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.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of