Royals honour London fire victims
BRITAIN: A solemn Queen Elizabeth II marked a minute of silence Saturday (local time) for victims of the London high-rise inferno as exhausted firefighters continued their grim search for more bodies.
The queen marked her official birthday by saying Britain remains ‘‘resolute in the face of adversity’' after the horrendous fire and recent extremist attacks in London and Manchester. The 91-year-old monarch said it is ‘‘difficult to escape a very sombre mood’' on what is normally a day of celebration.
The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, stood silently on the steps of Buckingham Palace before the start of the Trooping the Colour that each year marks the queen’s official birthday, which is traditionally celebrated in June when the weather is warm. - AP
Fires trap motorists
More than 20 people have been killed in forest fires in central Portugal, many of them trapped in their cars as flames swept over a road, officials said yesterday. Portuguese radio station TSF, citing the Interior Ministry, said 25 people had been killed in blazes in the Pedrogao Grande area about 150 kilometres northeast of Lisbon. Some 600 firefighters were trying to put out the fires, which started Saturday. Interior Ministry official Jorge Gomes said 16 people died in their cars on a road between the towns of Figueiro dos Vinhos and Castanheira de Pera and three people died from smoke inhalation in Figueiro dos Vinhos. Public broadcaster RTP said there were about 20 injured, including six firefighters. Fourteen of the injured were in serious condition, RTP said.
Beyonce has twins
US singer Beyonce has given birth to twins in Los Angeles, several celebrity news websites reported on Saturday, citing unidentified sources. Beyonce, 35, and rapper and music producer Jay Z, already have a five-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy. E! News reported the birth and that Jay Z and Blue Ivy were seen at a Los Angeles area hospital on Friday. The Lemonade singerannounced the pregnancy on her Instagram account in February along with an image of her posed in lingerie and caressing a noticeable baby bump. The announcement got more than 8 million ‘‘likes’’ in the first 24 hours to become the ‘‘most-liked’’ Instagram ever.
Hokulea returns home
No modern navigation instrumentation guided a Polynesian voyaging canoe as it followed the horizon during a three-year journey around the globe. About a dozen crewmembers for each leg of the voyage relied only on their understanding of nature’s cues - ocean swells, stars, wind, birds - and their own naau, or gut, to sail across about 40,000 nautical miles (74,000 kilometres) to 19 countries, spreading a message of malama honua: Caring for the earth. Yesterday, thousands welcomed the double-hulled canoe Hokulea home to Hawaii when it entered a channel off Oahu and tied up to a floating dock with iconic Diamond Head in the distance. The crew held a formal homecoming ceremony on Magic Island, Honolulu.
Bomb in shopping centre
Three women were killed and nine wounded after an explosive device detonated in a restroom in a busy upscale shopping centre in Colombia’s capital on Saturday. The Andino shopping mall in an exclusive area of Bogota was evacuated after the blast, which occurred around 5pm local time in the women’s toilet. President Juan Manuel Santos denounced the attack and promised to bring those responsible to justice. ‘‘We won’t let terrorism frighten us,’’ Santos said.
Sailors’ bodies found
The bodies of missing sailors were found in flooded compartments of the USS Fitzgerald, which came close to sinking after a collision with a Philippine-flagged container ship off Japan tore a gash under the warship’s waterline, the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet commander said yesterday. Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin told a news conference at Yokosuka naval base that the search at sea had been called off.