Golden Girls star dies at 86
The actress Bea Arthur, best known as the caustic, deadpan star of the television comedy Golden Girls, has died of cancer at her home in Los Angeles. She was 86. After a long stage career Arthur became a hit on television in All in the Family, Maude and then Golden Girls in the mid-1980s. Central to the popularity of Golden Girls was the comic interplay between Arthur’s character and her mother, played by Estelle Getty. Both won Emmys for their roles.

North Korea makes plutonium
North Korea has started making plutonium for nuclear bombs at its reactor once again after quitting disarmament talks earlier this month, it said yesterday. The announcement came after the United Nations imposed sanctions to freeze the assets of three North Korean companies. Pyongyang said it would ignore the sanctions, describing them as “a wanton violation of the UN charter”. North Korea is already thought to have enough reprocessed plutonium for between six and eight nuclear weapons.

US ‘spy’ stages hunger strike
Roxana Saberi, the American-Iranian reporter sentenced to eight years in jail in Tehran on charges of spying for the US, has gone on hunger strike to protest her innocence, her father Reza said yesterday. He said Saberi, 31, had telephoned to say she was on the fifth day of her strike and would refuse food until she was released.

Centre left wins Iceland vote
Iceland’s centre-left parties were heading for an election victory last night. Television projections gave the coalition that stepped in after the conservative-led government was toppled by the economic crisis a majority in parliament. The alliance is led by Johanna Sigurdardottir, a 66-year-old Social Democrat.

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