Restaurateur Ado Campeol, dubbed “the father of Tiramisu” by Italian media, has died aged 93. Campeol was the owner of Le Beccherie, a restaurant in Treviso in northern Italy where the famous dessert was invented by his wife and a chef.The dish, featuring coffee-soaked biscuits and mascarpone, was added to their menu in 1972 but never patented by the family. It has since become a staple of Italian cuisine, adapted by chefs worldwide. There have been long-running disputes about the origin of tiramisu, including claims that it was served as an aphrodisiac at a brothel in the north Italian city of Trevisio. However it is widely accepted the recipe was developed in Campeol’s restaurant in the city.(BBC)…[+]

At least 17 people have been injured in a knife and arson attack on an underground train line in the Japanese capital of Tokyo. Video footage shows passengers running through carriages away from flames and clambering out of train windows. The incident happened at around 20:00 local time (11:00 GMT) near Kokuryo station, in the city’s western suburbs. Police say a man in his 20s was arrested at the scene. Local reports suggest he was in a Halloween costume. Eyewitness reports and footage appears to show a suspect in a bright purple and green suit, similar to the Joker character from the Batman comics. “I thought it was a Halloween stunt,” one witness told the Yomiuri newspaper about the attack. “Then, I saw a man walking this way, slowly waving a long knife.” Eyewitnesses say the suspect sprayed a clear liquid around the carriage before setting it alight.(BBC)…[+]

A Russian court has handed down lengthy prison terms to managers and fire safety chiefs blamed for a leisure centre inferno that killed 60 people. The fire engulfed the top floor of the Winter Cherry mall in March 2018, in the Siberian city of Kemerovo. The cause was a short circuit in the lighting for a children’s play area, and 37 of those killed were children. Eight people were handed jail terms on Friday. Three other criminal cases concerning the fire remain in progress. The investigation concluded that Yulia Bogdanova, ex-CEO of the firm that owned the mall, and other managers had violated the leisure centre’s fire safety regulations. Bogdanova received a 14 year jail sentence while Nadezhda Suddenok, CEO of the Winter Cherry company which ran the mall, got 13 and a half years.(BBC)…[+]

In a message recorded exclusively for the BBC, Pope Francis has called on world leaders meeting next week at the UN Climate conference in Glasgow to provide “effective responses” to the environment emergency and offer “concrete hope” to future generations. Speaking from the Vatican for BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day, the Pope talked of crises including the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and economic difficulties, and urged the world to respond to them with vision and radical decisions, so as not to “waste opportunities” that the current challenges present. “We can confront these crises by retreating into isolationism, protectionism and exploitation,” the pontiff said, “or we can see in them a real chance for change.” He evoked the need for “a renewed sense of shared responsibility for our world”, adding that “each of us – whoever and wherever we may be – can play our own part in changing our collective response to the unprecedented threat of climate change and the degradation of our common home.”(BBC)…[+]

At least 300 sea turtles have washed up dead on Mexico’s Pacific coast. Preliminary exams suggests that the olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) drowned, an official with Mexico’s environment ministry said. The official said they had probably become tangled in illegal fishing nets in the high seas or in abandoned nets known as “ghost nets”. Olive ridley turtles are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The IUCN says that their population is decreasing and that they are listed as vulnerable because they only nest in a small number of places. The turtles were found washed up on Morro Ayuta beach in Oaxaca, on Mexico’s western coast. The beach is one of the sites where olive ridley turtles come to lay their eggs. All of the dead animals were females, turtle expert Ernesto Albavera Padilla told local media. It is not the first time a large number of olive ridley turtles has been found dead in Oaxaca. In 2018, fishermen found 300 of them entangled in fishing nets.(BBC)…[+]

Max Stahl, who went from Blue Peter presenter to award-winning film-maker and East Timor national hero after his footage brought global attention to a massacre there, has died aged 66. He was known as Christopher Wenner when he co-hosted the BBC children’s programme from 1978-80. As Max Stahl, he filmed the 1991 massacre of 271 protesters against Indonesian rule in East Timor. Former East Timor President José Ramos-Horta called him a “treasured son”. “We honour him as one of the true heroes of our struggle,” Ramos-Horta wrote on Facebook shortly before the film-maker’s death. Indonesia had ruled the former Portuguese colony since invading in 1975, and Stahl had travelled there in 1991, following the relaxation of restrictions for tourists after 1989.(BBC)…[+]

Shops, restaurants and schools have shut in Moscow in a partial lockdown, as Russia battles record Covid deaths and infections. Only essential shops like supermarkets and pharmacies are allowed to open in the capital, while food outlets are only providing takeaways. Authorities have also given workers across Russia nine days off from Saturday in a bid to curb infections. Russia has reported a record 1,159 deaths from Covid in the past 24 hours. The official data also reveals 40,096 new infections in 85 regions of Russia – another record. Russia’s last major lockdown was in May-June 2020. Russia’s overall Covid death toll in the pandemic is officially more than 230,000, the highest in Europe and one of the highest in the world. Last October however the state statistics agency Rosstat calculated the Russian Covid death toll to be above 400,000 – far higher than the government figures. The proportion of Russia’s population fully vaccinated remains low – on 23 October it was 32.8%, Our World in Data reports. Most European countries have much higher rates.(BBC)…[+]

A judge in Spain has granted joint custody of a dog to a separated couple who went to court to determine who the pet should live with. The Madrid court considered that both parties were “jointly responsible” and “co-caretakers” of Panda the dog. A lawyer who brought the case to court said it was a “pioneering” ruling. Spain is currently drafting new legislation so that animals are no longer considered objects and are legally recognised as living beings. This status would make it easier for a partner to request joint custody of a pet following a breakup. But Lola García, from the Law & Animals law firm, brought this case to court under the 1987 European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals, which Spain ratified in 2017.(BBC)…[+]

A former close aide to Hillary Clinton has reportedly written in a new memoir how she was sexually assaulted by a US senator. Huma Abedin said the unnamed politician pounced on her on a couch in the mid-2000s after inviting her into his home, according to the Guardian. She says she rebuffed him as he tried to kiss her and escaped. The claim is detailed in her new book, Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds, which is being published next week. Mrs Clinton, who was the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and secretary of state under President Obama, relied on Ms Abedin as one of her most trusted aides. Mrs Clinton once described her as her “second daughter”. She describes the sexual assault while recounting her work for Mrs Clinton when she was a US senator for New York between 2001-09.(BBC)…[+]