Worldly News Online

Markie Post, who played the public defender in the 1980s sitcom Night Court and was a regular presence on television for four decades, has died. She was 70. Post's manager, Ellen Lubin Sanitsky, said Post died Saturday in Los Angeles after a years-long battle with cancer. Post was a longtime television regular who appeared in shows from Cheers to Scrubs. But she was best known for her seven-season run on NBC's Night Court, the Manhattan municipal court sitcom that ran from 1984 to 1992 and starred Harry Anderson as Judge Harry T. Stone. Post became a full-time cast member of Night Court in season three as Christine Sullivan, a sincere and strong-willed woman who served as a constant foil to Dan Fielding, John Larroquette's womanizing, narcissistic prosecutor. With comic rebuttal, Post's Christine deflected Fielding's lechery throughout the series' run. Though an unrealized romance between Christine and Harry was often teased, Night Court ended with Fieldi...

By Sarah RainsfordBBC News Minsk, Belarus Maria Kolesnikova has spent the past 11 months in a tiny cell, only allowed out for an hour's exercise each day. But when the opposition activist appeared in court this week, she was dancing. Together with fellow activist Maxim Znak she's been declared a threat to national security and accused of plotting to seize power. But as their trial began on Wednesday, Maria Kolesnikova was defiantly cheerful, smiling broadly at state TV cameras and making heart-shapes with her hands from inside a cage surrounded by armed guards. Ahead of the hearing, Maxim Znak told the BBC that he is innocent and argued that closing the trial, supposedly for security reasons, underlines that. 'I didn't do anything,' he wrote in an exclusive interview from prison. 'There is only one reason to hide supposedly criminal public calls from the public (and from me too, so far) - and that's that they don't exist,' Mr Znak said. ...

U.S. Senate Confirms First Muslim Federal District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi, a federal magistrate judge and the son of Pakistani immigrants, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a federal judgeship in New Jersey on Thursday, becoming the first Muslim Federal District Court judge in the nation’s history. Judge Quraishi acknowledged his history-making status after President Biden announced his intention to nominate him in March. “Candidly,” the judge said, “I would prefer to be the hundredth, if not the thousandth.” He added, “I understand what it means to the community.” The Senate confirmation on Thursday, by a vote of 81 to 16, touched off a wave of congratulatory messages on social media from Democrats and progressives. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey called Judge Quraishi “an excellent addition to the court.” Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said “Congratulations Judge Quraishi!” The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, and Senator Gary Peters of Michigan released ...