UNITED STATES
Margot Kidder dies aged 69
Actress Margot Kidder, best known for playing Lois Lane in the Superman films in the 1970s and 1980s, has died at age 69, a funeral home said on Monday. The Franzen-Davis Funeral Home in Livingston, Montana, said on its Web site that Kidder passed away on Sunday at her home in the town. The cause of death was not given and her manager did not return a request for comment. Canadian-born Kidder appeared in more than 70 movies and TV shows. She was unable to work for two years after a serious car crash in 1990 and eventually became bankrupt. Six years later, she had a mental health breakdown and disappeared for four days, spending time homeless. She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
ECUADOR
Finance minister replaced
President Lenin Moreno on Monday replaced the country’s finance minister for the second time in as many months, amid economic woes that have prompted major cuts to the state apparatus. The president, who on Thursday next week is to complete his first of four years in office, named business leader Richard Martinez as minister of economy and finance, the National Secretariat of Communications said. “My goal and that of my team is to guarantee the sustainability of public finances and promote economic growth to generate jobs,” Martinez said on Twitter.
NORWAY
Group sets collection goal
Europe’s bottled water producers yesterday set a goal of raising collection rates of plastic bottles from 60 percent to 90 percent by 2025 to improve recycling and cut pollution. “Our packaging today is part of the unacceptable phenomenon of littering alongside other discarded items,” the European Federation of Bottled Waters said in a statement. The federation, which represents national associations and several major companies, said the new industry goal was to collect 90 percent of all polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles by 2025 as an average across the EU. Almost 60 percent of PET bottles are now collected for recycling, although with big national variations.
UNITED STATES
Teachers paying for supplies
Nearly all public-school teachers report digging into their pockets to pay for school supplies, spending nearly US$480 per year, far more than the federal US$250 tax deduction available to teachers. The findings by the National Center of Education Statistics released yesterday came as teachers across the country are walking out of classrooms to protest low pay and to demand pay raises. About 94 percent of public-school teachers said they spent their own money on notebooks, pens and other supplies in the 2014-2015 school year without reimbursement, the study found. The average amount spent was US$479.
UNITED STATES
Mom denies abuse of kids
A California woman has denied her husband abused their 10 children, who were removed from their home after authorities said they had puncture wounds, burns and other injuries. Fairfield resident Ina Rogers on Monday told reporters that she called authorities in March after her 12-year-old son did not come home. Nine other children were found living in what police call squalid and unsafe conditions. The children were removed from their home on March 31. Authorities said the children’s father, 29-year-old Jonathan Allen, has pleaded not guilty to torture and child cruelty charges. Rogers said the home only looked messy because she tore it apart searching for her son.
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
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
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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