CANADA
Novelist passes away
Canadian novelist W.P. Kinsella, who blended magical realism and baseball in the book that became the smash hit film Field of Dreams, has died. He was 81. His literary agent Carolyn Swayze said in a statement that Kinsella’s death on Friday in Hope, British Columbia, was doctor-assisted. Details about his health were not disclosed.
UNITED STATES
Man admits killing nuns
A man charged with killing two nuns confessed to investigators that he went into their home, struggled with them, stabbed them to death and stole their car, a state law enforcement agent testified on Friday. Rodney Earl Sanders, 46, of Kosciusko, Mississippi, is charged with capital murder in the slayings of sisters Margaret Held and Paula Merrill, both 68. “He did acknowledge killing Paula Merrill and Margaret Held,” Mississippi Bureau of Investigation agent LeCarus Oliver said. Sanders told investigators that he went through the back door of the sisters’ home, uninvited. Oliver testified that Sanders had not revealed a motive for the attacks.
JAPAN
Train driver goes over rails
Japanese train operator JR East has apologized after a driver urinated over the railway track while on duty because he did not want to delay services by using the toilet, media reported yesterday. The driver, in his 50s, felt the urge to go on Monday as his train stopped at Sakura station in Chiba, southeast of Tokyo, public broadcaster NHK and the Asahi Shimbun said. He then opened the cabin door away from the platform and urinated over the rails before departure, as he did not want to cause a delay by going to the restroom, Asahi said. The company, which received a report of the case from an eyewitness, instructed him to go to the restroom if necessary, NHK said.
GERMANY
Protests target trade deal
Hundreds of thousands of people were yesterday expected to take to the streets across Germany in protest against a massive transatlantic trade agreement, dealing a new blow to the disputed accord. “We hope that more than 250,000 participants will join in the march nationwide,” said Roland Suess from the anti-globalization group Attac, one of the organizers of the demonstrations in seven German cities, including the capital Berlin and economic powerhouse Frankfurt.
BRAZIL
Soap opera star drowns
Brazilians on Friday mourned the death of soap opera star Domingos Montagner, who drowned in a river where his series had been filming and where his character narrowly escaped death in a recent episode. Montagner, 54 and at the height of his career, was on a break from filming the hit series Velho Chico (“Old Chico”) in northeast Brazil when he went for a swim on Thursday in the Sao Francisco River with co-star Camila Pitanga, according to the Globo media group, which broadcasts the show. The pair was swept up in a strong current. Pitanga managed to grab on to a rock, but she was unable to keep hold of Montagner. She cried out for help, but some locals apparently did not pay attention because they supposed filming was under way. Montagner’s body was found several hours later 30m underwater trapped among the riverbed rocks, the Globo group’s flagship newspaper reported.
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