AUSTRALIA
‘Savage’ killer jailed
An Australian man was yesterday jailed for 36 years for the rape and murder of Arab-Israeli student Aya Maasarwe in Melbourne. Codey Herrmann, now 21, is to spend at least 30 years in prison for the January murder that Victorian Supreme Court judge Elizabeth Hollingworth described as a “savage attack.” The body of 21-year-old Maasarwe was found by passers-by near a tram stop in outer Melbourne just hours after she was attacked on her way home. She was killed after getting off a tram near the university where she was completing a year-long exchange. There was an outpouring of grief among Melbournians, who held emotional vigils after the murder, with thousands of protesters taking to the streets calling for an end to violence against women.
INDIA
Toddler stuck in well dies
The body of a two-year-old boy trapped 26m down a well since Friday was recovered yesterday, authorities said. Sujith Wilson was the second toddler in four months to grab nationwide attention after falling into the 30cm diameter pipe while playing near his home in Tiruchirappalli District, Tamil Nadu State. A post-mortem examination would be carried out to determine the cause of death, district official S. Sivarasu told reporters. Rescuers said Wilson was unconscious but breathing until Sunday morning, but they had been unable to check his condition since then as he had slipped further down.
SINGAPORE
UK ex-headmaster jailed
A British former headmaster of an international school in China has been jailed for 10 months after admitting possession and consumption of methamphetamine, officials said yesterday. Damien Michael Charnock, 60, used to be the head of Dulwich College Shanghai, a branch of the exclusive London private school. Police arrested Charnock in March at an apartment and discovered bags containing the drug and a glass contraption for smoking it, court documents showed. Charnock pleaded guilty to three drug charges, and the attorney-general’s chambers confirmed he was jailed on Friday.
CAMBODIA
Search on for missing Briton
Police said they had questioned at least 20 people, but made no arrests as they continued the search for a 21-year-old British woman who went missing last week. Divers, land-based teams and police drones have been enlisted in the search for Amelia Bambridge, who was last seen on Thursday leaving for a beach party on the island of Koh Rong, which is popular with backpackers. Preah Sihanouk Provincial Police Chief Chuon Narin said at least 20 people had been questioned on whether they met Bambridge the night of the party. He added that he feared she might have drowned.
AUSTRALIA
Shark attacks two Britons
A shark yesterday bit off a British tourist’s foot and mauled another British tourist’s leg, as the men snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef, officials said. The men aged 22 and 28 had been on a snorkeling tour in the Whitsunday Islands when they were attacked, tour organizer ZigZag Whitsundays said. They were brought 11km bo boat to the mainland town of Airlie Beach where paramedics were waiting for them, Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman Mel Mangan said. They were then flown by helicopter south to a hospital in the city of Mackay in serious, but stable conditions, RACQ CQ Rescue said.
EL SALVADOR
US extends stay for 190,000
The US has extended a measure allowing 190,000 Salvadoreans to remain and work legally in the country, President Nayib Bukele said on Monday. Temporary protected status was created in 2001 and granted to Salvadoreans already in the US following two devastating earthquakes in El Salvador. The status was scheduled to end on Jan. 2, but has been extended by a year. About 3 million Salvadoreans live in the US. Last year, they sent home almost US$5.5 billion in remittances to family members, accounting for close to 16 percent of GDP.
GUINEA-BISSAU
President axes government
The president on Monday announced that he is dismissing the government with immediate effect, throwing the country into further chaos and casting doubt over next month’s election. President Jose Mario Vaz’s decree, read out over national radio, said that the “serious political crisis” in the country “prevents the normal operation of some institutions” and led to his decision to dismiss the government. Vaz’s five-year mandate ended on June 23, but he is staying on temporarily under a mediation plan forged by the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States. The Supreme Court this month said that it had approved 12 candidates, including Vaz.
UKRAINE
Driver trades fares for songs
An Uber driver is offering his passengers rides for a song by refunding their bill if they appear on his YouTube channel performing their favorite tunes. Andriy Turko has fitted a karaoke system in his cab in a drive to discover new musical talent in his home city of Vinnytsia. Anyone who agrees to be filmed using it for his “Crazytaho Karaoke” channel gets their Uber fee paid back in cash. “They are people who sing songs, they are people who want to sing, but their talent is not discovered yet,” the 41-year-old former nightclub master of ceremonies said. “Maybe they used to write poems or compose songs. And I want to offer those people an open platform.”
UNITED STATES
People flock to ‘Joker’ steps
Move over, Rocky, there is a new stairway to climb. A set of outdoor steps in the Bronx has become a tourist attraction in the past few weeks since the release of the movie Joker. In the movie, lead actor Joaquin Phoenix dances as he goes down the steps, wearing a bright red suit and clown makeup. These days, residents using the steps are being joined by tourists trying to recreate the scene. The visitors have been taking selfies and some have even shown up in costume, but not everyone is thrilled with the upsurge in popularity. “We live in the neighborhood, it’s taking up all of our time, we’re all being inconvenienced,” resident Cathyrine Spencer said.
UNITED STATES
Bus extracted from sinkhole
A bus that was partially swallowed when a sinkhole opened during morning rush hour in downtown Pittsburgh has been removed from the hole. The Port Authority of Allegheny County said that the driver and a 56-year-old female passenger were aboard the bus when it plunged into the hole on Monday morning. The passenger was treated at a hospital and released, officials said. Pittsburgh Public Safety Department Director Wendell Hissrich said that the bus was sitting on three power lines, two of them 22,000-volt lines. There are also fiber-optic cables, damage to which could affect communications in the tri-state area, he said. The lines and pipes are to be assessed and repaired.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
SPIRITUAL COUPLE: Martha Louise has said she can talk with angels, while her husband, Durek Verrett, claims that he communicates with a broad range of spirits Social media influencers, reality stars and TV personalities were among the guests as the Norwegian king’s eldest child, Princess Martha Louise, married a self-professed US shaman on Saturday in a wedding ceremony following three days of festivities. The 52-year-old Martha Louise and Durek Verrett, who claims to be a sixth-generation shaman from California, tied the knot in the picturesque small town of Geiranger, one of Norway’s major tourist attractions located on a fjord with stunning views. Following festivities that started on Thursday, the actual wedding ceremony took place in a large white tent set up on a lush lawn. Guests
Four days after last scanning in for work, a 60-year-old office worker in Arizona was found dead in a cubicle at her workplace, having never left the building during that time, authorities said. Denise Prudhomme, who worked at a Wells Fargo corporate office, was found dead in a third-floor cubicle on Aug. 20, Tempe police said. She had last scanned into the building on Aug. 16 at 7am, police said. There was no indication she scanned out of the building after that. Prudhomme worked in an underpopulated area of the building. Her cause of death had not been determined, but police said the preliminary
‘DISCONNECTED’: Politics is one factor driving news avoidance, a professor said, adding that people who do not trust the government are more likely to tune it out Hannah Wong cried when the Hong Kong government effectively forced the territory’s Apple Daily and Stand News out of business three years ago. Among the last news firms in the territory willing to criticize the government openly, many saw their end as a sign that the old Hong Kong was gone for good. Today, the 35-year-old makeup artist says she has gone from reading the news every day to reducing her intake drastically to protect herself from despair. Four years into a crackdown on dissent that has swept up democracy-leaning journalists, rights advocates and politicians in the territory, a lot of people
RSS