AUSTRALIA
Seal found in toilet
A woman using the toilets at a cemetery in Tasmania had the fright of her life after finding a large fur seal napping in the cubicle. The discovery of the 120kg animal was even more surprising as he was half a kilometer from the nearest water. “We thought it was a practical joke when we were told,” Karina Moore from Devonport Council said yesterday. The council called in Parks and Wildlife officials who sedated the seal, which they named Sammy, before moving him to a beach and releasing him.
MALAWI
Child sex provider arrested
Police on Tuesday arrested a man who said he was hired by families to have sex with more than 100 young women, including children, in what was described as ritual cleansing. President Peter Mutharika ordered the arrest of Eric Aniva, who told local and international media he had been paid to have sex with young girls. Aniva also told the media he was HIV-positive. Aniva was charged with multiple cases of defilement, Police Inspector General Lexten Kachama said. In interviews, Aniva claimed to be a paid sex worker, known as a “hyena,” hired by families and village elders in the south to have sex with young girls once they reach puberty as a form of ritual cleansing.
UNITED STATES
Beyonce leads MTV nods
Beyonce on Tuesday led nominations for the MTV Video Music Awards, as she basked in acclaim for her intertwined film-album Lemonade. The pop diva was in the running for 11 awards at MTV’s annual extravaganza, which is to take place on Aug. 28 at New York’s Madison Square Garden, a shift from the more common venue in Los Angeles. Adele came in second with eight nominations. All but seven were for the chart-topping English balladeer’s Hello, which, with more than 1.6 billion views, is the fifth-most watched video on YouTube.
UNITED STATES
Three charged in NY heist
Three New Yorkers were arrested and charged on Tuesday after criminals blow-torched their way into bank vaults and stole more than US$5 million in a plot akin to Robert de Niro’s heist film Heat. The Brooklyn suspects were detained after a painstaking police and FBI investigation into the robberies at an HSBC branch in Brooklyn in April and a Maspeth Federal Savings Bank branch in Queens in May, officials said. They were part of a crew that cut through roofs and into the vaults using acetylene torches, hiding from view by building a plywood shed on the roof, officials said. Breaking open deposit boxes, they snatched millions in cash, diamonds, jewelry and other valuables, prosecutors said. That included US$330,000 in cash and valuables from HSBC, and US$296,000 in cash and US$4.3 million in valuables from the Maspeth bank.
UNITED STATES
Cop quits over on-duty sex
A Wisconsin police officer resigned after an internal investigation found he had sex nearly 100 times on duty. Hudson Police Chief Marty Jensen on Tuesday confirmed that Officer John Worden stepped down in May, after first being placed on administrative leave. The Star-Observer reported a woman filed a complaint with police in April, saying she had been in a relationship with Worden. The woman reported having sex with Worden in or outside of his police SUV or at her home. The newspaper quoted Worden as saying he “screwed up.”
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
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