UNITED STATES
Foley family celebrates life
The family of murdered journalist James Foley on Sunday prayed for the safety of his fellow hostages, as hundreds gathered for a Mass to celebrate his life as a witness on the front line. Foley was kidnapped in late 2012 in northern Syria by the jihadist group that now dubs itself the Islamic State and which this week released a video showing him being beheaded. His parents said the death should serve as a challenge to others to match the courage and humanity Foley had shown reporting on the fate of beleaguered civilian populations in Libya and Syria. As the Mass was under way at the church of Our Lady of the Rosary in Rochester, New Hampshire, another US reporter was released. Peter Theo Curtis, 45, was released after two years held by a different Syrian group, but other hostages remain in the country, including Foley’s former cellmate Steven Sotloff, who was threatened with death in the video released last week.
UNITED KINGDOM
Clegg to meet Indian PM
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg yesterday began a trade mission to India, where he was to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promote economic ties. The three-day visit by a 40-strong delegation is the latest in a series of similar trips by Prime Minister David Cameron’s government, which is keen to foster closer links with the world’s largest democracy. British retail, aerospace and education businesses are expected to sign deals and explore opportunities with Indian counterparts during the trip.
UNITED STATES
Hip-hop record exec shot
The hip-hop mogul Marion Knight, known as Suge, a founder of the Death Row Records label, was shot early on Sunday at a West Hollywood, California, nightclub. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Knight, 49, another man and a woman were shot at 1:37am at the 1Oak nightclub on Sunset Boulevard. Suspects have yet to be identified, and an investigation is continuing, said Jeff Gordon, a sheriff’s deputy. In a video posted by TMZ, Knight appears to be getting into a sheriff’s car and waiting for an ambulance to arrive. TMZ and other Web sites reported that Knight was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he was said to be recovering from surgery in intensive care. Citing privacy rules, a hospital spokeswoman said she could not provide any information.
UNITED STATES
Cyrus wins top MTV prize
Pop diva Miley Cyrus won Video of the Year for Wrecking Ball at Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards outside Los Angeles, which gave pride of place to the rising generation of pop stars. The music video for Wrecking Ball was directed by fashion photographer Terry Richardson and shows the 21-year-old singer in skin-tight white underwear and cropped top, swinging suggestively from a wrecking ball. The former idol of tween girls sent a homeless man to accept her award, who spoke out for the 1.6 million homeless and runaway children and teens in the US, as a teary-eyed Cyrus listened. Rapper Common asked for a moment of silence in memory of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager killed by a white policeman in Ferguson, Missouri. Rapper Drake won Best Hip-Hop Video for Hold On (We’re Going Home). Pop princess Katy Perry won the trophy for Best Female Video with her song Dark Horse, featuring rapper Juicy J. The men’s category was won by Ed Sheeran, 23, for his “Sing,” a duet which he recorded with Pharrell Williams.
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