UNITED STATES
Harry Dean Stanton dies
Harry Dean Stanton, whose grizzled looks and acclaimed acting talent earned him a prolific Hollywood career playing mainly supporting roles, on Friday died at a Los Angeles hospital at 91. He “passed away from natural causes” at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said his agent, John Kelly. Despite more than 150 television and film appearances spanning six decades, including roles in Alien, The Green Mile, Pretty In Pink and The Avengers, Stanton was not a household name. One of his rare leading roles came in the 1984 road movie Paris, Texas.
ECUADOR
President says Correa spied
President Lenin Moreno on Friday said his predecessor planted a hidden video camera in his office so that he could spy on him remotely. In a televised appearance from Guayaquil, he said the camera had been monitored remotely by former president Rafael Correa on his cellphone. He did not explain or provide any evidence to back the accusation. Moreno said the camera was even more perplexing, because every day at 8am his security detail checks his office for bugs, meaning it would have been activated remotely after the daily scan was performed.
UNITED STATES
Boy made to stand for pledge
A Detroit-area teacher is on leave after an 11-year-old boy said he was physically forced out of his chair during the pledge of allegiance. Stone Chaney, a sixth-grader, said he makes a pledge to God and family — not a flag — and has skipped participation since second grade. “I told the lady that I don’t stand for the pledge and she just kind of glared at me... I was confused when it happened because I didn’t know what was going on and then I was irritated, because that’s not supposed to happen,” Stone said. He said another teacher the next day yelled at him to stand up. Superintendent George Heitsch said one teacher has been placed on leave while the district investigates.
UNITED STATES
Foie gras ban reinstated
A US court in California on Friday reinstated a ban on foie gras in a move celebrated by animal rights advocates, who have long opposed the controversial French delicacy made by force-feeding ducks and geese. The decision reverses a ruling in 2015, which said that a statewide ban on the food was superseded by federal law. California’s legislature had voted on its ban in 2004 with an eight-year grace period — after which any restaurant caught selling the product risked a fine of US$1,000. Friday’s judgement will not go into effect until the completion of an appeals process.
UNITED STATES
Slender Man girl mentally ill
A Wisconsin girl who admitted to participating in the stabbing of a classmate to please horror character Slender Man is to avoid prison after a jury determined that she was mentally ill at the time of the attack. Anissa Weier trembled as the jury’s verdict was read late on Friday after a week of testimony and about 11 hours of deliberations. Weier and Morgan Geyser lured classmate Payton Leutner into the woods at a park in Waukesha, a Milwaukee suburb, in 2014. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier urged her on, investigators said. A passing bicyclist found Leutner, who barely survived her wounds. All three girls were 12 at the time. Both Weier and Geyser told detectives they felt they had to kill Leutner to become Slender Man’s “proxies” and protect their families from the demon’s wrath.
PAKISTAN
Blasphemer ordered to death
A Christian man has been sentenced to death on blasphemy charges by a court in eastern Pakistan after a close friend accused him of sharing anti-Islamic material, the defendant’s lawyer said on Friday. Blasphemy is a criminal offense in Muslim-majority Pakistan, and insults against the Prophet Mohammed are punishable by death. Most cases are filed against members of minority communities. Nadeem James, 35, was arrested in July last year, accused by a friend of sharing material ridiculing the Prophet Mohammed on WhatsApp.
BANGLADESH
Myanmar violate airspace
Authorities have summoned the Burmese envoy to protest what they say were violations of their airspace amid an exodus of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in western Myanmar. The Burmese presidential spokesman yesterday said there is no evidence of any trespassing and that Dhaka should have reached out to discuss its concerns instead of issuing public statements. The Bangladeshi Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday said that Myanmar drones and helicopters flew into Bangladeshi airspace on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday last week. Bangladesh warned that the “provocative acts” could lead to consequences.
CHINA
‘Coercive measures’ ordered
The government has ordered 31 people to be placed under “coercive measures” for a collapse last year at a construction site that killed 73 people, the state news agency reported yesterday. Coercive measures are a form of detention that can range from constant surveillance to outright arrest. It is often used against people accused of endangering national security. The punishment follows the collapse in November last year of a platform being built for a cooling tower at a power plant in southern China, killing 73 people, injuring two more and causing losses of US$15.6 million, a government report said.
VIETNAM
Typhoon repairs begin
Shaken residents were piecing their homes and businesses back together yesterday after a powerful typhoon hammered large swathes of coast and killed at least four people. Typhoon Doksuri tore through the nation on Friday afternoon, reducing structures to piles of debris and knocking out electricity and telecommunications in several provinces, in one of the worst storms to hit the country in years. Residents yesterday woke up to the widespread destruction in normally idyllic coastal communities.
THE VATICAN
Diplomat recalled from US
The Vatican has recalled a priest serving as an envoy in Washington and opened a child pornography investigation after US officials asked the church to lift his diplomatic immunity. The Vatican said on Friday that US officials complained in August “of a possible violation of laws relating to child pornography images by a member of the diplomatic corps of the Holy See.” A US Department of State official said that the diplomat in question had been allowed to leave the US because he enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution. “The United States formally requested that the Nunciature waive diplomatic immunity for the individual, but the Nunciature declined to do so,” the official said, on condition of anonymity. Neither the church nor US officials named the priest — one of four assigned to the Apostolic Nunciature, the Vatican embassy in Washington — but the Vatican said an investigation is under way.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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