UNITED KINGDOM
Royals have magical day out
The nation’s young royals had a magical day out on Friday with a visit to the studio where the Harry Potter movies were filmed. Prince William, the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry toured Warner Bros Studios Leavesden near London. The royals, accompanied by 500 children and adults from charities they support, had a wand lesson, visited the Great Hall of Hogwarts School and saw props, costumes and models from the Potter series in the company of the boy wizard’s creator, author J.K. Rowling. In a speech to Warner Bros executives, 30-year-old William said he was “over the moon just to have seen the real Batmobile and Batpod.” “On the other hand, Harry is just excited to see a real life talking owl in the Harry Potter studios,” William said of his 28-year-old brother. “I haven’t told him yet that Harry Potter is fictional, so please keep the secret for a little longer?”
UNITED KINGDOM
Churchill to be on bank note
Here is a choice not likely to be too controversial: Officials say wartime prime minister Winston Churchill’s portrait will be featured on a new £5 note. Bank of England Governor Mervyn King made the announced on Friday at Chartwell, Churchill’s former home, surrounded by members of the late leader’s family. King called Churchill “a truly great British leader, orator and writer.” The bank says the note is likely to be issued in 2016. It will be based on a famous portrait photographed by Yousuf Karsh in Ottawa in 1941. The note will also bear Churchill’s wartime declaration that he has “nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
france
Tunisian makes best baguette
If you want the best baguette in Paris, go see Ridha Khadher. The 42-year-old baker has been turning out the long, golden rods of bread since he was 15, and has just been awarded the Grand Prix for his labor. Khadher, born in Tunisia, said on Friday that he had decided at the last minute to enter the annual competition for the best traditional baguette in the city. He was among 203 candidates, though 52 were swiftly eliminated for failing to meet strict criteria that include length of the baguette. Besides the acclaim, and likely extra business, the winner gets to deliver his baguettes to the presidential palace for a year. His secret is not the ingredients, because they do not change, he said. “The secret is hard work,” he said. Khadher came to France at the age of 15 and quickly entered the bakery business with his brother, becoming an artist of the most French of symbols.
sweden
Gender-neutral space opened
Officials in a liberal Stockholm suburb that discourages gender stereotypes have decided to open a gender-neutral changing room in a local high school to avoid students being classified as male or female. Patrik Biverstedt, headmaster of the Soedra Latins upper secondary school, says they decided on the cubicle where one person can change at a time after students proposed it last year. It will be ready by May 6. Students’ union member Camille Trombetti says the changing room is not only “for transsexual” students, but any student who wants privacy when changing for school activities. Soedra Latins is in the same affluent Sodermalm district where children at the Egalia preschool are encouraged to avoid using “him” and “her” and to call others “friends” instead of girls or boys.
UNITED STATES
‘Pulp Fiction’ car recovered
Authorities say the classic Chevrolet convertible featured in the film Pulp Fiction has been found nearly two decades after it was stolen. The San Bernardino County Sun reports movie director Quentin Tarantino’s 1964 Chevelle Malibu was recovered in the San Francisco Bay area earlier this week. John Travolta’s character drove the cherry red car in the movie. Sheriff’s Sergeant Albert Anolin said an investigation into an old Malibu in the desert city of Victorville on April 18 led detectives to another Malibu in the Oakland area. They then confirmed that vehicle belonged to Tarantino and was reported stolen in 1994. Authorities say the car’s current owner is not believed to be involved in its theft and is considered to be a victim of a fraud.
UNITED STATES
Manning will not be marshal
The army private charged in a massive leak of secrets to the WikiLeaks Web site will not be an honorary grand marshal of San Francisco’s annual gay rights parade after all. San Francisco Pride Board president Lisa Williams announced in a statement on Friday evening that an invitation extended to imprisoned intelligence specialist Bradley Manning this week had been the work of an employee who acted prematurely based on internal discussions. Williams says a committee of former San Francisco Pride grand marshals did select the 25-year-old Manning, who is openly gay, for the distinction. However, she says the Pride Board decided his nomination was a mistake. The parade recognizes about a dozen celebrities, politicians and community organizations as honorary grand marshals each year for their contributions to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.
UNITED STATES
Tsunami debris confirmed
A Japanese fishing boat washed across the Pacific following the 2011 tsunami has been confirmed as the first piece of debris to reach the coast of California, officials said on Friday.
The 6m skiff, found this month near the northern Californian coastal town of Crescent City, belonged to the Takata High School in the Japanese city of Rikuzentakata, in Iwate Prefecture. Japan’s consulate in San Francisco helped the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirm where the boat came from, after it was spotted washed up on a local beach. The boat was covered in pelagic gooseneck barnacles. Experts at California’s Humboldt State University also helped to identify it, said NOAA spokeswoman Keeley Belva. The vessel is the 27th item of debris so far confirmed on the US West Coast, and the first in California.
BRAZIL
Robbers burn dentist
A dentist died in her suburban Sao Paulo office after three robbers set her alight with alcohol because they could steal only US$15 from her, a police spokesman said on Friday. The spokesman said that three assailants burst into the office of 46-year-old Cinthya Magaly Moutinho de Souza on Thursday and demanded money. The trio stole the dentist’s credit card, but were only able to withdraw US$15 from a nearby automated teller machine. They returned to the office to demand more money from the dentist, who said she had none, the spokesman said. “The suspects then set the dentist alight. Military police who rushed to the scene found her dead,” he added. The spokesman said a witness saw the assailants escape in a black car and police were still hunting for them. He said one of the suspects was identified thanks to security cameras.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in