Creator of Paddington Bear, Michael Bond, Dies at 91

The writer who created the beloved children's character Paddington Bear has died.

Michael Bond was 91. His publisher said he died Tuesday after a brief illness.

There are few children who do not recognize and love Paddington and his trademark rain hat and coat and suitcase.

Bond created Paddington in 1956 after spotting a teddy bear sitting alone in a London shop.

In his first adventure, “A Bear Called Paddington,” the character was described as a stowaway from “darkest Peru” who showed up at London's Paddington train station wearing a sign saying “Please look after this bear. Thank you.”

Since his debut, Paddington has sold more than 35 million books in 40 languages, starred in movies and on television.

Shooting on a new Paddington film wrapped up this week.

Bond once said children are drawn to Paddington because of his “vulnerability.”

Funeral Held for Former North Korean Prisoner Otto Warmbier

An estimated 2,500 mourners gathered Thursday to remember Otto Warmbier, the American college student who died this week after being held for nearly a year-and-a-half in a North Korean prison.

In Warmbier's home state of Ohio, the mourners - among them friends and family - attended his funeral at his former high school. Warmbier was to be buried at a Cincinnati cemetery.

Warmbier was sentenced to hard labor in North Korea after being convicted of attempting to steal a propaganda poster from a hotel in Pyongyang.

The 22-year-old was medically evacuated to the United States last week with severe brain damage.

Ohio Senator Rob Portman spoke at the funeral, calling Warmbier “an amazing young man” and saying Warmbier should not have been detained.

"This process has been a window into both evil, and love and good. Today we're seeing the good, and the love that will be expressed through this outpouring of support for Otto and his family," Portman said.

President Donald Trump said he was running out of patience with the North Korean regime. He called Warmbier's treatment a "total disgrace" and described the North Korean government as a brutal regime that doesn't "respect the rule of law or basic human decency."

A piece of legislation meant to curb American travel into North Korea got a boost in Congress on Thursday when House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, a California Republican, agreed to move the bill through his committee.

The bill, introduced late last month by Representatives Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, and Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, would ban tourist travel to North Korea and require a license from the Treasury Department for any other travel to North Korea.

"The tragic murder of Otto Warmbier at the hands of the North Korean government has made it clear that it is past time that we restrict tourist travel to communist, totalitarian North Korea," Wilson said. "I am grateful that Chairman Ed Royce has committed to marking up this important legislation soon, and look forward to having it debated in the House Foreign Affairs Committee."