Thu, Jun 29, 2023 page6

• World News Quick Take

  • Agencies
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  ARGENTINA

  Nephews get Borges’ works

  A court has granted the rights to the works of the late Jorge Luis Borges, considered the nation’s most internationally significant author of the 20th century, to five nephews of the author’s widow, who died in March. Borges’ wife, Maria Kodama, had devoted much of her life to fiercely protecting his legacy and she did not leave a will, even though she was battling breast cancer. On Tuesday a court in Buenos Aires ruled that the five nephews would receive the rights “in their capacity as universal heirs.” Borges died in 1986 at age 86 and left Kodama, a translator and writer whom he had married earlier that year, as his only heir. They never had children. She died on March 26, also aged 86. Kodama’s lawyer Fernando Soto in April said that Kodama’s nephews went to court to declare themselves her heirs after her death, seeking ownership of her possessions. Soto said he was “surprised to find out she had nephews,” adding that “it was a big relief, because I didn’t want the state to keep everything.”

  UNITED STATES

  Cow dung schemer jailed

  A California man is going to prison for running a cow dung to green energy scheme that authorities say was a load of manure. Ray Brewer, 66, of Porterville on Monday was sentenced to six years and nine months in federal prison in a years-long scam that bilked investors out of US$8.75 million, the US attorney’s office said in a statement. Brewer ran a scheme from 2014 through 2019 in which he claimed to be building anaerobic digesters at dairies in California’s Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties and in Idaho, prosecutors said. Anaerobic digesters “use microorganisms to break down biodegradable material and turn it into methane” that can be sold and that also provide the producers with renewable energy credits for producing green energy, the statement said. Brewer told investors he would turn cow manure into methane while they would receive 66 percent of net profits and tax incentives, federal prosecutors said. However, the investors’ money went into several bank accounts, and Brewer spent it on himself, buying land, a custom home and new Dodge Ram pickup trucks, authorities said. He took investors on tours of sites where he allegedly planned to build the digesters and claimed to have raised millions of dollars for the work, authorities said. He sent them forged lease agreements with dairy owners, faked loan agreements with banks, phony contracts with multinational companies and bogus pictures of the machines under construction, prosecutors said. He also kept his investors up to date on the non-existent construction with fake schedules, invoices, power generation reports and pictures, they said.

  UNITED STATES

  Trump files countersuit

  Former president Donald Trump on Tuesday sued E. Jean Carroll for defamation, alleging she falsely accused him of rape after a civil trial. Trump’s counterclaim against Carroll in Manhattan federal court comes after a jury’s finding last month that he sexually abused and defamed, but did not rape Carroll, a former Elle magazine advice columnist. Trump is seeking a retraction as well as unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement that Trump’s filing was “nothing more than his latest effort to delay accountability” for the jury’s verdict. Trump’s filing cites Carroll’s statements on CNN after the verdict, when she said Trump raped her, despite the jury’s findings.

  AZERBAIJAN

  Four separatists killed

  Four Armenian separatist fighters were yesterday killed in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region by Azerbaijani fire, rebels said, as Baku and Yerevan held peace talks mediated by the US. The two Caucasus nations have been locked in a decades-long conflict for control of the mountainous region in Azerbaijan, which is populated mainly by ethnic Armenians. Yesterday morning, “units of the Azerbaijani armed forces opened fire with artillery” on Armenian positions, Karabakh’s Minsitry of Defense said. “Four servicemen were killed in action as a result of another provocation by Azerbaijan,” it said, adding later in another statement that the situation along the border was now “relatively stable.” There have been frequent clashes along the border between the two countries, despite the two former Soviet republics negotiating a peace agreement under the mediation from the EU and US. On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken opened closed-door negotiations with Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan and his counterpart from Baku, Jeyhun Bayramov, just outside Washington — the second round of such talks he has led in as many months.

  ITALY

  Pompeii fresco not pizza

  A newly discovered still-life fresco at the Pompeii archeological site looks like a pizza, but it is not, experts said on Tuesday. The ingredients needed to make the iconic dish — tomatoes and mozzarella — were not available when the fresco was painted about 2,000 years ago, they said. Tomatoes were only introduced to Europe from the Americas a few centuries ago, and some histories say that the discovery of mozzarella led directly to the invention of pizza in nearby Naples in the 1700s. The image is instead believed to be a focaccia covered with fruit, including pomegranate and possibly dates, finished with spices or a type of pesto, experts said. In the fresco, it is served on a silver plate and a wine chalice stands next to it. The contrast of the frugal meal served in a luxurious setting, denoted by the silver tray, is not unlike modern-day pizza, “born as a poor-man’s dish in southern Italy, which has won over the world and is served even in starred restaurants,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii archeological site.

  JAPAN

  Beer factory turns water red

  Officials were left red-faced at a beer factory in Okinawa Prefecture on Tuesday, after a mishap turned a large body of water a sinister shade of scarlet. A leak filled a port area in the city of Nago with the lurid-colored water, which one Twitter user described as looking “venomous.” Orion Breweries said water used for cooling, which contains a liquid called propylene glycol — dyed red with food coloring — had leaked from a factory in the area. In a statement, it apologized for “causing enormous trouble and worry... We believe the leaked cooling water seeped through rainwater gutters into a river, and consequently turned the ocean red.” The red water poses no danger to humans or the marine ecosystem, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper quoted the company as saying. Okinawa is a subtropical island chain famed for its crystal blue waters, and is popular with scuba divers. “The red does look venomous, but it’s a relief to learn it’s just food coloring and not likely to cause major damage,” a person with the username Aresu wrote on Twitter.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    Beauty queen to leave S Africa on nationality row

  • 2

    Taiwan win Premier12 title

  • 3

    Add Taiwan to ‘NATO Plus’: report

  • 4

    Taiwan advance to Premier12 gold match

  • 5

    Minister may step down after employee’s death