INDIA
Death follows Facebook spat
A 17-year-old has committed suicide after a row with her parents who told her she had to stop using Facebook, police said yesterday. College student Aishwarya Dahiwal was found hanging in her bedroom on Wednesday after an argument with her parents in Maharashtra State’s Parbhani city, an investigating officer said, declining to be named. “On Wednesday night, she had an argument with her parents who told her not to just use Facebook and her mobile all day for chatting,” the officer said. “They told her to focus on her studies. After the argument, she locked herself in her room and was found hanging later, with a suicide note nearby,” he said.
AUSTRALIA
Dead mom cash shocker
An elderly woman lay dead for months in her home as her adult daughter, who apparently used air freshener to mask the smell, fraudulently accessed her bank accounts, police said yesterday. The body of the 83-year-old was found in the bedroom of her Sydney home a week ago, but a post-mortem suggested she had been dead for months. Her 48-year-old daughter, receptionist Melissa Peacock, who was believed to be her primary carer, was not at the premises. On Thursday she was discovered at a luxury hotel in Sydney and arrested, police said. “She was arrested and charged with failing to report a death and dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception,” they said in a statement. “Police will allege the woman had been fraudulently obtaining money from her deceased mother’s bank accounts on a number of occasions.” A court yesterday heard that Peacock told police her mother died on July 28 and that after finding the body she walked from the bedroom, shut the door and had not re-entered since, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. However, the court was told forensic evidence indicated attempts were made to keep the room clean after the woman’s death, including changing the sheets and using air freshener, the report said.
CHINA
Irate patient kills doctor
A man unhappy with the results of an operation on his nose stabbed a doctor to death and wounded two others yesterday, state media reported, in at least the third such attack in a week in which China promised to improve hospital security. The 33-year-old man, surnamed Lian, carried out the attack at a hospital in Wenling City in Zhejiang Province, Xinhua news agency reported. Lian had gone to the ear, nose and throat department looking for the doctor who treated him, but he was not there. He pulled out a knife and stabbed the head of the department instead, Xinhua said. Lian also stabbed two other doctors before he was restrained. Earlier in the week, a man killed himself by jumping from a hospital building after stabbing a doctor six times in Liaoning Province after a disagreement over complications from surgery on his arm. Two doctors were also beaten up by angry family members of a patient who died in hospital in Guangdong Province.
NORWAY
Man shot while on toilet
A Norwegian hunter took aim at a moose, but missed and accidentally hit a man sitting on the toilet in a nearby cabin on Thursday, police said. The bullet whizzed past the animal, pierced the wooden wall behind it and struck the man, in his seventies, in the stomach, police told public broadcaster NRK. The victim was flown to hospital, but his injury was not life threatening, said Anders Stroemsaether, the policeman who led the investigation. The hunter was taken in for questioning in Hvaler district, about 120km southeast of Oslo, police said. The moose escaped unscathed.
AUSTRIA
Shell prompts evacuation
Austrian state broadcaster ORF reported a tank shell was on offer as a dummy on a trading Web site. It says police had to clear a Vienna apartment house of its residents and put up road blocks after establishing that it was in fact a fully functional explosive. Thursday’s report said police were called to examine the shell by its new owner shortly after she had exchanged two bottles of wine and a picture frame for it. ORF said the shell’s previous owner had used it as a doorstop. The report says both women face unspecified criminal charges.
SOUTH AFRICA
Lion protest ban quashed
A South African court ruled on Thursday it was unconstitutional to ban an advertising campaign by an activist group urging South African President Jacob Zuma to stop the trade in lion bones. The adverts at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport, the country’s main port of entry, featured a lioness looking down the barrel of a gun with the text “President Zuma can save her life.” Airport authorities pulled down the posters in August last year, just nine days into campaign group Avaaz’s month-long contract. The Johannesburg High Court ordered that the adverts be reinstated after Avaaz accused Airports Company South Africa of violating its right to freedom of expression.
UNITED STATES
Toxic tush ‘surgeon’ jailed
A transgender US woman who claimed to be a surgeon and reportedly injected adhesives and cement into a woman’s bottom was sentenced on Thursday to a year in jail. Oneal Ron Morris, 32, accepted a plea deal for one count of illegal practice of healthcare in what became known as the “toxic tush” case, in Miami Gardens, Florida. Another suit is pending against Morris, involving the death of a woman who was one of her patients. Prosecutors said on Thursday they could not determine exactly what substances Morris injected in women.
UKRAINE
Boxer to run for president
Heavyweight boxer and opposition politician Vitaly Klitschko said on Thursday he would run for president in 2015. Klitschko, 42, the reigning World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion, made his declaration to parliament after its deputies — predominantly from the ruling Party of Regions and its allies — amended a law on tax legislation in a way that could be used to prevent him from running for the presidency. He is the first declared contender against incumbent President Viktor Yanukovych, who is widely expected to seek a second term despite a slump in popularity because of Ukraine’s faltering economy. The 2m tall Klitschko said: “Everything that has taken place in parliament today with texts of laws, directly backed by ruling party deputies, does not intimidate me and will not stop me."
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
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