Protesters in France rally over living costs
Paris, Oct 17: Protesters across France called for street demonstrations Saturday against rising living costs, joining high school students’ grievances over education conditions after more than three weeks of school blockades. Saturday’s mobilisation follows calls on social media to revive the yellow vest movement, which emerged in 2018 against social injustice. Student groups protesting since mid-September have urged supporters to join. The CGT, one of France’s major labour unions, also backs the protests, calling for “higher wages and pensions, lower prices and the protection of public services that meet people’s needs.” (AP)
UK author releases 2nd instalment of crime mystery
London, Oct 17: A UK-based author’s second instalment of an Indian-Irish cosy crime mystery series was launched in London recently, with its India release set for next week. Paul Waters, from Belfast in Northern Ireland, fell in love with India when he fell in love with his wife Aneysha. He went on to set ‘Murder in Moonlight Square’ in his wife’s city and has now followed up the success of his unusual crime-fighting duo of an Irish nun and Delhi hotel proprietor with ‘Death At the Elephant House’. The books have two main characters: one of them is a semi-retired Irish teaching nun called Sister Agatha Murphy of the Sisters of the Amazing Grace, nicknamed the Saggies, and her partner in crime solving Avtar Mehta, proprietor of the historic Delhi Haveli Hotel in Chandni Chowk. (PTI)
Norwegian teen sentenced to 20 years for plotting murder
London, Oct 17: A Norwegian teenager convicted of travelling to Britain to carry out a contract killing on behalf of an international crime gang linked to Iran was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison. Johannes Kongsnes Natland, 19, was found guilty in July of conspiracy to murder for agreeing to shoot an unknown target for 25,000 euros (21,500 pounds or USD 28,000) last year. He was arrested at a hotel in Huddersfield in northern England with two guns and ammunition two days after arriving in the UK Natland admitted to possessing the firearms and ammunition, but said that he didn’t want to go through with the plan. (AP)
Pope Leo to be released from hospital on Saturday
Vatican City, Oct 17: Pope Leo XIV is being released from the hospital on Saturday, four days after lung cancer surgery, and will deliver the traditional noon blessing Sunday from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican announced. The 71-year-old Leo had the lower lobe of his right lung removed after doctors identified a suspected cancerous nodule. The surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer. His personal physician and surgeon said in a separate statement that Leo was “deemed fit for discharge from the hospital” based on blood test results and a chest X-ray performed Saturday morning. (AP)