AUSTRALIA
Captured fugitive gets life
A man who eluded police for seven years by living in the bush was yesterday sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murders which prompted his life on the run. Malcolm Naden, the nation’s most wanted fugitive until his capture in a remote cabin in northern New South Wales early last year, had pleaded guilty to strangling two young mothers, Kristy Scholes and his cousin Lateesha Nolan, in separate incidents. Supreme Court Justice Derek Price said the murder of Scholes, who lived next door to Naden’s grandparents, where he lived, was a “cold-blooded merciless killing that was sexually motivated” and required a life sentence. The judge found that the murder of his cousin after she had driven him to a beach to go fishing had not been premeditated, but that the woman had suffered a prolonged period of pain and terror before she died.
AUSTRALIA
Host sacked after gay probe
A radio host was sacked on Thursday after asking Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard whether her live-in partner, Tim Mathieson, is gay. Howard Sattler posed the question on the premise of clearing up rumors and things “you hear.” Speaking on Perth’s 6PR, Sattler told Gillard he would offer her a chance to clear up “myths, rumors, snide jokes and innuendo,” then asked: “Tim’s gay?” Gillard replied: “Well that’s absurd.” “But you hear it,” Sattler said. “He must be gay, he’s a hairdresser. It’s not me saying it.” The prime minister dismissed the claim, saying: “I don’t think that in life one can look at a whole profession full of different human beings and say: ‘Gee, we know something about every one of those human beings.’” Sattler persisted, apparently seeking a direct denial: “You can confirm he’s not [gay]?” Exasperated, Gillard said: “Oh, Howard, don’t be ridiculous. Of course not. Let me bring you back to earth.” Sattler was suspended by Fairfax media following widespread public condemnation of the interview.
AUSTRALIA
Man jailed for whipping
A man who whipped a Muslim convert as a religious punishment for drinking alcohol was sentenced yesterday to at least 16 months in jail. Wasim Fayad, 45, was convicted earlier this year of the 2011 attack on Christian Martinez. Sydney Central Local Court Magistrate Brian Maloney sentenced Fayad, who had been Martinez’s spiritual mentor, to a maximum of two years in jail for assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The attack happened after Martinez called Fayad to admit he had spent a night out drinking and doing drugs. Fayad showed up at Martinez’s Sydney home and whipped him 40 times with an electric cord while three other men held him down on his bed.
SWEDEN
Bestiality banned
Authorities will next year introduce a total ban on bestiality, which until now has only been illegal if cruelty to the animal could be proven, the government said on Thursday. “The government is now tightening the rules surrounding bestiality so there will be no doubt about the fact that it is prohibited to inflict suffering on animals,” Minister for Rural Affairs Eskil Erlandsson said in a statement. “There should be no doubt that bestiality is unacceptable.” Until now, bestiality was illegal in Sweden only if it could be proven that the animal had been subjected to suffering. From Jan. 1, any sexual act with an animal will be punishable by a fine, a maximum prison sentence of two years, or both, even if the animal shows no sign of injury or suffering.
ITALY
Rape comment sparks outcry
A councillor belonging to Italy’s anti-immigrant Northern League party called on Thursday for the country’s first black minister to be raped, sparking an outcry and her expulsion from the party. “Won’t someone rape her, just to make her understand what victims of this terrible crime feel? For shame!” Dolores Valandro, a councilor in Padua, wrote on Facebook alongside a photograph of African-Italian Immigration Minister Cecile Kyenge. Valandro was apparently reacting to an article on a Web site called “all immigrant crimes,” which detailed an alleged attempt by a Somali in Genoa to rape two Romanian girls, media reports said. Kyenge said “everyone should feel offended” by the comments, and said she had long battled against violent language and behavior. Valandro later apologized, saying: “It was a something I said in a moment of anger. When I’m angry I vent that way.”
AUSTRALIA
Hotel to employ jester
Wanted: A jester. Wallflowers need not apply. A hotel is advertising for a modern-day court fool, who is communicative, extroverted, musical, creative and imaginative. Applicants are asked to bring — and play — their musical instrument during the job interview. Also welcome: creative costumes. The successful candidate will earn 1,400 euros (US$1,900) a month. Hotel director Melanie Franke says those interested should not think they are on a fool’s errand in applying. She says the idea is to treat guests like royalty, adding that “jesters were a luxury that royal families indulged themselves in.”
NICARAGUA
Waterway deal approved
Lawmakers on Thursday approved a controversial deal that would allow a Hong Kong company to build a US$40 billion oceanic waterway to rival the Panama Canal, and then manage it for the next 50 years. The law granting the concession to HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment, known as HKND Group and owned by Beijing-based entrepreneur, aims to fulfill a long-held national dream for a waterway linking this nation’s Caribbean coast to the Pacific. The project is highly controversial because the little-known company was founded less than a year ago, and because of its huge pricetag — the equivalent of twice this impoverished country’s GDP. Opposition politicians, environmentalists and indigenous communities have criticized the project, saying the government of President Daniel Ortega is “mortgaging Nicaragua” to a company created by “a Chinese businessman nobody knows.” Ortega — whose administration has diplomatic relations with Taiwan and not Beijing — was set to sign the agreement with the company in Managua yesterday.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion