FRANCE
Minibus crash claims 12
Twelve people were killed when a minibus they were traveling in collided with a heavy truck late on Thursday in Allier, local authorities said. The minibus was traveling from Switzerland to Portugal when the accident happened just before midnight. “The twelve passengers of the minibus, who were all Portuguese, are dead,” a statement from the local authority said. The crash occurred in an accident black-spot when the minibus swerved into the path of oncoming traffic and collided head-on with the truck near the town of Moulins. The driver of the minibus and the two Italian drivers of the truck survived the crash, but were injured, the local authority said. An initial inquiry said the driver of the minibus was not under the influence of alcohol and police have opened an investigation into the cause of the crash. The road “is quite monotonous, the speed limit is 90kph. There are those who are impatient and those who fall asleep,” a judicial source said, adding that there are only four passing zones in the area.
MALAYSIA
Chinese boats detected
Shahidan Kassim, a minister in charge of national security, yesterday said 100 China-registered boats have been detected encroaching into Malaysian waters near the Luconia shoals in the South China Sea, adding that the government has dispatched the Maritime Enforcement Agency and the navy to the area to monitor the situation. Shahidan was quoted by the Bernama news agency as saying legal enforcement action would be taken if the Chinese vessels are found to have entered Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone. Shahidan could not be immediately reached for comments. The shoals are divided into North Luconia Shoals (Beikang Shoal, 北康暗沙) and South Luconia Shoals (Nankang Shoal, 南康暗沙) and also claimed by Taiwan as part of the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島).
ENGLAND
Bard’s head missing: report
Archeologists who scanned the grave of William Shakespeare say they have made a startling discovery: His skull appears to be missing. The researchers used ground-penetrating radar to explore beneath the playwright’s tomb in Stratford-upon-Avon’s Holy Trinity Church. Kevin Colls, who led the study, said the team found “an odd disturbance at the head end.” He said on Thursday that the finding lends support to a claim that the Bard’s skull was stolen by grave robbers in the 18th century. Colls said “it’s very, very convincing to me that his skull isn’t at Holy Trinity at all.” Patrick Taylor, vicar of the church, said he was not convinced there is “sufficient evidence to conclude that his skull has been taken.” He said there are no plans to disturb the grave to find out.
UNITED STATES
Man fingered over VHS tape
A man was arrested this week on charges he failed to return a VHS tape to a video store 14 years ago, police said on Thursday. James Meyers, 37, of Concord, North Carolina, was driving his daughter to school when he was pulled over by police for a broken brake light, according to a video Meyers posted on YouTube on Tuesday. Meyers said officers ran his driver’s license and told him he had an outstanding arrest warrant for not returning a movie to J&J Video in Salisbury, North Carolina. “The guy brings me to the back of the car and he goes: ‘Sir, I don’t know how to tell you this, but there’s a warrant out for your arrest from 2002. Apparently you rented a movie, Freddy Got Fingered and you never returned it,’” Meyers said in the video, appearing dumbfounded. The Concord Police Department confirmed the arrest in a statement on Thursday, saying the warrant was issued on Feb. 28, 2002.
UNITED STATES
TMZ sued over penis story
The gossip Web site TMZ posted a headline in 2014 sure to draw readers around the world — a rapper affiliated with the celebrated Wu-Tang Clan had cut off his own penis. Problem is, TMZ named the wrong rapper. Marques Johnson, a rapper who performs under the name Andre Roxx, has now filed a libel suit against the Hollywood Web site, its parent Warner Brothers and other media outlets that quoted TMZ’s report. TMZ ran a story in April 2014 saying that Johnson had cut off his penis and then jumped out of a window at a party in California in a suicide attempt, according to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in a US federal court in Delaware. The Web site later in the day revised the story and said that the rapper in question was in fact Andre Johnson, who is also linked to the Wu-Tang Clan and goes by the stage name Christ Bearer, it said. However, the lawsuit said the damage was already done, with media around the world reporting the story and confusion reigning long afterward.
UNITED STATES
Garry Shandling dies at 66
Comedian and actor Garry Shandling, who made his name as a frequent guest host on late-night television and for parodying himself as star of the pioneering cable TV comedy series, The Larry Sanders Show, died on Thursday at age 66. Shandling, who began his showbiz career as a writer for TV sitcoms such as Welcome Back, Kotter and Sanford and Son, was transported from his Los Angeles home to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead, police and coroner’s officials said. Shandling suffered an apparent heart attack, his publicist Alan Nierob said.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
‘IMPOSSIBLE’: The authors of the study, which was published in an environment journal, said that the findings appeared grim, but that honesty is necessary for change Holding long-term global warming to 2°C — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a new analysis published by leading scientists. Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming. An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate