Silicon Valley nobility and political heavyweights paid tribute to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on Sunday at a private memorial service at Stanford University, local media said.
Security teams from Apple and Stanford along with local police officers cordoned off the main quad on campus, only granting access to those with invitations to the event in honor of Jobs, who died on Oct. 5.
Guests were directed to the university chapel for the service. Candles lined a path leading from the church to a museum, where a soiree in memory of the man behind iPhones, iPods, iPads and Macintosh computers was held afterwards.
Those seen arriving at the event included Google co-founder Larry Page, former US president Bill Clinton and former US vice president Al Gore, who is a member of the Apple board, local media reported.
Also seen were high-powered venture capitalists, the founders of US software maker Adobe and actor Tim Allen, who gave voice to character Buzz Lightyear in blockbuster Toy Story animated films made by Pixar, a studio created by Jobs.
Chauffeur-driven black cars and sports-utility vehicles, some with government plates, parked close to the chapel entrance as guards shooed away inquisitive passersby and people snapping pictures of attendees.
Some guests were ushered in through a heavily patrolled rear entrance to the small Romanesque and Byzantine style church at the center of campus.
The heir apparent of South Korea’s Samsung Group was due to attend the service despite the company’s ongoing legal battle with Apple, an industry source who declined to be named.
Jay Y. Lee, the son of chairman Lee Kun-hee and chief operating officer of Samsung Electronics, was attending in response to an invitation from Apple CEO Tim Cook, the source said, adding he was close to both Jobs and Cook.
While Apple was heavily managing the scene on Sunday, responses to invitations were directed to the Emerson Collective, a philanthropic organization founded by the Apple co-founder’s wife, Laurene Powell Jobs.
Jobs was also to be honored tomorrow at a memorial for Apple employees at the company’s headquarters.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not