UNITED STATES
Princess arrested
A Romanian princess and her husband, a former sheriff’s deputy, were among several people federal agents arrested in Oregon on Thursday last week in connection with an alleged cockfighting ring. Indictments unsealed in US District Court in Portland charge Irina Walker, 60, and her husband, John Wesley Walker, 67, with hosting cockfighting derbies and illegal gambling at their ranch outside Irrigon. Federal prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of the ranch. The Oregonian newspaper identified Irina Walker, also known as Irina Kreuger, as a daughter of the last king of Romania. The Walkers and four other people from Irrigon and Hermiston were to be arraigned in federal court in Portland yesterday on charges of operating an illegal gambling business.
UNITED KINGDOM
Ryanair sacks pilot
Ryanair has sacked pilot John Goss with “immediate effect” and issued legal proceedings against him after he appeared in a Channel 4 television documentary which raised questions over the airline’s safety policy. The airline has rejected recent claims from pilots that it encourages crew to carry less back-up fuel and that threats of disciplinary action discourage reporting of safety fears. Ryanair had already instructed lawyers to take legal action against Channel 4’s Dispatches over the documentary, called Ryanair: Secrets from the Cockpit. Goss, a captain who has been with the airline for about 25 years, is a member of the interim council of the Ryanair Pilot Group.
UNITED STATES
Elvis vigil draws thousands
Elvis Presley fans from around the world made their annual pilgrimage to Graceland to pay their respects with a solemn candlelight vigil on the 36th anniversary of his death. Thousands of Presley fans carried lit candles on Thursday as they walked slowly and silently through the Mediation Garden at Graceland, Presley’s Memphis, Tennessee, home. The graves of Presley, mother, father and grandmother are buried are in the garden.
CANADA
Railway to appeal order
Canadian Pacific Railway will appeal a government order to pay for the clean-up of a deadly train derailment in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, last month, a spokesman said on Thursday. The Quebec government on Wednesday added the railway to a list of companies it says are responsible for the cleanup of the town where a runaway train crashed and dumped millions of liters of crude oil on July 6, killing 47 people and forcing the evacuation of 6,000 others. The order said CP had subcontracted the smaller railway involved in the crash to carry crude oil from North Dakota in 72 tanker cars to a refinery in New Brunswick. Florida-based World Fuels Services, which owned the oil, was also named in the order.
UNITED STATES
Maui beach reopened
Officials reopened a Maui beach on Thursday, a day after a shark bit off the right arm of a German visitor about 46m offshore. About 3km of beach in Makena reopened at noon after lifeguards and firefighters surveying the ocean found no sign of sharks in the area, Maui County officials said. The woman, who was about 20 years old, was snorkeling at Palauea Beach when the attack occurred on Wednesday. Bystanders on shore heard the woman scream, put her on a kayak and brought her to land, said Lee Mainaga, fire services chief at the Maui Fire Department.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
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