The boss of Australia’s Nine Network yesterday admitted he was at fault over an ugly street brawl with billionaire gambling tycoon James Packer as police opened an investigation into the fight.
The casino mogul and his childhood friend, David Gyngell, who had been his best man, traded punches and wrestled on the ground on Sunday afternoon at Bondi Beach, with the incident captured by a paparazzi photographer.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp bought the pictures and video clips for a reported A$250,000 (US$232,000) with the tabloid Sydney Daily Telegraph devoting nine pages to the scandal, including a front-page splash headlined “Packer Whacker.”
Packer, 46, left his multimillion-dollar Bondi home yesterday with a black left eye, to news that police were appealing for witnesses to come forward. Gyngell accepted responsibility for the brawl in a statement broadcast on the Nine Network.
“David Gyngell respects the job police do and will cooperate fully with their investigation,” the statement said. “He also fully accepts that he was the instigator of the incident. Clearly had he not turned up at Packer’s premises in an angry mood, then the confrontation would never have occurred.”
The images taken by a photographer who was in the area hoping to snap Packer with his rumored new love interest, supermodel Miranda Kerr, sparked a bidding war.
ARGUMENT
The Telegraph and other media said Packer and Gyngell, who have been friends for 35 years, fell out after the casino magnate split with wife Erica six months ago. Gyngell reportedly told Packer he had made a mistake, which the 46-year-old did not appreciate.
Reports said tensions had been building ever since, with Packer apparently fuming that a Nine Network news truck was parked near his Bondi pad and that he would be “doorstepped” on his arrival home from the airport.
Gyngell reportedly assured him in a testy telephone call it was a coincidence, but personally went to investigate. He was there when Packer arrived and the verbal abuse quickly escalated into a fight that a witness described as “like two mad dogs going at each other’s throats.”
RESTRAINED
They were eventually restrained by Packer’s driver and two others as they grappled on the ground. The men — who went to the same exclusive Sydney school — have since released a joint statement insisting they remain friends.
New South Wales Police Minister Stuart Ayres criticized them for brawling in public.
“What we’ve seen in the papers today is clearly a group of people that are doing something that wouldn’t be accepted by anyone within the community,” he told reporters.
“I’ll leave that up to the local area command to determine what they do next,” he added.
The son of late media baron Kerry Packer, James Packer is one of Australia’s wealthiest people with a personal fortune estimated at A$6 billion. The family company used to own the Nine Network, but sold their stake in 2008.
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