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Newsmakers: Andy Murray wins big in Britain, Charles Saatchi cooks up controversy

Top stories from the news this week

Newsmakers

Luke MacGregor/Reuters

iHaute couture

Wearable technology is one of the hottest areas in the tech sector—which could be why Apple has recruited the former CEO of luxury fashion brand Yves Saint Laurent Group. Paul Deneve is well-known in the fashion world. He’s had high-ranking jobs at fashion houses Lanvin, Courrèges and Nina Ricci. Deneve will be working on Apple’s “special projects” for CEO Tim Cook, stoking rumours that a wearable device—maybe a “smart watch”—is soon to come.

It’s only rock ‘n’ roll history

The Rolling Stones returned to London’s Hyde Park last weekend for their first gig there in 44 years. They’d played a free concert on July 5, 1969, before 250,000 people, two days after the death of founding member Brian Jones. Mick Jagger had famously quoted Shelley’s poem Adonais to eulogize his friend. Last weekend’s show was decidedly more upbeat—and lucrative, with some of the 65,000 paying $300 a ticket. This time Jagger, soon to turn 70, quoted Shakespeare’s lament for a short-lived season: “Summer’s lease has all too short a date.”

Terry Fox remembered

The screw top on the glass jug is rusty now, some 33 years after Terry Fox filled it half-full when he dipped it into the Atlantic Ocean in Newfoundland on the start of what was to have been a cross-country run for cancer research. The jug is among the artifacts—T-shirts, letters of support and the late runner’s Order of Canada—to be included in an exhibit opening at the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa in April 2015, the 35th anniversary of the start of his Marathon of Hope. Terry’s younger brother, Darrell Fox, set the wheels in motion two years ago in a meeting with Heritage Minister James Moore.

In the palm of her hand

Ann Makosinski says her first childhood toy was a box of transistors. Now, the 15-year-old from Victoria is getting international attention for a “human-powered flashlight” she’s invented—one powered by the heat of your hand. The flashlight uses Peltier tiles, which produce electricity when heated on one side and cooled on the other. (A hollow pocket allows air to provide the cooling effect.) Makosinski won a spot as the only Canadian in the finals of the Google Science Fair. She believes her invention could help remote communities where electricity isn’t always accessible—and it might even net her Google’s grand prize, a $50,000 scholarship.

Trust me, I’m Rupert Murdoch

It shouldn’t be a surprise to media baron Rupert Murdoch that reporters and executives from his take-no-prisoners Sun newspaper in London would have smuggled tape recorders into a meeting with him to discuss the bribery and phone-hacking scandal. A transcript, published by the website ExaroNews, shows Murdoch was aware that reporters were bribing police for tips: “That’s been going on a hundred years, absolutely.” He promised to pay medical benefits for any staffer jailed, and he urged them to “trust me” that they would be looked after once the charges were resolved. He complained that police were picking on him—rich for a guy who made a career as a journalistic bully.

Tipping point

When Aaron Collins died at 30 of unknown causes, the Lexington, Ky., computer technician’s will included a request that his family go for pizza and leave the server “an awesome tip, and I don’t mean 25 per cent. I mean $500.” They did, and videoed the stunned and delighted response from the server, which promptly went viral on the Internet. Inspired, brother Seth Collins launched Aaroncollins.org, which has so far raised $60,000 to carry Aaron’s wish further, and Seth has vowed to tip his way across all 50 states. Many of the servers react in disbelief, others burst into tears. “It doesn’t seem to be about the money,” Seth told ABC News. “It’s about the random kindness.”

Recipe for divorce

Nominations for cad of the year are closed. The undisputed winner is Charles Saatchi, 70, who said he is divorcing celebrity chef Nigella Lawson. Rather than informing his soon-to-be ex, he announced it to London’s Mail on Sunday: “This is heartbreaking for both of us as our love was very deep, but in the last year we have become estranged and drifted apart.” Lawson, 53, who has had little contact with Saatchi since he was photographed with his hand around her throat during an argument at a restaurant, is said to be “devastated.” Saatchi blamed Lawson for not defending him publicly after the incident. Of the throat-grab, he said: “We are instinctively tactile people.”

Less grizzly than it may have been

Human encounters with enraged grizzly bears usually result in an obituary, so Brian Braconnier and Keith Farkas of Fernie, B.C., consider themselves lucky. The two were scouting the wilderness in southeast B.C., when they came between a grizzly mother and cub. She knocked Braconnier over, swung him through the air by an arm and dragged him down a gully, Braconnier told the CBC. The bear then charged up the hill as Farkas fumbled to load a shell into his gun. He fired a shot that may have hit the bear, but didn’t stop it from clawing him and knocking him headfirst down the hill before turning and leaving. Conservation officers have yet to find the bear, which they suspect was not badly injured. The men were treated for puncture wounds.

Covering a tragedy

Rehtaeh Parsons wanted to be a marine biologist or an animal rights attorney, her mother Leah Parsons says in a story featured in People magazine. After an alleged sexual assault by four boys in 2011 and the bullying that followed, the 17-year-old from Cole Harbour, N.S., died by suicide in April. The three-page story recounts how the police, who didn’t lay charges after the incident was reported, have reopened their investigation. An image of Rehteah on the cover of People’s digital edition was posted to a memorial page for her and had more than 1,300 likes. One commenter wrote, “Rehtaeh is everyone’s daughter.”

I’ll see you in court, you tart

Butter tarts aren’t all sweetness. Tourism officials in Ontario’s Wellington North township have launched legal action to protect the trademark of its Butter Tart Trail from an upstart competitor, the city of Kawartha Lakes and its Butter Tart Tour. April Marshall, Wellington’s tourism manager, called in a Toronto law firm to issue a cease-and-desist order. The rival tour brings “confusion” to the marketplace, she told the Wellington Advertiser. Wellington’s 100-km trail offers a dozen varieties of tarts, as well as “doggy butter-tart treats, pottery trays in homage to the butter tart and scents inspired by them,” the township website brags. Not to be outdone, the Kawarthas Northumberland district promises “over 30 bakeries” in “the land of 1,000 perfect butter tarts.”

Beating a path to fame

Superstar rapper, producer and entrepreneur Jay-Z can collaborate with anyone he chooses. On his new album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, he worked with WondaGurl—also known as Ebony Oshunrinde, a 16-year-old who lives in Brampton, Ont. Oshunrinde, who won Toronto’s Battle of the Beatmakers contest last year, has been making music on computers since age nine; the beat on Jay-Z’s album was passed along to Travis Scott, another rapper-producer, who brought it to Jay-Z’s attention. Scott “texted me and said, ‘I’m about to change your life,’ ” Oshunrinde told the Toronto Star.

She always gets her man

Jenny Stewart saw her first Mountie as a 10-year-old on a school trip to the British Empire Exhibition in Glasgow, Scotland. The Canada exhibit was “all beautiful red apples,” and a red-coated Mountie. “Maybe some day I can go to Canada and see a real Mountie again,” she told a chum. Well, 78 years later, now living in a hospice in Port Alberni, B.C., her wish came true, thanks to Gail Koehle, a hospice employee and her friend from her church, RCMP Const. Scott MacLeod. Stewart, who came to Canada as a war bride in 1946, was thrilled by the meeting with “the really nice fellow” in red serge. MacLeod was also moved. “It sort of reminded me of the movie The Bucket List,” he told the Canadian Press. “I don’t know how long she has to live, frankly, but she was a joyful lady.”

Game, set, love match

Celebrations erupted throughout Britain Sunday after Scotland’s Andy Murray beat Novak Djokovic to win the men’s singles trophy at Wimbledon. It’s the first British win in men’s singles in 77 years. Among the flood of congratulations was one from Queen Elizabeth II. She was amused.

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