AUSTRALIA
Murderer receives 35 years
A man who stabbed a couple and their 16-year-old daughter more than 100 times in a frenzied attack after he became sexually obsessed with the girl was yesterday jailed for 35 years. Jason Alexander Downie pleaded guilty to murdering Rosemary and Andrew Rowe and their daughter, Chantelle, after entering their home in Kapunda in November 2010. Downie, 18 at the time of the murders, knew Chantelle from school and had become increasingly obsessed with the teen. After entering the house, he stabbed Andrew Rowe at least 29 times and his wife about 50 times. Chantelle Rowe was stabbed 35 times and raped.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
No injuries from quake
A strong earthquake struck yesterday about 140km north of the city of Lae, but was felt as far away as the capital, Port Moresby. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries and no tsunami alert has been issued. The US Geological Survey says the magnitude 7 quake struck at a depth of 200km.
CHILE
Quake kills one
A powerful magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck near the eastern port of Valparaiso early yesterday, shaking buildings as far away as the capital, Santiago, but there were no reports of significant damage and the country’s main copper mines were unaffected. One elderly man died as a result of a heart attack brought on by the quake, which struck 42km north-northeast of Valparaiso, and 112km northwest of Santiago. There were no other reports of injuries.
SOUTH AFRICA
Rhinos get harder to hunt
The government has tightened rules on rhino hunts and will use microchips and DNA profiling to counter a poaching bloodbath that has killed 171 animals this year, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa. said on Monday. New rules now allow hunters to kill only one white rhino in a year and officials must consider whether an applicant’s home country has enough legislation to counter illicit trophy trade. Would-be hunters must now belong to a recognized hunting association in their home country and supply a hunting curriculum vitae and a copy of their passport. Any trophy must be microchipped by an official who will keep a sample of the horn.
UNITED KINGDOM
Cop’s parents targeted
A bomb was found under the car of a policeman’s parents in Northern Ireland on Sunday night and disarmed by army officers, law enforcement sources said on Monday, the latest in a spate of attempted attacks on Catholic officers and their families. The couple, who live in a Catholic area of Londonderry, suffered a similar attempted attack in 2009. Nationalist paramilitaries opposed to a 1998 peace deal with Britain have targeted Catholic police who after a recruitment drive make up 30 percent of the force in a province where police were once predominantly Protestant.
NEW ZEALAND
Pig cell plan for Parkinson’s
A company plans to implant pig cells in the human brain in a clinical trial to treat Parkinson’s disease and help improve movement and brain functions in patients. The clinical trials, planned for next year, would be the first using pig brain cells for potential treatment in humans. Living Cell Technologies plans to apply to authorities early next month and, if approval is granted, to start Phase I trials by the end of the March quarter next year.
CANADA
Drowsy pilot panics plane
A pilot drowsy after a mid-flight nap sent a plane plunging over the mid-Atlantic after mistakenly fearing a mid-air collision, injuring 16 passengers, an investigation found. The Air Canada pilot was apparently suffering from “sleep inertia” — the stupor that follows a long nap — when he sent the plane plunging about 125m in 46 seconds, throwing those not wearing safety belts out of their seats. The co-pilot quickly recovered and the plane completed its route from Toronto to Zurich, where seven passengers were sent to hospital for further treatment. “Under the effects of sleep inertia, the [first officer] was likely confused and disoriented, and perceived the aircraft on an imminent collision course,” according to a report by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, based on an investigation of the incident on Jan. 14 last year.
UNITED STATES
Boy tells of dead family
A nine-year-old boy arrived at school on Monday with a grisly story: His mother and sister were dead at their home four blocks away. Minutes later, police found the bodies of a 10-year-old girl and her mother — along with a blood-covered man and an unharmed four-year-old boy — in a modest home in a West Las Vegas neighborhood, authorities said. The man was hospitalized in critical condition with a head injury. He was not immediately identified as a suspect or charged. The five people belonged to a single family, police officer Jacinto Rivera said.
MEXICO
Women’s skeletons found
Prosecutors say 12 sets of skeletal remains found near the US border are those of women. It is in a region notorious for the slaying of young women. A special prosecutors’ office that investigates the slaying of women says six of the victims have been identified by DNA testing. Two of them were 15 years old, one was 16, two were 17 and one 19. The prosecutors’ office in Chihuahua State says the gender of the other six bodies was established by DNA and forensics tests, but they have not yet been identified. The bodies were found in January and February in fields in the Juarez valley, east of Ciudad Juarez.
BRAZIL
Prison riot ends
A prison riot in the northeastern Brazilian state of Sergipe ended on Monday after the inmates released all 141 hostages after lengthy negotiations, regional officials said. About 400 prisoners at the Advogado Jacinto Filho de Arcaju prison rioted on Sunday morning during visiting hours over complaints about mistreatment by guards and bad food. Police said the inmates were armed with knives and three rifles stolen from a weapons room inside the prison. The rioters set mattresses ablaze and demanded better food. All but three of the hostages were relatives of the prisoners, including many women and children, who were visiting when the uprising broke out.
UNITED STATES
Penguin bites Gingrich
Things have not been going all that well for Republican presidential candidate hopeful Newt Gingrich lately, even at one of his favorite places — the zoo. Newt was nipped on the finger by a penguin during a private tour of the famous St Louis Zoo on Friday before he spoke to the National Rifle Association convention, zoo officials confirmed on Monday. “He was nipped on the finger by a penguin,” the zoo’s public relations director Susan Gallagher said. “A Band-Aid took care of the injury.”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese