News in Brief
‘Gorbachev ill’: Mikhail Gorbachev will not attend late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s funeral in Britain next week because of health problems, a spokesman for the last leader of the Soviet Union said on Thursday.
“He is not feeling very well,” spokesman Vladimir Polyakov said by telephone. “He cannot make it,” Polyakov said. “One must take into account his age.”
Gorbachev, 82, paid tribute to Thatcher in a statement after she died on Monday, calling her “a great politician and an exceptional person” who helped end the Cold War. His last public appearance was on March 30, when he gave a lecture in Moscow. (RTRS) Thatcher hailed: Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch on Wednesday paid tribute to former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, crediting her with giving him the strength to face down print unions in the 1980s.
Writing in the Times, one of his News International titles, Murdoch called Thatcher, who died on Monday aged 87, “the woman who gave us back our backbone” and “undoubtedly one of the most important figures in the 20th century. “I found her atti- tude an inspiration in my business life - and never more so than when faced with the recalcitrance of the print unions in the 1980s,” he wrote.
Printers were angered by Murdoch’s decision to shift production of his newspapers to a hitech, less labour intensive, site in east London in 1986. (AFP) Kerry wins bet: Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird Thursday handed over a case of Canadian beer to his US counterpart John Kerry after losing a bet on a women’s ice hockey championships.
“While the Canadian women played tremendously well and almost pulled it off, they didn’t quite make it unfortunately again against our American friends,” Baird laughed as he handed over a case of Molson Canadian.
The two men had bet on the 2013 International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship between the US and Canada late Tuesday in which the American team scored a 3-2 victory. Baird also donated a case of Beau’s beer from Vankleek Hill, Ontario for the US embassy staff in Ottawa. Kerry had staked a case of Sam Adams on the game. (AFP)