Jessica Padgett and her fiancé Kendall Murphy, a volunteer firefighter and basketball coach at Barr-Reeve High School, were all set to marry this September 2018. Things took a tragic turn when Murphy perished last November after he was hit by a car driven by a fellow firefighter while responding to an accident near their home, according to Global News on Oct. 8.

Murphy was killed instantly, leaving his bride-to-be Padgett without him. Before his death, the couple have already booked photographer Mandi Knepp of Loving Life Photography to take their wedding photos. After Murphy died, his mother and Padgett decided to still push through with their booking for Sept. 29, the day of their wedding.

Knepp shared photos from the wedding photo shoot last Oct. 5, one of which showed Padgett kneeling before the grave of her fiancé’s while wearing her wedding gown.

In another photo shared by Padgett on Facebook, a photo of her wearing her wedding dress can be seen. She held in her hands Murphy’s boots that he wore everyday, while Murphy was edited into the picture to look as if he were standing right next to her.

“I’m kind of blessed that I did it, because different people have been telling me how they have been struggling and seeing my pictures kind of brought strength and comfort,” Padgett was quoted as saying.

“I’m really glad I ended up doing it because I’m not only helping myself and my family, but I’m helping others that I don’t know who are going through a hard time and a grieving process as well.”

She also shared that she had been dreading the wedding day for a very long time: “Now I can look back at those memories that Mandi took, and the ways I got to honor Kendall and be with Kendall and see all the support I had that day.”

Padgett and her family also recently visited the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation for its 37th annual memorial weekend. In pictures she posted on Oct. 7, Padgett and her loved ones can be seen wearing matching red shirts that had “Kendall Murphy” printed on the front.

“What [an] emotional, amazing weekend this was! This foundation not only honored my Kendall, but also took us in as a family,” she shared. “This wasn’t what we wanted in the end, but at least we know we will never be alone, we have all become one big supporting family! You will forever be in our hearts #616.”

The event, chaired by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was attended by Vietnamese PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Cambodian PM Hun Sen, Lao PM Thongloun Sisoulith, Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha and Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

The leaders reviewed their past co-operation, discussed major orientations for co-operation in the future, and exchanged views on international and regional issues.

They shared the view that 10 years since its foundation, the Mekong-Japan co-operation had recorded many achievements with the aim of building a GMS of long-term peace and stability; developing the regional economy and actively contributing to ASEAN integration; and sustainable development through regular high-level meetings, discussions on co-operation at all levels, and the implementation of projects in specialised fields.

Regarding the New Tokyo Strategy 2015 for 2016-2018, they welcomed the implementation of hundreds of projects in multiple areas, helping to improve infrastructure connectivity and promote economic – industrial cohesion and people-to-people exchanges between Japan and the Mekong region.

The GMS leaders appreciated Japan’s provision of over JPY750 billion (US$6.6b) in assistance for 2016-2018.

Agreeing to lift the Mekong-Japan co-operation to a strategic partnership, the two sides said future co-operation would focus on three main pillars: vibrant and effective connectivity, a people-centred society, and co-operation in healthcare, education and justice.

The representatives agreed to organise the Mekong-Japan Exchange Year 2019 to enhance understanding and exchanges among people of the GMS countries and Japan. They also agreed to realise a “Green Mekong”, focusing on fostering collaboration with international and regional organisations, especially the Mekong River Commission, in managing and sustainably using Mekong water resources. The countries would work together to cope with climate change; reduce, treat and recycle waste; and preserve and use fisheries resources in a sustainable manner.

During the event, the participants also discussed global and regional affairs, including the East Sea and Korean Peninsula. They reaffirmed a common pledge to maintain and promote peace, security and stability in the region, while resolving disputes by peaceful means, including fully respecting legal and diplomatic processes and not threatening or using force, in accordance with widely recognised principles of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Speaking at the meeting, PM Phuc emphasised the role of and the contributions made by the Mekong-Japan co-operation to realise the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and to regional peace, stability and development. The Mekong-Japan co-operation projects had made considerable contributions to infrastructure, human resources development and environmental protection in the GMS nations.

He also affirmed Vietnam’s commitment to continue to work closely with Japan and other GMS members to promote co-operation.

Suggesting directions for the future, the PM said the two sides should step up transport connectivity, including the Vientiane-Hanoi Expressway and waterway transport between Vietnam and Cambodia, and energy connectivity within the GMS region as well as between the region and non-GMS countries.

He suggested improving soft infrastructure connectivity, and building and implementing agreements and co-ordination mechanisms on facilitating transport, trade and digital connectivity among member nations. The countries should also boost industrial connectivity and prioritise the development of supporting industries; increase people-to-people connectivity, especially through education and training; and sign agreements on mutual recognition of vocational training diplomas and certificates.

They also needed to realise the joint vision on a Green Mekong with a focus on co-operation on sustainable water management, protecting the environment, responding to climate change, and developing smart and sustainable agriculture, he added.

PM Phuc recommended a Mekong-Japan innovation network be set up to foster connectivity and exchange among research, invention and startup centres in Japan and the GMS countries.

The summit highly valued and reflected the Vietnamese leader’s proposals in its documents.

In terms of global and regional issues, PM Phuc welcomed the positive outcomes of the bilateral summits between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the US and the Republic of Korea. He voiced his support for denuclearisation in the whole Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner and in line with resolutions of the UN Security Council.

He asserted that Vietnam would keep co-ordinating with Japan and the international community to solve humanitarian issues, including abduction, condemning the kidnapping of citizens between countries.

With regard to the East Sea issue, he recognised some positive improvements in negotiations but also voiced his concern over the fact that complex developments remained. He stressed the urgency of ensuring peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation in and over the East Sea, calling for adherence to the 1982 UNCLOS, full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea, and the swift finalisation of an efficient and effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea.

At the end of the meeting, the leaders adopted the Tokyo Strategy 2018 for Mekong-Japan Co-operation in the 2019-2021 period.

He said major reforms and changes are needed in the country’s economic policies to ensure that Malaysia again becomes an attractive investment destination.

“But it is not a zero-sum game. If we choose to embark on pro-market reforms, it should not be an excessive capitalistic notion ignoring the plight of poor and marginalised,” he said in a speech at an investors conference here titled “Malaysia: A New Dawn”.

The conference is jointly organised by Malayan Banking Bhd, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd and RHB Banking Group.

“We need to dismantle restrictive policies although we have to bear in mind national interest is paramount, not the interest of factions or vested interest groups.”

Anwar said that affirmative action must continue to be vigorously promoted, but based on need.

“I believe that with good governance, with clear economic policies and lots of care and passion, we can fulfil the promise of Malaysia’s New Dawn.

“We can create opportunities for all Malaysians, regardless of region, race and religion,” said Anwar.

Anwar, who is currently contesting in the Port Dickson by-election, is considered to be Pakatan Harapan’s prime minister-designate.

He is in a seven-cornered fight for the parliamentary seat. Polls are on Oct 13.

    The 42-year-old Maezawa paid an undisclosed sum for a ticket on fellow tycoon Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket around the moon as early as 2023 and the passionate art collector also plans to take around half a dozen artists with him on the trip.

“It hasn’t been decided yet what training I will need to undergo but Elon Musk has said it shouldn’t be too hard,” Maezawa jested, adding in Japanese, “I believe English will be a must.”

Asked how he could fit astronaut training around his already hectic schedule, he said he adhered to his own company policy of working a six-hour day and devoting the rest of the time to personal projects.

“I don’t go to work from morning to night. I’m there three or four times a week and I try to go home after six hours,” Maezawa told a packed news conference in Tokyo.

Maezawa will hitch a ride aboard Musk’s Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), which SpaceX has acknowledged may not be ready for human flight for at least five years.

First announced in 2016 and estimated to cost $5 billion, the BFR was touted as the most powerful rocket in history, even more potent than the Saturn V moon rocket that launched the Apollo missions five decades ago.

Maezawa said he had received “safety guarantees” that allowed him to be able to invite the artists along on the trip, although he confirmed he had not yet begun negotiations with potential fellow-travellers.

He said he was most looking forward to seeing the entire Earth from space.

“I look forward to getting close to the moon. I would like to see the Earth in full view… To see it with my own eyes, just thinking about it now makes tears well up in my own eyes,” he said.

Maezawa is chief executive of Japan’s largest online fashion store and is the 13th richest person in Japan, with an estimated fortune of $2.8 billion, according to business magazine Forbes.

He did not deny there were some commercial interests behind his decision to pay for a ticket to the moon, as the exposure has hugely boosted his profile.

“I was formerly known as ‘Maezawa the fashion guy’ and now its been updated to ‘Maezawa, who’s going to the moon’,” he said.

A UN fact-finding mission has called for Myanmar’s top brass to be investigated for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes over a brutal crackdown against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state that forced more than 720,000 of the beleaguered minority to flee the country to Bangladesh.

Myanmar has dismissed the allegations, slamming the UN body as biased, and the government has set up its own committee to investigate the crimes.

But UN special rapporteur to Myanmar Yanghee Lee — who has been barred from entering the country since December — said the government has shown little capacity for an unbiased probe into the violence, saying it has taken “limited and insufficient steps”.

“[Myanmar] is unable and unwilling to discharge its obligation to conduct credible, prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigations and prosecutions,” Lee said in a report she published via her Twitter account on Monday.

Given Myanmar’s refusal to hold itself accountable, she added, it was up to international courts to seek justice.

“The onus is on the international community to take action,” she warned. “Any delay in instituting justice will only result in more violations.”

In her conclusions she recommended the UN should “refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court immediately”.

The northern part of Rakhine has been on lockdown since the violence broke out last August, with journalists and observers only allowed to visit on short, chaperoned trips.

UN investigators — who authored the explosive fact-finding report — were not allowed into the country while Lee has been barred from entering Myanmar since December for her sharp criticisms of the government’s treatment of the Rohingya.

Lee said she had asked India for permission to meet Rohingya refugees there but received no response from Delhi.

Myanmar’s de facto leader Suu Kyi — once lionised by the international community as a democracy icon — has seen a sharp fall from grace following her refusal to speak out against the military.

The UN fact-finding mission has pointed out that her government’s attempts to whitewash facts had worsened the situation for the embattled Rohingya.

Lee also raised alarm over declining press freedom in Myanmar after Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were jailed for seven years each after reporting on the military’s role in the massacre of 10 Rohingya men in Inn Din village in northern Rakhine.

Describing their prosecution as “spurious”, she called for the pair to be released immediately.

The military has denied almost all accusations of genocide levelled against it, insisting that “clearance operations” were necessary to fight Rohingya militants.

The International Criminal Court has ruled that an investigation will go ahead as Bangladesh — which has received the Rohingya refugees fleeing across the border — is a signatory of the Rome statute that created the court.

Myanmar has not signed the statute, and a minister told the UN General Assembly that his government rejected the “dubious intervention”.

The blast was believed to be the result of a malfunction in the diesel refining section of the Irving Oil refinery in St John’s, New Brunswick, said company executive Kevin Scott.

Officials said all the plant’s workers were accounted for after the fire, and four people received hospital treatment for minor injuries.

Images posted on social media networks showed intermittent flames and a column of black smoke rising from the refinery, the country’s largest with a production capacity of 300,00 barrels of refined products a day.

Rob Beebe, who lives near the refinery, told Radio Canada he felt his house shake, followed by a blast.

Refinery owner Irving Oil confirmed on Twitter that a “major incident” occurred there.

“We now understand that all employees and contractors working on site have been safely accounted for,” it added.

“Several contractors are being treated for non-life threatening injuries in relation to this incident.”

The large cloud of black smoke dissipated by early afternoon as the fire appeared to be under control.

Police maintained a cordon around the plant, which is located in a residential area and close to a regional hospital.

Despite Monday being Canada’s Thanksgiving holiday, there were almost 3,000 workers at the plant at the time of the blast, since a major maintenance operation was taking place.

The “Bad Blood” singer backed Phil Bredesen on Sunday for the upper house in her home state, and unleashed a fierce attack on his opponent, Republican Marsha Blackburn, who currently serves in the House.

The president was asked for his reaction to the snub and told reporters at the White House he was “sure Taylor Swift doesn’t know anything” about Blackburn.

“Let’s say that I like Taylor’s music about 25 percent less now, okay?” Trump added, flashing what could best be described as a cheeky grin.

Trump, it should be noted, has form going back years as something of a Swifty.

“Glad to hear that @taylorswift13 will be co-hosting the Grammy nominations special on 12.5. Taylor is terrific!” he tweeted breathlessly in October 2012.

In August of that year, addressing her directly, he swooned: “Thanks for the beautiful picture— you are fantastic!”

The singer tends to stay above the political fray, but told her 112 million Instagram followers on Sunday she felt she needed to speak out ahead of the midterm elections in November.

“As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me,” the 28-year-old said.

“She voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape.”

Last year, Swift won a lawsuit against a former radio DJ she accused of groping her.

The Seoul International Digital Festival, organised by the Seoul Digital Foundation, will open on October 27 at Gaepo Digital Innovation Park and Dongdaemun Digital Plaza for a five-day run, according to the city government on October 5.

The third SIDiF features forums and contests held under the slogan “We Digitalise Seoul,” in an effort to share insights and discuss the use of digital technology to resolve urban problems.

The event is to kick off with the “Seoul Maker 2018” session, which allows teenage participants to imagine the future of a digital city, followed by the “Digital Leaders Camp” on the second day, when they can get a taste of computer education programmes. Both sessions will be held at the GDIP.

The “Tech X City” session will take place on the third and fourth days, featuring activities related to digital technologies, such as an online election system using blockchain and digital drawing books.

An inauguration ceremony for a global digital consultative group will also take place during the “2018 Smart Seoul Conference”.

The consultative group will become the channel through which the Seoul Digital Foundation and urban innovation organisations from other nations, including those from Europe, the United States and Malaysia, communicate and cooperate.

A start-up contest will be held on the last day. Thirty companies will compete with ideas on how to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.