- Charlotte Observer
Mark From Gastonia, famed longtime caller to WFNZ sports-talk show in Charlotte, dies
After decades of calling in to the radio station and a months-long outpouring of support from N.C. sports teams and sports legends, Baker died Sunday.
- Reuters
Turkey arrests spider smuggler said to be American Museum of Natural History curator
Turkish police arrested a man suspected of trying to smuggle valuable poisonous spiders and scorpions out of the country, with state media identifying the suspect on Monday as a curator at New York's American Museum of Natural History. Police arrested the suspect at Istanbul Airport on Sunday and seized dozens of bags from his luggage containing some 1,500 scorpions and spiders, including tarantulas, as well as dozens of plastic bottles containing unspecified liquids, police said. The state-owned Anadolu news agency reported the suspect was Lorenzo Prendini, a curator at the historic U.S. museum, without specifying a source.
- Associated Press
Eurovision banned the EU flag from the song contest. The EU is demanding to know why
The European Union's executive said Monday it will demand explanations from Eurovision song contest organizers why its flag was banned from the concert hall during the final. In a contest already full of controversy, the European Commission said it plans “a very lively discussion” with the organizers over the ban. EU Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer said it had “no information from the organizers at this point in time about the motivation for refusing the European flag during the event,” but the ban clearly angered EU Vice President Margaritis Schinas enough to hold talks with the Swiss-based European Broadcast Union, which organizes the contest.
