■UNITED STATES
Book sparks controversy
A book by a bestselling biographer alleging that former US president John F Kennedy’s widow, Jackie, began a four-year affair with her brother-in-law, Robert, within months of her husband’s assassination has sparked a row in the country. The book, Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story, by C David Heymann, alleges that the relationship grew so intense that when Robert Kennedy was shot in 1968, it was Jackie, not his wife, who told doctors to turn off life support. Heymann says the accounts are based on the recollections of a clutch of Kennedy confidants, including Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, Pierre Salinger and Arthur Schlesinger. But Salinger, Kennedy’s press secretary, dismissed the account as “bullshit,” while Heymann’s critics said he has been caught making egregious errors in previous books and has even been accused of fabricating material.
■UNITED STATES
No pants and drunk
A Delaware man who claimed he lost his pants faces drunken driving charges after authorities said the deputy who pulled him over noticed he was in the buff below the waist. A spokesman for Maryland’s Cecil County Sheriff’s Office said 41-year-old Jonathan Schultz “was driving commando” and only partially covered with a towel on his lap, though he was wearing a shirt. Lieutenant Bernard Chiominto said Schultz was stopped Saturday near Rising Sun for going 111kph in a 80kph zone. Chiominto said the deputy smelled alcohol and noticed Schultz’s semi-exposed situation. The Newark, Delaware, man told the deputy he’d lost his pants.
■UNITED STATES
Alaska a ‘good deal’: Obama
President Barack Obama on Tuesday thanked Russia for giving his country a “good deal” on Alaska when it purchased the northern territory, now a US state, in 1867. “Before we ever exchanged ambassadors, we exchanged goods,” Obama said at a US-Russia business forum in Moscow, which he addressed as part of a state visit to the Russian capital. “Along the way you gave us a pretty good deal on Alaska. Thank you,” Obama said to laughter from the audience. It purchased Alaska in 1867 for US$7.2 million in gold after the government of Russiaan Tsar Alexander II determined it was losing money on the colony.
■BRAZIL
New monkey discovered
Researchers have discovered a new sub-species of monkey in a remote part of the Amazon rain forest, a US-based wildlife conservation group said on Tuesday. The newly found monkey was first spotted by scientists in 2007 in the state of Amazonas and is related to the saddleback tamarin monkeys, known for their distinctively marked backs, the Wildlife Conservation Society said. The small monkey, which is mostly gray and brown and weighs 213g, has been named the Mura’s saddleback tamarin after the Mura Indian tribe of the Purus and Madeira river basins where the new sub-species was found.
■MEXICO
Useless phones stolen
Call it the case of the dead cells — both telephones and the ones in the brain. Employees at a Telefonica Movistar cellphone store in Morelia said they arrived on Tuesday morning to find that the store had been broken into. An examination of the shop revealed the only items missing were hollow replica phones for display that are completely useless for making calls. Employees said the clueless thieves overlooked real cellphones and cash in another part of the shop.
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