VIETNAM
To Lam elected president
The National Assembly elected Minister of Public Security To Lam as the new president, the legislature said yesterday. Lam, 66, was deputy head of the Communist Party’s anti-corruption committee before taking on the second-most important position in the nation’s political hierarchy. He becomes Vietnam’s third president in less than two years after his two immediate predecessors resigned for “violations” that were possibly detected by the ministry that Lam oversaw. “This is a great honor and responsibility, also an opportunity for me,” Lam said in a speech after taking his oath at the National Assembly.
ITALY
Gerard Depardieu accused
A well-known Italian paparazzi photographer on Tuesday accused French film star Gerard Depardieu of punching him in Rome, media reported, with the actor’s lawyer saying he had been defending a companion. Daily Il Messaggero quoted the photographer Rino Barillari as saying the 75-year-old actor punched him three times in the face when he tried to photograph the star. Barillari, 79, dubbed the “king of paparazzi,” told the paper he approached the actor and a woman at Harry’s Bar on the chic Via Veneto on Tuesday afternoon. “Mamma mia, he is fat. He punched me three times in the face,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “First I’m going to hospital, then I’m going to deal with him. I’m going to file a complaint to the police.” He said the woman, Depardieu’s partner Magda Vavrusova, initially tried to block him from taking photographs. In a statement released later, the couple’s lawyer Delphine Meillet cited Vavrusova as saying the photographer had pushed her violently and touched her chest with his arm.
UNITED STATES
Biopic angers Trump
Donald Trump’s re-election campaign called The Apprentice, a film about the former president in the 1980s, “pure fiction” and vowed legal action following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. However, director Ali Abbasi is offering to privately screen the film for Trump. Following its premiere on Monday in Cannes, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement that the Trump team would file a lawsuit “to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers.” “This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked,” Cheung said. The central relationship of the movie is between Trump and Roy Cohn, the defense attorney who was chief counsel to former senator Joseph McCarthy’s 1950s Senate investigations of suspected communists. Asked about the Trump campaign’s statement on Tuesday in Cannes, Abbasi told reporters: “Everybody talks about him suing a lot of people — they don’t talk about his success rate though, you know?” However, Abbasi at the film’s festival news conference offered to screen The Apprentice for Trump and talk it over.
UNITED STATES
Actor Perry’s death probed
Police on Tuesday said they are investigating the ketamine overdose death of Friends actor Matthew Perry, who died at his luxury Los Angeles home last year. Perry was found unresponsive in his pool at the age of 54, sparking a global outpouring of grief from fans and colleagues. An autopsy found the cause of his death was “the acute effects of ketamine,” a controlled drug which the recovering addict was understood to be taking as part of supervised therapy. Just how the actor obtained the drug is now the subject of a legal investigation.
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
Texas’ education board on Friday voted to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led US states that pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms. The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, is optional for schools to adopt, but they would receive additional funding if they do so. The materials could appear in classrooms as early as next school year. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has voiced support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state’s education agency that oversees the more than
The Philippine Department of Justice yesterday labeled Vice President Sara Duterte the “mastermind” of a plot to assassinate the nation’s president, giving her five days to respond to a subpoena. Duterte is being asked to explain herself in the wake of a blistering weekend press conference where she said she had instructed that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr be killed should an alleged plot to kill her succeed. “The government is taking action to protect our duly elected president,” Philippine Undersecretary of Justice Jesse Andres said at yesterday’s press briefing. “The premeditated plot to assassinate the president as declared by the self-confessed mastermind
RSS