SWEDEN
Stockholm riots continue
Police say rioters in several suburban districts of Stockholm have burned two schools and 15 cars in the fifth straight night of unrest. Police spokesman Kjell Lindgren says 13 people, aged between 18 and 25, were detained in connection with the disturbances, which included an unsuccessful attempt to damage a police station. Lindgren said yesterday that the violence on Thursday night was less intense than previously and that the participants seemed less aggressive. The unrest was sparked by the police shooting of a knife-wielding man who had locked himself in his apartment.
CANADA
Fraud trial to move ahead
The nation’s high court on Thursday turned down a bid to quash fraud charges against a former Quebec lieutenant governor who claimed immunity as an agent of Queen Elizabeth II, Canada’s titular head of state. Lise Thibault was charged in 2009 with abuse of trust, forgery, uttering a forged document and fraud. She sought to have the charges set aside because “she was the representative of the Queen of England in Quebec and as such was not subject to the criminal justice system, in light of the principle that ‘the King can do no wrong,’” the court documents said. The charges stem from C$700,000 (US$680,000) in claimed travel, meal and other expenses during her 10-year term as lieutenant governor. A trial has been set for April next year.
BRAZIL
Abuse arrests announced
Federal police on Thursday said that nine people have been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing Indian girls in the northern state of Amazonas. The force says two women and seven men in the city of Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira are in custody for the alleged sexual exploitation and abuse of Indian girls between the ages of 11 and 15. Federal police inspector Fabio Pessoa says investigators have identified 16 girls who were exploited by the group, but adds that more girls may have been victimized. Pessoa says the girls were offered money and food in exchange for sex.
FRANCE
DiCaprio jaunt a big draw
A trip to space with Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio raised 1.2 million euros (US$1.5 million) for charity at a glitzy fundraiser at the Cannes film festival on Thursday. At the 20th annual event organized by amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, DiCaprio emerged as the mystery guest to accompany the winner on a Virgin Galactic flight into space. Actress Sharon Stone said the winning bidder would spend three days in training with DiCaprio in New Mexico before blast-off. The bidding started at 1 million euros. The auction brochure said DiCaprio and the winning bidder would be among the first 1,000 people to leave the planet. The winner, Vasily Klyukin, 37, a Russian living in Monaco, said he had always wanted to go into space. The auction raised 25 million euros, more than double last year’s sum of 11 million euros.
NORWAY
Author sets talk record
Popular crime writer Hans Olav Lahlum set the world record for the longest interview on Thursday after spending more than 30 non-stop hours chatting in an online broadcast. Lahlum, who rarely paused for more than a few seconds, discussed topics ranging from US presidents to his fictional characters during the show hosted by VG Nett, the online arm of local tabloid VG. His record awaits approval from Guinness World Records.
AFGHAN CHILD: A court battle is ongoing over if the toddler can stay with Joshua Mast and his wife, who wanted ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ for her Major Joshua Mast, a US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a years-long legal battle, is to remain on active duty after a three-member panel of Marines on Tuesday found that while he acted in a way unbecoming of an officer to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military. Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued that Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan
Millions of dollars have poured into bets on who will win the US presidential election after a last-minute court ruling opened up gambling on the vote, upping the stakes on a too-close-to-call race between US Vice President Kamala Harris and former US president Donald Trump that has already put voters on edge. Contracts for a Harris victory were trading between 48 and 50 percent in favor of the Democrat on Friday on Interactive Brokers, a firm that has taken advantage of a legal opening created earlier this month in the country’s long running regulatory battle over election markets. With just a month
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and fit for the presidency, according to a medical report published by the White House on Saturday as she challenged her rival, former US president Donald Trump, to publish his own health records. “Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,” her physician Joshua Simmons said in the report, adding that she “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” Speaking to reporters ahead of a trip to North Carolina, Harris called Trump’s unwillingness to publish his records “a further example
RUSSIAN INPUT: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called Washington’s actions in Asia ‘destructive,’ accusing it of being the reason for the ‘militarization’ of Japan The US is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ASEAN leaders yesterday during an annual summit, and pledged that Washington would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the region. The 10-member ASEAN meeting with Blinken followed a series of confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam. “We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who
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