Director Shohei Imamura, who portrayed modern Japan’s downtrodden in raw realism and eroticism and became the first Japanese to win the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes twice, died of cancer in Tokyo on Tuesday. He was 79. Imamura was often considered the top Japanese director since the late Akira Kurosawa.
Vince Welnick, the Grateful Dead’s last keyboard player and a veteran of several other bands, including the Tubes and Missing Man Formation, has died at age 55, the Grateful Dead’s long-time publicist said. Welnick died on Friday, said Dennis McNally, who declined to release the cause.
A military transport plane carrying 40 people crashed in eastern China’s Anhui province on Saturday, the government said on Sunday. A local official said at least five people were killed. Villagers described a chaotic crash scene, with bodies and body parts strewn across a mountain slope where the plane crashed and burned.
Two of eight Western oil workers abducted by armed militants off a drilling platform in southern Nigeria were freed early on Sunday, but the other six are still being held, the president’s office said. ”Only two have been released so far according to the negotiation team,” presidential spokesperson Remi Oyo said.
Five people were killed and 24 others injured when a freight train rear-ended a passenger train on Saturday in southern Zimbabwe, state television reported. ”The derailment occurred after a goods train that was travelling from Rutenga to Gweru rammed into the back of a passenger train,” the broadcaster said.
Janice Josephs, South African national record holder in the heptathlon, occupied fourth place after the first day of the annual international combined events meeting in Arles, France, with a total of 3 612 points. She trails leader Jessica Zelinka of Canada by 153 points after the first four events.
Sri Lanka left themselves 47 runs ahead of England at stumps on the second day of the third and final Test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on Saturday. Upul Tharanga was 17 not out and Kumar Sangakkara 22 not as Sri Lanka looked to give Muttiah Muralitharan enough runs to bowl at to help them square the series at 1-1.
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England, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Portugal earned big wins in World Cup warm-ups on Saturday, six days before the start of the tournament. Peter Crouch led England with three goals and Michael Owen added another in the team’s 6-0 win over Jamaica.
Defending champion Rafael Nadal marked his 20th birthday with a gruelling 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win against Paul-Henri Mathieu on Saturday to set up a mouth-watering clash against Lleyton Hewitt for a place in the French Open quarterfinals. Hewitt, playing Roland Garros for the first time in two years, swept past Slovakian 22nd seed Dominik Hrbaty.
A suicide car bomber blew himself up in a crowded market in oil-rich southern Basra on Saturday, killing 28 people and wounding 62. In Baghdad, a Russian diplomat was killed and four diplomatic employees were kidnapped. Meanwhile, Iraq’s prime minister is poised to appoint ministers to run the army and police.