UNITED STATES
Director Wes Craven dies
Wes Craven, a master of cinematic horror whose legendary directorial credits include A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream, died on Sunday aged 76, his family said. Craven had been suffering from brain cancer and passed away at his home in Los Angeles. Craven’s 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, whose terrifying scarred villain Freddy Krueger left a defining imprint on the horror genre of that decade and was reprised in a string of sequels and a 2010 remake. “He made nightmares seem real, the things that scare you in your subconscious can harm you, get to you,” said Richard Potter, a movie writer and producer who worked with Craven on the Scream franchise. Ohio native Craven, who once taught English, had a graduate degree in philosophy and writing. Craven is survived by his wife Iya Labunka, two children from a previous marriage, a stepdaughter and three grandchildren.
HUNGARY
Controls trigger road jam
A motorway leading to Austria was jammed for 20km yesterday morning as Austrian authorities tightened controls on vehicles that could be used for human trafficking, Magyar Tavirati Iroda (MTI) news agency reported. Besides the M1 motorway, a secondary main road was also jammed, state road operator Magyar Kozut told MTI. Over the past three days, police have caught 8,792 migrants crossing into the country, most of them from Serbia. Police on Sunday said they had arrested a fifth suspect in connection with the deaths of 71 migrants whose bodies were found in an abandoned refrigeration lorry on a highway in Austria last week.
UNITED STATES
Cape Verde threatened
The National Hurricane Center in Miami yesterday said Hurricane Fred has strengthened to a hurricane as it approaches the Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. Fred is forecast to move yesterday across the Cape Verde Islands, where a hurricane warning is in effect.
CANADA
Storm knocks out power
Emergency crews were working on Sunday to clean up in the aftermath of a vicious windstorm that tore through southwestern British Columbia, toppling trees and branches onto power lines and cars and leaving an estimated 500,000 people without electricity, mostly in the greater Vancouver area. BC Hydro said it could take until yesterday morning to restore power to some areas. The storm hit on Saturday with 80kph winds buffeting the region. Vancouver officials reported receiving more than 1,000 weather-related telephone calls regarding debris, damage and flooding. The Greater Vancouver Zoo also suffered extensive damage in the storm, general manager Jody Henderson said. Powerful winds caused a number of fences to come down, most notably the barricade surrounding the grizzly bear enclosure. “At no time did our grizzly bear get out,” she said.
AFGHANISTAN
Taliban issue biography
The Taliban have published a biography of their new leader as hundreds of insurgents meet in Quetta, Pakistan, in a bid to resolve a dispute over his appointment following the death of figurehead Mullah Mohammad Omar. The detailed biography, e-mailed yesterday to journalists in five languages, offers the story of Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, who was named as leader last month after the government revealed that Mullah Omar died in 2013.
‘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
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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