UNITED STATES
Dubious No. 1 for Rodman
Dennis Rodman is at the top of a list no one wants to be on at all. He’s been named GQ magazine’s No. 1 least influential celebrity of this year. The 52-year-old former basketball player who has visited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was the top pick in the magazine’s third annual list of the least influential celebrities, which also includes pop star Miley Cyrus, President Barack Obama and celebrity chef Paula Deen. GQ called Rodman a “Q-list celebrity willing to commit borderline treason just to hang out with a dictator who himself aspires to be a Q-list celebrity.” Rodman last week said he is preparing to return to North Korea late next month for an exhibition basketball tour. Deen came in at No. 2, while former sexting congressman Anthony Weiner took the No. 3 spot. Cyrus won the No. 6 position and Obama came in at No. 17 because “nothing gets done.”
SPAIN
Police monitoring killer
Police are keeping a sadistic killer known as the “tracksuit madman” under close watch after his release from prison under a European human rights ruling, officials said on Saturday. Manuel Gonzalez Gonzalez was released on Friday from a penitentiary west of Barcelona where he had been serving a 169-year sentence delivered in 1997 for horrific sexual assaults on 16 women and the resulting death of one of the victims. “According to the experts, he is not cured of his urges,” a regional interior ministry official, Ramon Espadaler, told Catalunya Radio. Gonzalez was jailed for a string of violent attacks between 1991 and 1993 on girls and women he approached from behind and stabbed their genitalia. His release complied with an Oct. 21 European Court of Human Rights ruling that found Madrid had acted illegally by denying certain prisoners shortened sentences for good behavior.
SPAIN
Anti-austerity groups march
Anti-austerity groups and trade unions angry at the effects of the financial crisis held protest marches in 55 cities on Saturday, calling on the government to rethink its policy of cutbacks in public services, education and health care. Thousands marched to Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square — many wearing white medical scrubs — carrying banners reading “Health care is not for sale.” The peaceful protests coincided with anti-fascist gatherings, including one outside the giant mausoleum where the dictator general Francisco Franco is buried. Many protesters carried tri-color republican flags in commemoration of the democratically elected government that Franco overthrew.
MEXICO
Zombies crowd Mexico City
More than 7,000 “zombies” on Saturday crammed Mexico City’s streets for the popular Zombie Walk Mexico. Decked out in masks and costumes, participants brought out their best fake blood and makeup for a tongue-in-cheek walk with fear. The Day of the Dead in November is one of the country’s beloved holidays, with people bringing food and parties to relatives’ gravesides.
UNITED KINGDOM
Jagger to be great-granddad
Mick Jagger may still be strutting about onstage giving his fans Satisfaction — but at 70 the Rolling Stones’ frontman is about to become a great-grandfather, his daughter confirmed yesterday. Jagger’s grand-daughter Assisi, 21, is due to give birth early next year, her 42-year-old mother, Jade Jagger, told the Sunday Times.
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
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
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
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