UNITED KINGDOM
Royals to attend Bond film
Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, will attend the world premiere of the newest James Bond film, Skyfall, at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Oct. 23, producers said on Friday. The premiere will benefit charities that support former and current members of Britain’s intelligence agencies. The Bond film franchise has a history with Britain’s royal family. Over the years, many of them — including Princes William and Harry — have attended premieres and used the event to help support various charities.
UKRAINE
Sleeping Beauty reinvented
A Ukrainian-Canadian artist is presenting an interactive art project called Sleeping Beauty, in which five attractive young women take turns sleeping under dim lights in Kiev’s top gallery, each under a pledge to marry the visitor who wakes her with a kiss. Any unmarried museum-goer can kiss the woman in the hope of making them fall in love and awaken. Taras Polataiko, a Ukrainian-born artist now based in Canada, says the goal of his exhibit is to recreate the famous fairy tale and witness the birth of love. However, it also has political undertones, symbolizing the patience of the Ukrainian people trapped by what he calls the oppressive government of President Viktor Yanukovych, and the hope that the nation will one day awaken to true freedom. The exhibit ends today, and so far only one Sleeping Beauty has woken up to a kiss — only to discover that her Prince Charming was actually a princess. It is unclear what the two women will do now, given that Ukraine forbids same-sex marriage and that Princess Charming has a boyfriend.
AUSTRALIA
PM’s father passes away
Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday said she would leave APEC talks in Russia early because her elderly father had passed away at home. In a statement, the prime minister said John Gillard died yesterday morning in Adelaide and she planned to travel home as soon as possible “to grieve with my family.” He was 93. “He has battled illness in recent years, but his death is a shock for me and my family,” she said. Trade Minister Craig Emerson will now take her place in the remaining APEC forums, Gillard said. The Labor leader has often spoken of her family and the benefit of the education she received in Australia. Gillard said that her father, who worked as a psychiatric nurse in Australia, had been her inspiration. “He taught me that nothing comes without hard work and demonstrated to me what hard work meant as a shift worker with two jobs,” she said.
AFGHANISTAN
Prince back in uniform
Prince Harry is back in Afghanistan to serve as a military helicopter pilot four years after his previous deployment there had to be cut short, the Ministry of Defence said on Friday. The 27-year-old will spend four months based at Camp Bastion in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan. The ministry said Harry’s squadron “will provide surveillance, deterrence and, when required, close combat attack capabilities.” The third in line to the throne has made no secret of his desire to return to Afghanistan and serve his country. In 2008, he had to be hastily withdrawn from Afghanistan when a news blackout surrounding his deployment was broken. Officials have taken a different approach to the prince’s new deployment, releasing photographs and video of him in Afghanistan from the start.
MEXICO
Police seize weapons cache
A family of suspected drug traffickers lost an arsenal after their nine-year-old boy took a gun to school, leading police to a house full of lethal weapons. Classmates of the youngster spotted a loaded pistol in his school bag and alerted authorities, a spokesman for police in the northern city of Hermosillo said on Friday. Police raided the boy’s home after confiscating the weapon, which was loaded with bullets known as “cop killers” designed to penetrate bullet-proof vests. At the house, police found 13,000 rounds of ammunition, various pistols and rifles, including AK-47s, as well as an Uzi submachine gun. There were also military uniforms, dozens of portable radios and two money counting machines.
VENEZUELA
Authorities hold US captain
Authorities have detained the captain of a US-flagged cargo ship after three rifles were found onboard, US officials said on Friday. The Ocean Atlas vessel arrived in the western port of Maracaibo on Aug. 29 and was held two days later, an official posted at the US embassy said, adding that the captain was arrested shortly after docking his ship. A US State Department spokesman said the crew was also detained. “We are in contact with the government of Venezuela on this matter, and we’re working to provide all appropriate consular assistance at the earliest opportunity,” Patrick Ventrell told reporters in Washington. He said that the arrests were linked to customs declarations for the rifles, used for “self-protection.” “Piracy has been a major topic in recent months and years, and so that’s something we’ve been combating,” the spokesman added. The arrests come just a month after Venezuelan authorities detained another US citizen for trying to “illegally” enter the country from Colombia.
CHILE
General’s prejudice blasted
The government is criticizing one of its top generals for discriminating against gays and religious groups in his orders to military recruiters. Army Commander Cristian Chateau had signed a document asking recruiters to be “especially concerned” about finding soldiers who are “morally and intellectually prepared” for military service. He said they should exclude people with physical, mental or socioeconomic problems, criminal behavior, drug use, homosexuals, conscientious objectors and Jehovah’s Witnesses.” Defense Minister Andres Allemand said on Friday that such ideas are completely opposed to government policy and said he has asked for a full military review of the matter.
JORDAN
Teenager stabs missionary
A teenager stabbed to death a Texas missionary living in the kingdom during an argument that broke out when she caught him stealing from her apartment, police said on Friday. The 17-year-old confessed to the Tuesday night killing of Cheryll Harvey, 55, in her fourth-floor apartment in the town of Barha north of the capital, Amman, police official Abdul Wali Shakhanbeh said. Harvey, a native of Texas, had been teaching English in Jordan for the past 24 years, according to police records. The US-based Baptist Press said her teaching was in connection with the Jordan Baptist Society. Violent crime is rare in Jordan, a country closely controlled by the security forces and with tight-knit family connections. Shakhanbeh said the boy could not be named until he is put on trial for premeditated murder. No trial date has been set, he added.
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
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