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.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
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