World Newsbits for November 26,2013

BOOK DEAL

NEW YORK (AP) — One of three young women held captive for years in a Cleveland house has a book deal. Michelle Knight’s memoir is scheduled to come out next spring, publisher Weinstein Books announced Monday. The book is currently untitled and will be co-written by Michelle Burford, who worked on Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas’ memoir. According to Weinstein, Knight will tell the “full story’’ of being kidnapped in her early 20s by Ariel Castro and held for 11 years. Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina De Jesus finally escaped last May. Castro, sentenced to life plus 1,000 years, hanged himself in his cell in September.

SUPERMAN COMIC

YORK, Pennsylvania (AP) — Cover art for a 50-year-old comic book featuring Superman’s alter-ego, Clark Kent, as President John F. Kennedy in disguise was sold at an auction for $112,015. Curt Swan’s original cover drawing for Action Comics (hash)309 sold at auction last week in York County, the York Daily Record reports. The cover shoss Superman shaking hands with Clark Kent and a word arrow asks the reader, “Who is the mystery masquerader?’’ Alex Winter, general manager of Hake’s Americana and Collectibles, says the comic book came out days after the president was shot to death Nov. 22, 1963. Winter says the coincidence has made the comic book almost legendary and the timing of the auction was planned to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s death.

FRANCO RALLY

MADRID (AP) — Hundreds of people nostalgic for Spain’s fascist past have held a rally outside Madrid’s downtown Royal Palace to commemorate the 38th anniversary of dictator Francisco Franco’s death. Eduardo Arias, president of the right-wing Spanish Patriotic Knot association, addressed the gathering and exhorted the government to oppose immigration at a time when the country has sky-high unemployment. Sympathizers made stiff-arm salutes and waved Spanish flags before singing anthems dating from Franco’s 1939-1975 rule. Stalls sold far-right, fascist and Nazi memorabilia to curious passers-by on the fringes of Sunday’s rally.

RHODES SCHOLARS

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Rhodes Trust says 32 U.S. men and women have been named Rhodes scholars and will enter Oxford University next October. The winners were selected from 857 applicants endorsed by 327 different colleges and universities. The scholarships, announced early Sunday, provide all expenses for two or three years of study at the prestigious university in England. Rhodes scholarships were created in 1902 by the will of British philanthropist Cecil Rhodes. Winners are selected on the basis of high academic achievement, personal integrity, leadership potential and physical vigor, among other attributes.

HONDURAS ELECTIONS

TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) — Conservative Juan Orlando Hernandez claimed victory in Honduras’s presidential vote Sunday, citing official electoral board results. “I will be the next president of Honduras. And I am going to do everything it takes to bring peace back to the people,’’ Hernandez told roaring supporters. He said his claim was based on the electoral board’s results showing him with 34.15 percent of the vote, compared to 28.45 percent for leftist Xiomara Castro. However Castro, the wife of Manuel Zelaya; deposed from office at gunpoint in a 2009 coup, had already declared victory.

‘’Today, we can say that we have won,’’ a rejoicing Castro told reporters.

On her Twitter account, Castro said ‘’based on exit polls that I have received from around the country, I can tell you: I am the President of Honduras.’’