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.
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
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
‘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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