UNITED KINGDOM
Nine arrested in sex sting
Nine men were released on bail after they were questioned by detectives investigating a suspected case of child sex abuse in northwest England, police said on Saturday. It is not yet clear if the arrests were related to the sentencing last week of nine other men convicted of luring girls as young as 13 years old into sex using alcohol and drugs. Both of the latest arrests and the child sex ring case took place in Rochdale, near Manchester. In the latest series of arrests, the men, aged 24 to 38, are suspected of sexual activity with a child, Manchester police said.
UNITED STATES
Wallenda practices for Falls
Nik Wallenda has performed his first practice walk on the tightrope he will use to walk above Niagara Falls next month. The Buffalo News reports a couple hundred people came out to watch Wallenda as he slowly crossed the 5cm steel cable strung between two cranes in front of the Seneca Niagara Casino. Wallenda stopped after walking about a third of the wire’s length because he could feel the cable moving beneath his feet. He later placed a short weighted pole on the cable to the prevent movement. Wallenda is a seventh-generation member of the famous daredevil family the Great Wallendas, also known as the Flying Wallendas. His high-wire walk is set for June 15. Wallenda would be the first to walk above the falls.
UNITED STATES
‘Shady’ book in gray area
The author of a book called Shades of Gray says her work is being confused with that of a chart-topping erotic fiction writer. Susanne Jacoby Hale, an author based in Florida, says she has received e-mails, Facebook messages and telephone calls from people thinking she wrote Fifty Shades of Grey. Fifty Shades of Grey, by British author E.L. James, has sold millions of copies and become a sensation among women drawn to the sadomasochistic romance between a college student and a wealthy entrepreneur. Hale’s book is about a dropout prevention teacher.
JAPAN
Bassist Donald Dunn dies
Bass player and songwriter Donald “Duck” Dunn, a member of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame band Booker T. and the MGs and the Blues Brothers band, has died in Tokyo. He was 70. Dunn was in Tokyo for a series of shows. News of his death was posted on the Facebook site of his friend and fellow musician Steve Cropper, who was on the same tour. Cropper said Dunn died in his sleep. Miho Harasawa, a spokeswoman for Tokyo Blue Note, the last venue Dunn played, confirmed he died alone early yesterday. She had no further details. Dunn, who was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1941, performed on recordings with Eric Clapton, Neil Young and many others, and specialized in blues, gospel and soul. He played himself in the 1980 hit movie The Blues Brothers. He received a lifetime achievement Grammy award in 2007 for his work with Booker T. and the MGs.
CUBA
Raul Castro backs gays
President Raul Castro backs greater gay rights and ending discrimination against homosexuals, his daughter Mariela, a famed sexologist, said on Saturday during a colorful gay rights march in Havana. “He has done some advocacy work, speaking of the need to make progress in terms of rights based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” Mariela Castro told reporters.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion