TelevisionObituaryJames Garner obituaryVersatile film and television actor who starred in Maverick and The Rockford FilesThrough many films and two influential television series, Maverick and The Rockford Files, James Garner, who has died aged 86, developed a persona with a subtly different appeal. It began as original and accrued familiarity over the course of four decades: a coward who was the soul of honour, a hero likely to ride away, stick his finger up the barrel of his opponent's gun or get winded in a fight and complain of damage to his dentistry.
Social historyObituaryMoshe Lewin obituaryLively, provocative scholar of Soviet social historyMoshe Lewin, who has died aged 88, was one of the foremost scholars of Soviet history. Misha Levin, as he was more familiarly known, was a vibrant and creative intellectual whose work, expressed in a language and style distinctively his own, and informed by his life experiences, made a major contribution to the field of social history.
His magisterial work Russian Peasants and Soviet Power (1968) explores the clash between the world of the peasants and the priorities of an industrialising state in the late 1920s that had little sympathy or comprehension of the peasants' outlook.
Carol Rumens's poem of the weekPoetryPoem of the week: Antidotes to Fear of Death by Rebecca ElsonAn intense engagement with mortality, by a young writer taken too soon, blends religious and scientific imagery
Antidotes to Fear of Death
Sometimes as an antidote
To fear of death,
I eat the stars.
Those nights, lying on my back,
I suck them from the quenching dark
Til they are all, all inside me,
Australian police and policingExplainerKrista Kach, 47, died last week after the ‘supersoft’ shotgun round penetrated her body and hit her heart, police say
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast New South Wales police revealed on Tuesday that Newcastle woman Krista Kach died after being hit by bean bag rounds during a siege in Stockton last week.
Enrico Pelillo, a lawyer for Yara Gambirasio’s family, talks with journalists following the verdict. Photograph: Gianpaolo Magni/EPAEnrico Pelillo, a lawyer for Yara Gambirasio’s family, talks with journalists following the verdict. Photograph: Gianpaolo Magni/EPAItaly This article is more than 7 years oldDNA evidence and family secrets snare Italian child murdererThis article is more than 7 years oldMassimo Bossetti guilty of killing Yara Gambirasio, 13, in case involving 18,000 DNA samples and revelation of illicit affairs One of the most sophisticated murder investigations in Italian history concluded on Friday with the key suspect jailed for life after being caught through a combination of DNA evidence and the revelation of family secrets.