JAPAN
American quizzed over head
Police are questioning a US citizen in custody after a severed head was found in an Osaka apartment he was renting, public broadcaster Japan Broadcasting Co (NHK) reported yesterday. Police believe the head, found in a suitcase, is likely to belong to a 27-year-old local woman who went missing after visiting another apartment in Osaka Prefecture with the man earlier this month, NHK said. The 26-year-old man from New York was arrested last week after she was reported missing by her family. He has reportedly denied the allegations. Body parts other than the head have not been found.
UNITED KINGDOM
Red Cross reports cases
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has joined the list of prominent charities that have uncovered sexual misconduct among its staff. Director-General Yves Daccord says 21 staff members have resigned or been fired since 2015 after violating policy by paying for sexual services. Two others did not have their contracts renewed because of suspected sexual misconduct. “This behavior is a betrayal of the people and the communities we are there to serve,” he said. Daccord said because of the decentralized nature of the sprawling aid agency, which has more than 17,000 employees worldwide, it is possible that other incidents were not reported or properly handled.
UNITED STATES
HFPA probes Fraser’s claim
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) says it is investigating actor Brendan Fraser’s claim that its former president, Philip Berk, groped him in 2003. Fraser, 49, best known for his role in The Mummy trilogy, made the accusation in an interview with GQ magazine. A statement from the association, which puts on the Golden Globes, says the interview “includes alleged information that the HFPA was previously unaware of” and is looking into the accusation.
ITALY
Police monitor rival rallies
Tens of thousands of people marched in rival far-right and anti-fascist demonstrations on Saturday, with isolated clashes flaring as tensions threatened to boil over ahead of next weekend’s election. The government deployed 5,000 police out to keep order during more than 119 protests that were held, the Ministry of the Interior said. A campaign rally in Milan led by Matteo Salvini, the head of anti-immigration group The League, attracted between 15,000 and 20,000 people, according to police, while organizers said turnout was closer to 50,000.
INDIA
Sridevi Kapoor dies at 54
Actress Sridevi Kapoor, Bollywood’s first female superstar, died in Dubai after cardiac arrest, media reported yesterday. She was 54. Sridevi is survived by her husband — producer Boney Kapoor — and daughters Jhanvi and Khushi. She was in Dubai to attend a family wedding and died late on Saturday. In a career spanning five decades, Sridevi acted in 300 films and was in 2013 awarded the Padma Shri, the nation’s fourth-highest civilian honor.
UNITED KINGDOM
‘Notting Hill’ actress dies
Emma Chambers, known for her roles in The Vicar of Dibley television series and the movie Notting Hill, has died at 53. Her agent John Grant on Saturday said that Chambers had died of natural causes on Wednesday evening. Actor Hugh Grant said his Notting Hill colleague was “a hilarious and very warm person and of course a brilliant actress.”
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
INSTABILITY: If Hezbollah do not respond to Israel’s killing of their leader then it must be assumed that they simply can not, an Middle Eastern analyst said Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah leaves the group under huge pressure to deliver a resounding response to silence suspicions that the once seemingly invincible movement is a spent force, analysts said. Widely seen as the most powerful man in Lebanon before his death on Friday, Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah and Israel’s arch-nemesis for more than 30 years. His group had gained an aura of invincibility for its part in forcing Israel to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon in 2000, waging a devastating 33-day-long war in 2006 against Israel and opening a “support front” in solidarity with Gaza since
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