PEOPLES DAILY, THURDAY, AUGUST 14, 2014
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International Europe and Americas
Iraq crisis: France to deliver arms to Iraqi Kurds
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rance will supply arms to Iraq’s Kurds “in the coming hours”, French President Francois Hollande has announced. France has received approval from authorities in Baghdad for the decision, French media reports say. Kurdish forces have been fighting militants from the Islamic State (IS) group. The conflict has displaced thousands of people. The US has also reportedly begun supplying weapons to the Kurdish forces, known as the Peshmerga. A statement from Mr Hollande’s office said the move was “in response to the urgent need expressed by the regional authorities in Kurdistan”. “For several days, France has had the necessary measures in place to support the operational capabilities of the forces fighting IS,” the statement said. “The catastrophic situation faced by the population of Iraqi Kurdistan means the international community must step up its mobilisation,” it went on. Earlier the US announced it had sent 130 more military advisers to the Kurdish region. The marines and special operations forces will assess the humanitarian situation and will not be engaged in combat, a US defence official said. The US has been carrying out air strikes against IS fighters in northern Iraq. The political leader of Iraq’s Kurds, Massoud Barzani, had on Sunday appealed for international military aid to help defeat the Islamist militants. The United Nations has said that tens of thousands of civilians, including members of the Yazidi sect, are trapped on Mount Sinjar by IS fighters and need “life-saving assistance”. The US, Britain and France have been delivering humanitarian aid to the Yazidis trapped in the north. Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki continued to express defiance of moves to replace him. In his weekly televised address, Mr Maliki denounced the appointment of a political rival, Haider al-Abadi, to replace him as a “violation” of the Iraqi constitution. He said he would not give up power until until Iraq’s federal court issued a ruling on an objection that he filed against the nomination. However, with the US and Iran in rare agreement over removing the man who was once their favoured candidate, Mr Maliki’s words may ring hollow, the BBC’s Sebastian Usher reports. With even his own Shia power base having turned against him, any long-term defiance by Mr Maliki only risks worsening Iraq’s desperate political crisis, our correspondent adds.
Robin Williams Committed Suicide by Hanging Himself: Police By Maria Elena Fernandez
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s Hollywood tributes pour in, fans across the country are flocking to places made famous by Robin Williams’ iconic roles. Comedian and actor Robin Williams, 63, died from “asphyxia due to hanging,” according to preliminary findings announced at a press conference on Tuesday by Lt. Keith Boyd of the Marin County’s Sheriff’s Office. Williams was discovered on Monday shortly before noon by his personal assistant who became concerned when the actor did not respond to several knocks on the door, Boyd said. Williams’ wife,
Susan Schneider, last saw her husband alive around 10:30 p.m. when she went to bed. Schneider left the home around 10:30 a.m. Monday, assuming Williams was still asleep, Boyd said. Williams had retired to a different room and was found clothed with a belt tied around his neck. The belt was wedged between the closet door and door frame, and Williams “was in a seated position slightly suspended off the ground,” Boyd said. “What that means is that his body looked like he was sitting in a chair.” Schneider returned to the home after Williams had been declared deceased by police and the Fire Department, Boyd said.
Boyd would not say if Williams left a note. The actor also had superficial stab wounds on his left wrist and a pocket knife was found next to his body, Boyd said. Toxicology tests will be conducted, and the investigation will continue to determine an approximate time of death, Boyd said. Rigor mortis had set in when Williams’ assistant found him, he said. The shocking news was delivered as memorials popped up all over the country: from the Hollywood Walk of Fame to his home in Northern California, the house in Boulder, Colorado, that served as the “Mork & Mindy” home, to the “Good Will Hunting”
bench. The Oscar-winning legend battled addiction for decades and recently was suffering from “severe depression,” his publicist said. A father of three, Williams recently posted on Instagram a photograph of him and his daughter, Zelda, on her 25th birthday. In April, he posted a black and white photograph of his son Zak on his 31st birthday. He also had a 22-year-old son, Cody. On Monday night, Zelda Williams, also an actress, paid tribute to her father on social media quoting “The Little Prince” and saying, “I love you. I miss you. I’ll try to keep looking up.” NBC
Canada to donate Ebola vaccine to WHO
Canada says it will donate up to 1,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine to help battle the disease’s outbreak in West Africa.
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t comes after the World Health Organization said it was ethical to use untested drugs on Ebola patients. However, experts say supplies of both the vaccine and the experimental drug Zmapp are
limited and it could take months to develop more supplies. More than 1,000 people have been killed by the current outbreak. Canada says between 800 and 1,000 doses of the vaccine, which has only been tested on animals,
will be donated to the World Health Organization (WHO) for use in West Africa. However, it will keep a small portion of the vaccine for research, and in case it is needed in Canada. The current outbreak has
infected people in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria. Dr Gregory Taylor, deputy head of Canada’s Public Health Agency, said he saw the vaccines as a “global resource”. He said he had been advised that it would make sense for health care workers to be given the vaccine, given their increased risk of contracting the disease. Even if Canada releases most of its existing doses, experts warn it could take four to six months to make a quantity large enough to have any real impact at preventing the illness, the BBC’s Lee Carter reports from Toronto. On Tuesday, the WHO said that in light of scale of the outbreak and high number of deaths, it was “ethical to offer unproven interventions with as yet unknown efficacy and adverse effects, as potential treatment or prevention.” Last week the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak was a global health emergency.
Hollywood Legend, Lauren Bacall Dies at 89
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er Hollywood career spanned seven decades, with a memorable debut aged 19 opposite her future husband, Humphrey Bogart, in To Have and Have Not. More than 50 years later, The Mirror Has Two Faces earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1924, she went on to become one of cinema’s biggest stars, best known for her husky voice and smouldering looks. A Twitter account of the Bogart estate, run by Bacall’s son, tweeted: “With deep sorrow, yet with great gratitude for her amazing life, we confirm the passing of Lauren Bacall.” She reportedly died after suffering a major stroke at home in New York. Bacall collected an honorary Oscar in 2009 in recognition of “her central place in the golden age of motion
pictures”. Born Betty Joan Perske, Bacall took a variation of her mother’s last name after her parents divorced. Her first film performance, as the tough and tender dame in To Have and Have Not, became one of the most powerful debuts in film history. The film featured her legendary lines: “You don’t have to act with me, Steve. You don’t have to say anything and you don’t have to do anything. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and... blow. She continued her on-screen partnership with Bogart in Key Largo, The Big Sleep and Dark Passage after the couple were married in 1945. They had two children and were married until his death in 1957. She had another child with her second husband, Jason Robards. Bacall appeared in more than 30
US film and stage actress Lauren Bacall has died at the age of 89. movies, including How to Marry a Millionaire and Murder on the Orient Express. She also acted on stage in New York, winning Tony Awards for best leading actress in a musical in 1970 for Applause and in 1981 for Woman of the Year. A second wave of film acting earned her an Academy Award nomination
in 1996 for her role opposite Barbra Streisand in The Mirror Has Two Faces. Streisand paid tribute to the Hollywood great, saying: “What a terrible loss for us all... It was my privilege to have known her, to have acted with her. And, most of all, to have had her as a wise and loving friend.