Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez are no longer an item, it was reported yesterday.
The split happened last week, and distance and their busy schedules were a contributing factor.
Eighteen-year-old Bieber is touring to promote his latest album, while 20-year-old Gomez is filming a Wizards of Waverly Place reunion for Disney Channel called The Wizards Return: Alex versus Alex, that will air next year.
The pair first stepped up publicly in February 2011 at the Vanity Fair Oscar party.
Kyoto prize
An American regarded as a father of computer graphics, an Indian literary critic and a Japanese molecular cell biologist have received the Kyoto Prize, Japan’s highest private award for global achievement.
The Inamori Foundation awarded its advanced technology prize yesterday to US computer scientist Ivan Sutherland, who developed the graphic interface programme Sketchpad in 1963.
Gayatri Chakrovoty Spivak, an Indian literary critic and professor at Columbia University, won the arts and philosophy prize.
Train derails
A passenger train has derailed in central Iran, killing four and injuring 35 people on board.
Iran TV says the train derailed outside the city of Yazd late on Friday evening.
It quoted provincial Governor Mohammad Reza Falahzadeh as saying those killed included two train operators and two passengers. Falahzadeh says the injured have been taken to hospitals in Yazd. The city is about 420 miles south of the Iranian capital, Tehran.
Latin academy
The Vatican is trying to resurrect Latin. Pope Benedict XVI issued a decree yesterday creating a new pontifical academy for Latin studies to try to boost interest in the official language of the Roman Catholic Church that is nevertheless out of widespread use elsewhere.
Benedict acknowledged Latin’s fall from grace in his decree, saying future priests nowadays often learn only a “superficial” knowledge of Latin in their seminaries. The new academy will promote Latin through conferences, publications and instruction in Catholic schools, universities and seminaries, he wrote.