FRANCE
Minibus crash claims 12
Twelve people were killed when a minibus they were traveling in collided with a heavy truck late on Thursday in Allier, local authorities said. The minibus was traveling from Switzerland to Portugal when the accident happened just before midnight. “The twelve passengers of the minibus, who were all Portuguese, are dead,” a statement from the local authority said. The crash occurred in an accident black-spot when the minibus swerved into the path of oncoming traffic and collided head-on with the truck near the town of Moulins. The driver of the minibus and the two Italian drivers of the truck survived the crash, but were injured, the local authority said. An initial inquiry said the driver of the minibus was not under the influence of alcohol and police have opened an investigation into the cause of the crash. The road “is quite monotonous, the speed limit is 90kph. There are those who are impatient and those who fall asleep,” a judicial source said, adding that there are only four passing zones in the area.
MALAYSIA
Chinese boats detected
Shahidan Kassim, a minister in charge of national security, yesterday said 100 China-registered boats have been detected encroaching into Malaysian waters near the Luconia shoals in the South China Sea, adding that the government has dispatched the Maritime Enforcement Agency and the navy to the area to monitor the situation. Shahidan was quoted by the Bernama news agency as saying legal enforcement action would be taken if the Chinese vessels are found to have entered Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone. Shahidan could not be immediately reached for comments. The shoals are divided into North Luconia Shoals (Beikang Shoal, 北康暗沙) and South Luconia Shoals (Nankang Shoal, 南康暗沙) and also claimed by Taiwan as part of the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島).
ENGLAND
Bard’s head missing: report
Archeologists who scanned the grave of William Shakespeare say they have made a startling discovery: His skull appears to be missing. The researchers used ground-penetrating radar to explore beneath the playwright’s tomb in Stratford-upon-Avon’s Holy Trinity Church. Kevin Colls, who led the study, said the team found “an odd disturbance at the head end.” He said on Thursday that the finding lends support to a claim that the Bard’s skull was stolen by grave robbers in the 18th century. Colls said “it’s very, very convincing to me that his skull isn’t at Holy Trinity at all.” Patrick Taylor, vicar of the church, said he was not convinced there is “sufficient evidence to conclude that his skull has been taken.” He said there are no plans to disturb the grave to find out.
UNITED STATES
Man fingered over VHS tape
A man was arrested this week on charges he failed to return a VHS tape to a video store 14 years ago, police said on Thursday. James Meyers, 37, of Concord, North Carolina, was driving his daughter to school when he was pulled over by police for a broken brake light, according to a video Meyers posted on YouTube on Tuesday. Meyers said officers ran his driver’s license and told him he had an outstanding arrest warrant for not returning a movie to J&J Video in Salisbury, North Carolina. “The guy brings me to the back of the car and he goes: ‘Sir, I don’t know how to tell you this, but there’s a warrant out for your arrest from 2002. Apparently you rented a movie, Freddy Got Fingered and you never returned it,’” Meyers said in the video, appearing dumbfounded. The Concord Police Department confirmed the arrest in a statement on Thursday, saying the warrant was issued on Feb. 28, 2002.
UNITED STATES
TMZ sued over penis story
The gossip Web site TMZ posted a headline in 2014 sure to draw readers around the world — a rapper affiliated with the celebrated Wu-Tang Clan had cut off his own penis. Problem is, TMZ named the wrong rapper. Marques Johnson, a rapper who performs under the name Andre Roxx, has now filed a libel suit against the Hollywood Web site, its parent Warner Brothers and other media outlets that quoted TMZ’s report. TMZ ran a story in April 2014 saying that Johnson had cut off his penis and then jumped out of a window at a party in California in a suicide attempt, according to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in a US federal court in Delaware. The Web site later in the day revised the story and said that the rapper in question was in fact Andre Johnson, who is also linked to the Wu-Tang Clan and goes by the stage name Christ Bearer, it said. However, the lawsuit said the damage was already done, with media around the world reporting the story and confusion reigning long afterward.
UNITED STATES
Garry Shandling dies at 66
Comedian and actor Garry Shandling, who made his name as a frequent guest host on late-night television and for parodying himself as star of the pioneering cable TV comedy series, The Larry Sanders Show, died on Thursday at age 66. Shandling, who began his showbiz career as a writer for TV sitcoms such as Welcome Back, Kotter and Sanford and Son, was transported from his Los Angeles home to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead, police and coroner’s officials said. Shandling suffered an apparent heart attack, his publicist Alan Nierob said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not