FRANCE
Refugee killed by train
A refugee was killed overnight on Thursday after being hit by a freight train on the site of the Channel tunnel near Calais, firefighters said, taking the death toll there among people trying to reach Britain to 16 since June. The body was found by firefighters alongside a train platform in Coquelles. The force of the impact made it impossible to immediately identify the victim’s sex, age or nationality.
SOUTH AFRICA
ICC extends deadline
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has given the nation more time to explain why it failed to arrest Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who is accused by the court of war crimes, when he visited the country in June. As a court signatory, Pretoria is obliged to implement warrants from the court. However, when al-Bashir visited for an African Union summit, the government refused to arrest him, and allowed him to leave the nation in violation of a domestic court order. The government said it needed more time to respond. Pretoria should report back to the ICC on the progress of legal proceedings no later than Dec. 31, the ICC said in a statement.
CHINA
Corpse theft brings arrests
Police have detained three people suspected of stealing a corpse to sell as a bride in the ancient rite of ghost weddings, which join single people who died for a belated marriage in the afterlife. Xinhua News Agency said the main suspect had heard about the death of a young woman in a nearby village in Shanxi Province and thought of selling the corpse to relatives of a single dead man, citing police in Ruicheng County. Xinhua said the three suspects pretended to be relatives of the woman and negotiated a sale price of 25,000 yuan (US$4,000) with a buyer. However, while raiding a tomb for the body on Saturday last week, they were caught by villagers.
DENMARK
Zoo dissects lion cub
Zoo staff on Thursday dissected a nine-month-old lion cub in front of an audience of enthralled young children, as a social media storm about the gruesome display raged outside. Some of the youngsters held their noses as zookeepers methodically sliced up the cat.
UNITED KINGDOM
Bridge ruling upheld
Legions of bridge players in Britain might feel they have been dealt a rotten hand after a court decision endorsed an earlier ruling that the popular card game is not a sport. A High Court judge on Thursday backed Sport England’s assertion that bridge is not a sport because it does not involve physical activity.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
SPIRITUAL COUPLE: Martha Louise has said she can talk with angels, while her husband, Durek Verrett, claims that he communicates with a broad range of spirits Social media influencers, reality stars and TV personalities were among the guests as the Norwegian king’s eldest child, Princess Martha Louise, married a self-professed US shaman on Saturday in a wedding ceremony following three days of festivities. The 52-year-old Martha Louise and Durek Verrett, who claims to be a sixth-generation shaman from California, tied the knot in the picturesque small town of Geiranger, one of Norway’s major tourist attractions located on a fjord with stunning views. Following festivities that started on Thursday, the actual wedding ceremony took place in a large white tent set up on a lush lawn. Guests
Four days after last scanning in for work, a 60-year-old office worker in Arizona was found dead in a cubicle at her workplace, having never left the building during that time, authorities said. Denise Prudhomme, who worked at a Wells Fargo corporate office, was found dead in a third-floor cubicle on Aug. 20, Tempe police said. She had last scanned into the building on Aug. 16 at 7am, police said. There was no indication she scanned out of the building after that. Prudhomme worked in an underpopulated area of the building. Her cause of death had not been determined, but police said the preliminary
‘DISCONNECTED’: Politics is one factor driving news avoidance, a professor said, adding that people who do not trust the government are more likely to tune it out Hannah Wong cried when the Hong Kong government effectively forced the territory’s Apple Daily and Stand News out of business three years ago. Among the last news firms in the territory willing to criticize the government openly, many saw their end as a sign that the old Hong Kong was gone for good. Today, the 35-year-old makeup artist says she has gone from reading the news every day to reducing her intake drastically to protect herself from despair. Four years into a crackdown on dissent that has swept up democracy-leaning journalists, rights advocates and politicians in the territory, a lot of people
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