Coronation Street favourite Betty Driver has died at the age of 91.
An ITV spokesman said she “died peacefully in hospital” in the early hours of yesterday morning.
She had played the role of Rovers Return barmaid Betty Williams (Turpin) in the soap for 42 years. The actress had been in hospital for six weeks. She had also been unwell earlier in the year and was treated for a chest infection in 2010.
The ITV spokesman said: “She will be sadly missed by everyone who knew her.”
Barbara Knox, who plays Rita Sullivan in Coronation Street, said: “I have lost a very dear friend and the Street has lost a very great character, a professional to her fingertips – she will be greatly missed.”
Al-Qaeda ‘owes €6.7bn for 9/11’
A judge in New York has recommended terror group Al-Qaeda be assessed €6.7bn for the damage done to properties and businesses in the September 11, 2001 attacks. Federal Magistrate Judge Frank Maas sent the recommendation to a district judge presiding over a lawsuit brought by several insurance companies.
The companies sued various defendants in 2003, seeking damages for the terror attacks, which demolished the World Trade Centre’s twin towers. Al-Qaeda never responded to the lawsuit and was found in default in 2006.
Judge Maas determined the actual damages, then tripled them as allowed by law.
At this time, the companies were seeking only an assessment of damages against Al-Qaeda. The organisation founded by Osama bin Laden is blamed for orchestrating the terror attacks.
Cuban dissident hero succumbs to illness
Cuban dissident Laura Pollan, who founded the opposition group Ladies in White and for nearly a decade staged weekly protest marches with other wives of political prisoners to press for their release, has died.
Ms Pollan, 63, was admitted to hospital on October 7 for acute respiratory problems and had been in intensive care ever since.
She was one of the best-known and most vocal opposition figures in Cuba, where those who dissent publicly risk reprisals or imprisonment. Even after the Ladies obtained their husbands’ freedom, the group continued to protest against the government, which described them as traitors doing the bidding of the US.
Pilot dies after crash in air show in China
A pilot died after an air force jet nose-dived and crashed at an air show, Chinese authorities said yesterday.
Footage aired by China Central Television showed the jet sputtering and then plunging into a field last Friday outside the northern city of Xi’an as one of the pilots ejected from the cockpit and landed beneath an open parachute.
Only one parachute was seen opening, and the plane, a two-seater JH-7 Flying Leopard fighter-bomber, burst into flames on crashing. The other pilot’s seat appeared not to have ejected.
Goodbye to popular Pete the Moose
Pete the Moose, who developed a cult following with a Facebook page and a rally at the Vermont Statehouse after US biologists threatened to kill him to prevent the spread of disease, has died.
Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Patrick Berry said Pete was tranquillised for hoof treatment at the captive elk farm where he was living but did not wake up.
Pete’s case helped prompt the state legislature to pass new wildlife laws for two years in a row. He received a pardon sparing his life last winter from governor Peter Shumlin, who said he was saddened by Pete’s death.
US bishop ‘didn’t report child porn’
A bishop has become the highest-ranking US Catholic indicted on a charge of failing to protect children after he and his diocese waited five months to tell police about hundreds of images of child pornography discovered on a priest’s computer.
Robert Finn, the first US bishop criminally charged with sheltering an abusive clergyman, and the Kansas City-St Joseph Catholic Diocese have pleaded not guilty to one count each of failing to report suspected child abuse.
Prosecutor Jean Baker said Bishop Finn and the diocese were required under state law to report the discovery to police because the images gave them reason to believe a child had been abused.
Withdrawal of envoy’s expulsion
Malawi has withdrawn its expulsion of Britain’s envoy, who was asked to leave in April after he was quoted expressing concern about the Malawian president’s intolerance of criticism and about deteriorating human rights.
Britain expelled Malawi’s envoy and suspended aid in response to the Malawi order that President Bingu wa Mutharika’s administration described last Friday as “unfortunate”. Malawi says the British envoy is free to return.
Also on Friday, Malawi revoked a four-year-old deportation order against the president of neighbouring Zambia. Michael Sata, elected president last month, had been an opposition leader when he tried to visit a Malawian opposition leader in 2007. Sata refused to attend a regional summit last week in Malawi because of the incident.