■UNITED STATES
Guns, not yoga on peace day
It may take more than a few deep breaths to bring peace back to the New England town of Raymond, New Hampshire. About 40 protesters, including some carrying guns, showed up at the town common on Sunday after the town refused to allow Molly Schlangen to hold a “yoga for peace” gathering in honor of the International Day of Peace. Selectmen said on Monday that they rejected Schlangen’s request because they didn’t have enough information about her plans. Schlangen held the event at her studio instead. The guns belonged to members of the Free State Project, who were promoting constitutional rights to assemble and own guns.
■IRAQ
Zaidi proposes Bush trial
The journalist who was jailed for throwing his shoes at former US president George W. Bush said he wants to move to Switzerland and rally Iraqis to take Bush to court. Muntazer al-Zaidi told TSR television in an interview broadcast on Monday that he was beaten with metal bars, tortured with electric cables and endured simulated drowning during his detention. His employer, Al-Baghdadia TV station, and a family member have said that Zaidi had left Iraq for Syria and would travel on to Greece for medical treatment. Zaidi told TSR that he wants to launch a “vast operation” to rally Iraqi families in order to lodge a legal complaint against Bush. Bush and his collaborators should face trial in an international tribunal for “war crimes committed during the occupation of Iraq,” he said.
■UNITED STATES
Alleged plotters reject trial
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and two suspected fellow plotters on Monday refused to attend a Guantanamo Bay military court hearing. Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali had been due in court after filing a motion to fire their lawyers. The three refused to leave their cells. Military judge Stephen Henley turned down a request from government prosecutors to force them to attend. An hour before the hearing was due to start, Henley approved a demand from President Barack Obama’s administration to delay the main proceedings for another 60 days while the government decides how to try them.
■UNITED STATES
Pianist Ferrante dies at 88
Pianist Art Ferrante, who teamed with Lou Teicher to record a series of 1960s easy-listening hits based on movie theme songs, has died, aged 88. The duo’s longtime manager, Scott Smith, said on Monday Ferrante died on Saturday of natural causes in Longboat Key, about 100km south of Tampa, Florida. Along with Teicher, Ferrante recorded versions of themes from movies including Exodus, The Apartment, Lawrence of Arabia, Cleopatra and Midnight Cowboy. Ferrante and Teicher, known as “The Movie Theme Team,” performed together for 40 years after meeting as children at the Juilliard School in New York. Smith said Ferrante played the piano every day, “until about four weeks ago.”
■UNITED STATES
Woman kept body for cash
A Florida woman was sentenced on Monday to a year and a day in prison for keeping her dead mother’s body in a bedroom for years while collecting more than US$230,000 in pension benefits, prosecutors said. Penelope Sharon Jordan, 61, of Sebastian, Florida, pleaded guilty to theft of government funds in June, the US Attorney’s Office in Miami said.
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