■ UNITED STATES
Bette Davis to be honored
A face that will tease you, and please you and perhaps unease you is coming to US post offices next year: it's those Bette Davis eyes. On the 100th anniversary of her birth the great actress will be honored on a US commemorative stamp, the 14th in the Legends of Hollywood Series. A 10-time Academy Award nominee, Davis won twice, for her roles in Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938). Also next year the post office will launch a new multiyear Flags of Our Nation series, a 60-stamp set scheduled to include the Stars and Stripes as well as the flags of each state, the District of Columbia and territories.
■ UNITED STATES
Cops probe tiger escape
The big cat exhibit at the San Francisco Zoo was cordoned off as a crime scene as investigators tried to determine whether a Siberian tiger that killed a visitor escaped from its high-walled pen on its own or got help from someone, inadvertent or otherwise. Police shot the 135kg animal to death after a Christmas Day rampage that began when the tiger escaped from an enclosure surrounded by what zoo officials said are a 5.5m wall and a 6m moat. Two brothers who also were visiting the zoo were severely mauled. Police Chief Heather Fong said the department has opened a criminal investigation to "determine if there was human involvement in the tiger getting out or if the tiger was able to get out on its own."
■ UNITED STATES
Louisiana regains residents
Louisiana appears to be rebounding from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, gaining 50,000 residents in the year ending July 1, new Census Bureau state population estimates showed yesterday. After the storm hit in August 2005, the bureau estimated the state lost 250,000 residents. Despite the most recent gain, the state is far from returning to its pre-Katrina population level of 4.5 million. In Louisiana, the Census estimates a net increase of people moving into the state of 29,000, accounting for more than half the jump.
■ UNITED STATES
Hilton donates US$2.3bn
Hotel magnate Barron Hilton will give US$2.3 billion, the bulk of his fortune, to charity, officials said on Wednesday. Hilton, the 80-year-old grandfather of Paris Hilton, bequeathed the money to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, a charity founded by his father in 1944. "We are all exceedingly proud and grateful for this extraordinary commitment," Hilton's son Steven Hilton, president and chief executive of the foundation, said in a statement. "Working to alleviate human suffering around the globe, regardless of race, religion or geography, is the mandate of the foundation set by my grandfather ... and now reinforced by my father.
RSS