UNITED STATES
Beadnose wins fattest bear
In an Alaska clash of tubby titans that has become a social media sensation, a shaggy, brown and possibly pregnant mother known as 409 Beadnose was on Tuesday crowned as Fattest Bear of 2018. Beadnose nosed out a larger Alaska brown bear, a male called 747 — and likened to a jumbo jet — in online votes collected by staff at Katmai National Park and Preserve during a wildly popular event called Fat Bear Week. Male bears are bigger, but Beadnose was deemed to be more rotund. “Her radiant rolls were deemed by the voting public to be this year’s most fabulous flab,” the park said on Facebook. “Our chubby champ has a few more weeks to chow down on lingering salmon carcasses before she heads up the mountains to dig herself a den and savor her victory.”
Photo: Reuters
UNITED STATES
Limo operator charged
The operator of a limousine company that owned the vehicle involved in a crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York was charged on Wednesday with criminally negligent homicide, court officials in Cobleskill said. Nauman Hussain, 28, was charged with one felony count related to the deadliest US transportation accident in nearly a decade. All 20 victims were listed on the charging document. Hussain was released on US$150,000 bail. The judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. The arraignment was held several kilometers from the crash site in Schoharie, where a candlelight vigil was being held for the victims.
UNITED STATES
Thief ordered to play piano
A former prominent neurological researcher at Yale and New York universities on Wednesday avoided prison time for stealing research funds, but a judge said he must play piano for indigent elderly people in Connecticut to make amends. District Judge Analisa Torres told Alexander Neumeister he must play piano at least twice weekly for an hour for the next three years at group facilities in Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford and Waterbury. Torres said she saw in pre-sentencing materials that Neumeister is a trained pianist. Neumeister in June admitted stealing US$87,000 from New York University and various grant programs from 2012 to 2014. Prosecutors said he also was required to repay US$76,000 after stealing money while he was at Yale University from 2004 through 2010, though that was not part of the criminal case resulting in his plea.
RUSSIA
Town recruits cat chief
Wanted: Cat chief. Location: Zelenogradsk. Duties: Tending to the town’s approximately 70 stray cats. About 80 applicants applied for the new role with the municipality in the small town in the Kaliningrad region, which has also erected a cat statue and added a feline to its emblem in a bid to rebrand itself as the nation’s foremost cat-loving community. In the end, local resident Svetlana Logunova was appointed guardian of the town’s felines. To help her with the task, she was given a bicycle and uniform, including a bright green jacket, black bow tie and hat, and a monthly budget of 5,700 rubles (US$85) to ensure all the seaside community’s cats are happy and fed. “I alone cannot care for every single one and a helping hand would go a long way,” Logunova said.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
In front of a secluded temple in southwestern China, Duan Ruru skillfully executes a series of chops and strikes, practicing kung fu techniques she has spent a decade mastering. Chinese martial arts have long been considered a male-dominated sphere, but a cohort of Generation Z women like Duan is challenging that assumption and generating publicity for their particular school of kung fu. “Since I was little, I’ve had a love for martial arts... I thought that girls learning martial arts was super swaggy,” Duan, 23, said. The ancient Emei school where she trains in the mountains of China’s Sichuan Province
Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on Friday failed to attend in person an initial hearing at the International Criminal Court (ICC) as he faces crimes against humanity charges over his deadly crackdown on narcotics. The 79-year-old, the first ex-Asian head of state charged by the ICC, followed by video during a short hearing to inform him of the crimes he is alleged to have committed, as well as his rights as a defendant. Sounding frail and wearing a blue suit and tie, he spoke briefly to confirm his name and date of birth. Presiding Judge Iulia Motoc allowed him to
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