ITALY
Pasta boss in hot water
The chairman of pasta maker Barilla has apologized for hurting anyone’s “sensitivity” after saying the company would never feature ads depicting gay families. Guido Barilla’s comments on Wednesday in a radio interview triggered calls to boycott his company’s products, which include cookies and bread. Many of the company’s ads depict heterosexual parents with children gathered for breakfast or dinner. Barilla says he supports gay marriage, but not adoption since it would be “complicated” for same-sex couples to raise children. After calls mounted on Twitter for boycotts, he reiterated his backing for gay marriage in a statement on Thursday, but insisted that traditional families have always been “identified” with the Barilla brand.
CUBA
More private jobs approved
The government on Thursday expanded the list of occupations open to the nation’s fledgling private sector as part of a gradual reform of its Soviet-style economy. The Communist Party daily Granma reported that among the 18 newly authorized private-sector occupations is that of real-estate agent, agricultural produce vendor and telecommunications salespeople. The goal “is to further develop ... a climate of trust and legality,” as the nation makes the transition to an economy where private enterprise is not only tolerated, but actively encouraged, Granma wrote.
UNITED KINGDOM
Pilots nod off at controls
Two pilots on a British airliner on a long-haul flight fell asleep in the cockpit, leaving the packed jet traveling unsupervised on autopilot, the Sun newspaper reported on Thursday. One of the pilots on board the Airbus 330 flight to Britain eventually woke up and roused his colleague, but neither knew how long they had been asleep, the paper said. The flight took off on Aug. 13 and the pilot and co-pilot took turns to have 20-minute rests but, after flying for more than an hour, they both dropped off. They reported the incident themselves to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), blaming longer shifts during the summer holiday period. The CAA said it was legally prevented from disclosing any details about companies or individuals who filed Mandatory Occurrence Reports to them.
PUERTO RICO
Arrests announced
US authorities said on Thursday they had arrested about 320 people and seized more than 170 firearms and about 8,000 rounds of ammunition in a year-long crackdown on crime codenamed Operation Caribbean Resilience. The Department of Homeland Security said the operation also resulted in the confiscation of a range of illegal narcotics including cocaine, heroin, marijuana, ecstasy, Percocet and Oxycodone. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency carried out the operation with help from other federal agencies. The island has seen a sharp surge in street crime in recent year that authorities believe is tried to turf battles between drug trafficking gangs.
THE NETHERLANDS
Warlord’s conviction upheld
Former Liberian president Charles Taylor was definitively convicted and imprisoned on Thursday for 50 years. The appeals chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone upheld the 65-year-old’s conviction on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including terrorism, murder, rape and using child soldiers. Taylor was the first former head of state convicted by an international war crimes court since World War II.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of