UNITED STATES
Author Robbins dies at 92
Author Tom Robbins, whose novels read like a hit of literary LSD, filled with fantastical characters, manic metaphors and counterculture whimsy, died on Sunday. He was 92. Robbins’ death was announced by his wife, Alexa Robbins, on Facebook. The post did not cite a cause. “He was surrounded by his family and loyal pets. Throughout these difficult last chapters, he was brave, funny and sweet,” Alexa Robbins wrote. “He asked that people remember him by reading his books.” Tom Robbins indulged the hippie sensibilities of young people starting in the early 1970s with books that had an overarching philosophy of what he called “serious playfulness,” and a mandate that it should be pursued in the most outlandish ways possible. As he wrote in Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas: “Minds were made for blowing.” Robbins’ works included Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Another Roadside Attraction and Still Life With Woodpecker. Robbins’ characters were over the top, off the wall and around the bend. Among them were Sissy Hankshaw, the hitchhiker with the 9 inch thumbs in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Switters, the pacifist CIA operative in love with a nun in Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates. “What I try to do, among other things, is to mix fantasy and spirituality, sexuality, humor and poetry in combinations that have never quite been seen before in literature,” Robbins said in an interview with January magazine in 2000. “And I guess when a reader finishes one of my books ... I would like for him or her to be in the state that they would be in after a Fellini film or a Grateful Dead concert.”
AUSTRALIA
Sewage cancels Adams gig
Overflowing sewage caused by a “large blockage” of fat, grease and rags has organizers to cancel a Bryan Adams concert in Australia, citing a threat to the arena’s toilets. The Canadian singer-songwriter’s Sunday night event fell victim to the sewers of Perth “due to the risk of sewage backing up within the venue’s toilets,” the state water corporation said. “Our crews are working to clear the large blockage of fat, grease and rags, which has caused several wastewater overflows at properties.” In an update yesterday, the water authority said the blockage “could not be easily dislodged,” with venue management taking the “incredibly tough decision to cancel the Bryan Adams concert.” “Contingencies, including the use of sucker trucks, were considered, but the volume of wastewater generated by a capacity crowd of 16,000 people at the arena was considered too great,” it said.
INDIA
Cops end Sheeran street gig
A street performance by Ed Sheeran in Bengaluru was stopped abruptly by police on Sunday, outraging fans and prompting the British singer to issue a clarification. Sheeran, dressed in a white T-shirt and shorts, was seen singing and playing his guitar on a sidewalk in the center of Bengaluru ahead of a concert on Sunday night. Local channels showed a police officer walking up to Sheeran as he was singing the hit single Shape of You and unplugging the microphone, as onlookers jeered. Sheeran left soon afterward. “I refused to give permission because Church Street gets very crowded. That is the reason he was asked to vacate the place,” Bengaluru police official Shekar Tekkannanavar was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. Sheeran, who began his career as a busker in the UK, said later on social media that he did have permission to perform. “It wasn’t just us randomly turning up. All good though,” he wrote.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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