AUSTRALIA
Indigenous heads lament loss
Indigenous leaders yesterday called for a week of silence and reflection after a referendum to recognize First Peoples in the constitution was decisively rejected. More than 60 percent on Saturday voted “no” in the landmark referendum that asked whether to alter the constitution to recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people with an indigenous advisory body that would have advised parliament on matters concerning the community. “This is a bitter irony,” indigenous leaders said in a statement. “That people who have only been on this continent for 235 years would refuse to recognise those whose home this land has been for 60,000 and more years is beyond reason.” They said they would lower the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flag to half-mast for the week and urged others to do the same.
UNITED KINGDOM
Michael Caine retires at 90
Veteran British actor Michael Caine, a Hollywood icon with a decades-spanning career littered with awards and acclaim, on Saturday said that he has retired from acting at the age of 90. The Oscar-winner bowed out following another widely praised performance in his final film, The Great Escaper, which was released on Oct. 6. “I keep saying I’m going to retire. Well I am now,” Caine told BBC Radio 4’s Today program. “The only parts I’m liable to get now are 90-year-old men. Or maybe 85. They’re not going to be the lead. You don’t have leading men at 90, you’re going to have young handsome boys and girls. So I thought, I might as well leave with all this.” A prolific actor known for his amiable Cockney persona and deadpan acting style, Caine has appeared in more than 160 films during his seven-decade career.
FRANCE
Louvre, Versailles evacuated
The Louvre Museum in Paris and Versailles Palace on Saturday evacuated visitors and staff after receiving bomb threats, police said. The evacuations of two of the world’s most-visited tourist sites came amid heightened vigilance around the country following a fatal school stabbing by a suspected Islamic extremist. Alarms rang out through the Louvre when the evacuation was announced, and in the underground shopping center beneath its signature pyramid. Paris police said officers searched the museum after it received written bomb threats. The Louvre communication service said no one was hurt and no bomb was found. The former royal palace at Versailles also received bomb threats, and the palace and its gardens were evacuated while police examined the area.
UNITED STATES
Piper Laurie dies aged 91
Piper Laurie, the strong-willed, Oscar-nominated actor who performed in acclaimed roles despite at one point abandoning acting altogether in search of a “more meaningful” life, died early on Saturday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 91. Laurie died of old age, her manager, Marion Rosenberg, said via e-mail, adding that she was “a superb talent and a wonderful human being.” Laurie arrived in Hollywood in 1949 as Rosetta Jacobs and was quickly given a contract with Universal-International, a new name that she hated and a string of starring roles with Ronald Reagan, Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis, among others. She went on to receive Academy Award nominations for three distinct films: The 1961 poolroom drama The Hustler, the 1976 film version of Stephen King’s horror classic Carrie and the 1986 romantic drama Children of a Lesser God.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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