AUSTRALIA
Father of child bride jailed
A man who consented to an Islamic “marriage” ceremony between his 12-year-old daughter and a man more than twice her age was yesterday jailed for at least six years. The 63-year-old father, who cannot be named to protect the girl’s identity, was found guilty in April of procuring a child under the age of 14 for unlawful sexual activity and encouraging the pair to have intercourse despite denying the charges. “[The man] failed in his duty to his daughter,” Judge Deborah Sweeney said during sentencing at the Downing Centre District Court in Sydney. The court had earlier heard that he wanted to save the girl from what he considered the sin of having sex outside marriage, so when she reached puberty, he decided she should wed. When a 26-year-old Lebanese man, in Australia on a student visa, showed interest in her, the father consented to a marriage, which was carried out by a local sheikh last year at his home about 250km north of Sydney. On the night of the wedding, the pair went to a hotel with the father’s permission. They had sex there and twice more at the father’s home the following weekend.
SPAIN
‘Baby dumper’ arrested
Police on Thursday arrested a Colombian woman for allegedly dumping her newborn baby in a rubbish bin. The boy, who is about 10 days old, was found by police on Wednesday in a bin in the village of Mejorada del Campo, about 20km east of Madrid. The tiny infant, who escaped serious harm, was found in a backpack concealed in a plastic bag. Madrid Prefect Concepcion Dancausa told reporters that a baby’s bottle found next to the child led to the mother. The brand of bottle was one used by the local Alcala de Henares hospital. By examining the hospital’s recent birth records, they discovered the name of a 37-year-old Colombian woman who lived just next to where the child was dumped, Dancausa said. The woman initially denied disposing of her baby, but later confessed, the prefect added.
ITALY
Animals given showers, AC
Farmers are installing showers and air conditioning (AC) in cowsheds and pigsties to allow the animals to freshen up in the baking summer heat, an agriculture group said on Thursday. Farm animals in Italy — particularly in the muggy agricultural heartland around the Po river near Milan — are under stress as the mercury approaches 40oC in the hottest July for more than a decade. Cows produced 50 million liters less milk than usual in the first 15 days of the month and chickens laid between 5 and 10 percent fewer eggs, the group said in a statement.
UNITED KINGDOM
Nessie a ‘catfish’: watcher
A man who has spent 24 years scanning Scotland’s Loch Ness for its legendary mysterious monster reckons Nessie is most likely a giant catfish — although he is not prepared to give up looking just yet. Steve Feltham, who holds a Guinness World Record for the longest continuous Nessie vigil, says it is the most probable explanation for the enigmatic beast that has captivated people’s imaginations the world over. Feltham left his home and girlfriend in 1991 to go looking for Nessie and has spent the years since in a caravan on the lake shore, scanning the waters. Feltham said he would keep searching for the definitive conclusion. “We still have this world-class mystery and for the next several decades, I hope to carry on trying to find the answer,” he said.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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