■ United States
Charles Bronson dies
Coal miner turned tough-guy actor Charles Bronson, a star of more than 60 films including the popular Death Wish series in which he played a one-man army, has died at the age of 81, a spokeswoman said on Sunday. Bronson died of pneumonia on Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, publicist Lori Jonas said. Bronson, called a gentle person by friends, also starred as an Israeli general in television's Raid on Entebbe (1977) and appeared in the films Borderline (1980), Death Hunt (1981) and From Ten to Midnight (1982).
PHOTO: REUTERS
■ United kingdom
Vicar preaches on Internet
Church attendances may be in decline, but a vicar from Bath in western England yesterday managed to attract a global audience when his service was broadcast live on the Internet on Sunday. An estimated 1,000 worshippers from as far afield as Japan, Uganda and Palestine watched the Reverend Alan Bain lead the morning service at St Philip and St James church. The virtual congregation was also able to vote for one of the hymns to be sung by the 300 churchgoers who attended in the flesh.
■ Italy
Left feels the heat
Pressure was growing on leaders of the left on Sunday over allegations that they took massive kickbacks when Telecom Italia bought a chunk of Telekom Serbia during Slobodan Milosevic's rule. A key financial adviser has accused European commissioner Romano Prodi, a former foreign minister, Lamberto Dini, the leader of the Democrats of the Left party, Piero Fassino, and Rome's mayor, Walter Veltroni, of taking millions of pounds in backhanders when the deal was done in 1997.
■ Mexico
Police track protesters
A "watch list" drawn up by Mexican security forces of 80 anti-globalization activists who are believed to be headed for Cancun for the World Trade Organization gathering next month has provoked an angry response -- from those whose names are missing. The Mexican daily La Reforma ran a story the week before last on a "watch list" that has been compiled by the security forces concerned about possible trouble at the September 10 to 14 event. The list named 60 international and 20 Mexican anti-globalization activists.
■ United kingdom
Arms expert felt `betrayed'
British weapons expert David Kelly, who killed himself after being exposed as the source for a claim the government exaggerated the case for war against Iraq, had felt betrayed, his widow said yesterday. "He said he felt totally let down and betrayed," Janice Kelly told an inquiry into her husband's death. Asked by whom he had felt betrayed, she added: "I believed he meant the MoD [Ministry of Defense] because they were the ones who had effectively let his name be known in the public domain." Kelly had been working for the ministry at the time his name was revealed to journalists following the story of the row between the government and the BBC state broadcaster over the war claim.
■ Australia
Prison pays compensation
A prisoner who fell out of his bunk bed at an Australian jail has been awarded six-figure compensation for his injuries, news reports yesterday said. Craig Ballard, who was serving time for an assault conviction, alleged that his 1999 tumble happened because the prison failed in its duty of care. He suffered head injuries and has not worked since completing his sentence. Crown solicitor Ali Nasseri said that the New South Wales state government opted to pay up rather than fight in court.
■ Australia
Hanson denied bail
Former right-wing politician Pauline Hanson, jailed last month for three years on fraud convictions, was refused bail yesterday. Her lawyers had asked the Supreme Court of Queensland state on Friday that she be released as she awaits a ruling on her appeal against the conviction and sentence. No dates have been set for the appeal. After mulling his decision over the weekend, Justice Richard Chesterman dismissed the bail application yesterday. Hanson was not in court for the decision. Hanson, 49, was convicted Aug. 20 of illegally registering her One Nation party in Queensland state in 1997 and then fraudulently claiming A$500,000 (US$330,000) in electoral funding to campaign for a state poll in 1998.
■ Sri Lanka
War dead remembered
A pro-rebel Tamil group said yesterday it would hold a day of mourning in Sri Lanka's east coast, raising fears of renewed ethnic tensions in an area that has been a flashpoint in the island's 20-year civil war. The commemoration that will take place on Friday will honor Tamils killed by government soldiers and Muslim home guards since 1990, the Batticaloa District Peoples' Forum was quoted as saying on the pro-rebel Tamilnet Web site. The group said Sept. 5 is the anniversary of the murder of 158 Tamil civilians at a refugee camp in 1990.
■ Indonesia
Amrozi fingers Hambali
Convicted Bali bomber Amrozi told a Jakarta court yesterday that suspected militant mastermind Hambali helped to finance a car bombing three years ago that injured the Philippine ambassador to Indonesia. Testifying in the trial of Abdul Jabar, a suspect in the August 2000 blast in Jakarta that killed two people and injured 19, Amrozi -- dubbed "the smiling bomber" by the media -- said he provided the minivan that was later used in the attack. Amrozi, is now on death row for his key role in the Bali night club bombings last year that killed 202 people.
■ Malaysia
Blackout strikes
A power outage yesterday blacked out large parts of peninsular Malaysia for several hours, disrupting flights at the country's main airport and causing traffic snarls, officials said. The outage began around 10am in five states in peninsular Malaysia, said Malaysia's main power utility company. Officials ruled out sabotage as the cause, but were investigating an unexplained glitch that damaged the power-distribution system during maintenance work on a major cable line. Large-scale electricity failures are rare in Malaysia. The blackout yesterday was one of the worst since August 1996, when nearly all of peninsular Malaysia was hit by a 14-hour outage.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
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