UNITED KINGDOM
Bus plows into supermarket
A woman and an eight-year-old boy were killed and five other people injured on Saturday when a double-decker bus plowed into a supermarket in the center of Coventry. The bus crashed into several cars and a lamppost before hitting the supermarket on what would have been a busy shopping day in the city center. “Boy [8] and woman confirmed dead after Coventry bus crash,” West Midlands Police said in a tweet. The boy was on the upper deck of the bus. “It was absolute chaos,” Maneer Fiaz, an eyewitness who took part in rescue efforts as bystanders rushed to help, told Sky News. “We got the driver out through the window,” he said, describing seeing children stranded in the upper part of the double-decker bus. A nine-year-old girl also on that deck was seriously injured and is one of five people being treated in hospital after the incident.
FRANCE
Mini models hit catwalk
Bucking the fashion show stereotype of tall, willowy models, Paris Fashion Week on Friday was treated to a parade of women of restricted growth sashaying along the runway to great public applause. The only criteria for becoming one of the atypical models showing off the New York Creative Business House’s tailor-made collection, was that you had to be under 1.30m tall. “The Dwarf Fashion Show,” as it has been dubbed, was in its third edition after debuting at last year’s Paris Fashion week and a show last winter in New York. Asian fashionistas will be able to enjoy the show next year when it is due to hit the Tokyo catwalks. “It’s to change people’s ideas of us, and because I like fashion I wanted to be on the catwalk,” French model Emma told reporters.
UNITED STATES
Clinton hams it up
US Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday attempted to showcase her softer side — and boost her flagging poll ratings — by playing a bartender on primetime US television in a comedy skit. The frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for next year’s US presidential elections has seen her lead dwindle over a roiling e-mail scandal dating to when she was secretary of state. However, she put that behind her with a lighthearted appearance on Saturday Night Live during which she played a sympathetic barkeeper named “Val” opposite Kate McKinnon, famed for her impression of the former first lady. Clinton, criticized in some quarters for being too stiff and unable to laugh at herself, also tried an impression of Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump. The duo ended the skit with a rendition of Lean on Me. A vote for Hillary is a vote for four more years of Kate McKinnon’s impression,” Clinton said on Twitter.
VENEZUELA
Official angry at US hold up
A top official is railing against the US after being stopped at a Mexican airport while traveling on official business. People’s Ombudsman Tarek William Saab on Saturday said that he had been questioned by officials at a Mexico City airport. He said officials informed him that Interpol had issued an alert at the request of the US that asked authorities to question him about the reason for his visit and the length of his stay. As ombudsman, Saab is in charge of defending human rights in the nation. He said he was put out by the inconvenience, and plans to lodge a complaint with ther authorities. Saab also accused the US of using intimidation tactics.
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
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