NORTH KOREA
Kim’s sister vows response
The powerful sister of leader Kim Jong-un yesterday slammed South Korean “scum” for launching anti-regime propaganda leaflets across the border using balloons, warning they would pay “a very high price.” Since late May, Pyongyang has floated numerous balloons carrying trash toward South Korea, saying they were a tit-for-tat action against South Korean leaflets. In a statement carried by state media, Kim Yo-jong said that “dirty leaflets and things of [the South Korean] scum” were found again yesterday morning. “We have fully introduced our countermeasure in such situation. The [South Korean] clans will be tired from suffering a bitter embarrassment and must be ready for paying a very high price for their dirty play,” she said.
FRANCE
Four killed in shooting
Four people, including the shooter, died late on Saturday after a man opened fire on a birthday party in a village, authorities said. The man approached a neighboring house where a 20-year-old was celebrating his birthday with his family in Espinasse-Vozelle. He fired shots at the party guests, killing three of them, and then himself, the local prefecture said. The young man celebrating his birthday and his father were both killed. Police were still piecing together the “how and the why” of the attack, authorities said. The man appears to have shot at passing motorists before the deadly assault.
UNITED KINGDOM
Man held after remains found
Police on Saturday said they have arrested a man in connection with the deaths of two men whose remains were found in two suitcases in southwest England. The Metropolitan Police said armed officers detained a 34-year-old suspect at a train station in Bristol early on Saturday. Police also said more human remains were found at an address in Shepherd’s Bush the previous day, believed to be connected to those found in the suitcases dumped near the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol on Wednesday.
UNITED STATES
Sex therapist Dr Ruth dies
Ruth Westheimer, the wildly successful sex therapist who became a pop culture phenomenon in the 1980s with her bluntly delivered advice on how to spice up the bedroom, has died, US media reported on Saturday. She was 96. People magazine, quoting her publicist and sometime coauthor Pierre Lehu, said she died on Friday. It gave no cause of death, but other reports said she died at home in New York with family members present. The German-born Westheimer, who lost both of her parents in the Holocaust, reached fame in her 50s when she began hosting a pioneering radio show in New York City called Sexually Speaking. Known simply as Dr Ruth, she capitalized on her late-in-life fame, going on to host a television show, appear in many films and coach millions of fans in dozens of books about how to have a more satisfying sex life.
UNITED STATES
Dolphins freed in stranding
Rescuers who helped free more than 100 dolphins from the Cape Cod shoreline in Massachusetts said they have confirmed that the mass stranding that began on June 28 was the largest involving dolphins in US history. The International Fund for Animal Welfare, which helped lead the rescue, said that a final review of data and aerial imagery this week revealed that a total of 146 dolphins were involved in the stranding. The group estimated that 102 dolphins survived the multiday event.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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