin, which carries a maximum of four years in prison. Lawyer Erwin Siregar said his client clearly needed family support.
■ IRELAND
Chilly post mortem begins
Pathologists inspected the thawed remains on Wednesday of a long-missing Dublin criminal whose body was found, frozen rock solid, in the storage room of a fishmongers' shop. The owner of the Mermaid Fish Shop in Galway, last week found the body of Patrick McCormack, 52, concealed inside a long-neglected plastic container. An examination of the body of McCormack -- who appeared to have been badly beaten and had his hands tied behind his back -- has been repeatedly delayed at Dublin City Morgue because the body had not defrosted. But the work began Wednesday under the supervision of the assistant state pathologist, Michael Curtis.
■ NETHERLANDS
Lottery legal claim rejected
A Dutch woman who claimed she suffered emotional damages due to not winning the lottery missed the jackpot in court too. Amsterdam District Court judges on Wednesday rejected the claim of Helene de Gier, who said she was traumatized by not winning the country's National Postcode Lottery, which she didn't enter, while her neighbors did. In the lottery, postal codes are chosen at random, and people who live there and enter can win prizes of up to millions. Proceeds go to charity. De Gier lived on a street in the small southern town of Heusden where seven entrants won 13.9 million euros (US$18.6 million) each on Jan 1, last year.
■ LATVIA
Town to hold naked run
Revelers will be able to streak with impunity in the western town of Kuldiga this weekend as the community holds a naked run to mark the midsummer festival, organizers said on Wednesday. "The nude run is for everybody, no matter their gender, age or race," said Ilze Dambite-Damberga, of the city council. "One can wear shoes or sneakers, as long as they don't go up to the armpits," she said. Sunday's run across the town's 150m 19th century brick bridge marks "Jani," the most popular holiday in the country.
■ RUSSIA
Nursing home fire kills 10
A blaze swept through a nursing home in Siberia yesterday, killing at least 10 people, officials said, the latest in a series of deadly fires, many of them caused by rampant neglect of safety rules. Rescuers evacuated more than 300 patients from the nursing home in the Omsk region after the fire erupted in the early hours yesterday, but 10 patients died in the blaze, Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov said. He said the hospital fire alarm system functioned properly, but a nurse on duty was away at the moment it went off and failed to immediately alert patients and call firefighters.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Stonehenge pulls in crowds
Thousands of modern-day druids, pagans and partygoers were converging on Stonehenge late on Wednesday as people across the northern hemisphere prepared to welcome the summer solstice -- the longest day of the year. The sun will rise at 4:58am on Thursday, welcomed by an estimated 20,000 people expected to crowd around the ancient circle of stones in Wiltshire, southern England, to witness the event. Solstice celebrations were a highlight of the pre-Christian calendar and in many countries bonfires, maypole dances and courtship rituals linger on as holdovers from Europe's pagan past.
■ MEXICO
Two die in prison brawl
Two inmates were killed and about four dozen guards and prisoners were injured in a massive brawl between two rival gangs at a prison in Ciudad Juarez, authorities reported. The two gangs, the "Aztecas" and the "Mexicles," which have faced off before, began fighting after prison authorities relocated some of the prisoners to other cell blocks. Prison director Fernando Romero Magana said the fighting continued for about two hours, until 300 police and riot officers quelled the unrest.
■ UNITED STATES
Man who hid kid facing trial
A man accused of keeping a runaway in his home for a decade and having sex with her has been sent back to jail from a state hospital, where he has been since he tried to kill himself four months ago. The move paves the way for Thomas John Hose to stand trial on Tuesday. He was returned to jail earlier this month, according to the Allegheny County jail. Hose, 49, stabbed himself just before his trial was to start in February. The trial was delayed again last month, when his attorney said Hose had anxiety problems and wanted to hang himself. Hose is accused of taking in a 14-year-old girl and, for a decade, keeping her from leaving the tiny home he shared with his parents and son.
■ UNITED STATES
Conjoined twins doing OK
Conjoined twins surgically separated at their fused spinal cords were in fair condition in Salt Lake City, Utah. "That doesn't sound very good, but they are out of intensive care and improving," Primary Children's Medical Center spokeswoman Bonnie Midget said on Wednesday. Allyson and Avery Clark had surgery on Tuesday, a day before turning eight months old. It took 66 minutes from the first incision to separate them. Their spinal cords were joined at the lower back and made a U-shape. Nurses said the twins, in separate beds for the first time, had a good night and interacted with each other when awake, Midget said. "Everything is going very smoothly," she said.
■ UNITED STATES
Employers face clampdown
Employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants risk losing their state and local business licenses under a bill sent to Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano for approval. Napolitano said she would look at the bill "with great interest" because efforts to address border and illegal immigration concerns includes dealing with the "underlying labor issue." Proponents said the measure was necessary because the federal government has failed to enforce existing law that prohibits employers from intentionally hiring illegal immigrants.
■ UNITED STATES
Historic school at risk
The Topeka City Council in Kansas gave preliminary approval to begin destruction of a school that was at the center of the landmark Supreme Court case that paved the way for the end of separate public schools for black students. Council and city staff members said on Tuesday they would like to save the Sumner Elementary School building at the center of the Brown v. Board of Education case, but the cost to the city forced them to consider other options. The school became a symbol of civil rights history when Oliver Brown, a black minister, tried to enroll his daughter in Sumner School in 1950. When the school turned them away, the Browns filed a lawsuit that eventually led to a case finding that separate schools for whites and blacks were unequal.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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