Japan's prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto grumbled to visiting Microsoft chairman Bill Gates yesterday that the advancement of computer technology had diminished his pleasure in reading science fiction novels. "I told him: `You and people following you have deprived me of some pleasure in my life. You have turned science fictions into classics'," the premier was quoted as saying after meeting the US billionaire. "Then he said to me: `I'm not working to diminish your dream'." Hashimoto had a 30-minute meeting with Gates, who is on a regular twice-yearly visit to Japan, at his official residence.
The first African to become a cardinal in the Catholic Church has died at the age of 85, the Vatican said yesterday. Cardinal Laurean Rugambwa died in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, on Monday. Rugambwa was born in Bukongo, in what was then Tanganyika and now forms part of Tanzania. He was educated by missionaries and became a Catholic at the age of eight. He was made a bishop in 1951 and Pope John XXIII made him the continent's first cardinal in 1960. There are now 11 African cardinals.
Pope John Paul is expected to visit the shrine city of Guadalupe in Mexico next year to proclaim the results of a current Vatican synod on the Americas. The Pope, who has visited Mexico three times before, traditionally makes a trip to speak of the results of synods dedicated to a country or a region.
Former British foreign secretary Douglas Hurd was yesterday appointed to chair the judges of the Booker Prize, Britain's leading literary award. "I feel like a young subaltern selected to lead a platoon on a particularly dangerous mission," said Hurd, who is the author of 10 books ranging from historical works to thrillers.
Veteran rocker Mick Jagger was yesterday celebrating becoming a father - for the sixth time - after his wife Jerry Hall gave birth to the couple's fourth child. Model Jerry gave birth to the 8lb 3oz boy in London early yesterday, Jagger spokeswoman Fran Curtis said in New York.