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.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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