An Australian firm has come under fire for conducting tours of a New South Wales forest where notorious serial killer Ivan Milat buried his victims. Goulburn Ghost Tours has been taking groups to Belanglo, 120km (74 miles) south-west of Sydney. NSW Premier Mike Baird said the tour was “utterly outrageous” while a victim support group has condemned it. A company ...
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Bahrain rights campaigner Nabeel Rajab freed from jail
Bahraini human rights campaigner Nabeel Rajab has been pardoned by King Hamad after serving three months of a six-month jail sentence, the official BNA news agency has reported. The king made the order because of fears over Mr Rajab’s health, it said. An appeals court in May upheld the six-month prison sentence he had received. He is a member of ...
Read More »Thailand Phuketwan reporters face defamation charges
Two journalists are on trial in the southern Thai island of Phuket for allegedly defaming the Thai navy. Their charges stem from a July 2013 online article which included a paragraph, originally published by Reuters, on human trafficking. Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian of website Phuketwan, who pleaded not guilty, face up to seven years in jail. Reuters quoted an ...
Read More »Mexico offers $3.8m reward in hunt for escaped drug lord
Mexico is offering a reward of 60 million pesos ($3.8m) for the capture of the country’s most-wanted drug lord, who escaped from a top security prison. A huge manhunt is underway for Joaquin Guzman, who got out of his cell on Saturday through a 1.5km-long tunnel. Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said officials at the prison must have helped ...
Read More »Transgender troops could serve openly under US military plan
The US military is considering a plan that would allow transgender people to serve openly in the armed forces. “The Defence Department’s current regulations regarding transgender service members are outdated and are causing uncertainty,” US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said on Monday. Transgender people now serve in the military, but their experiences vary. Over the next six months, a group ...
Read More »Greece debt crisis: Creditors press for new proposals
Eurozone finance ministers say they expect to hear new proposals from Greece after the country voted to reject the terms of an international bailout. Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem described the referendum result as “very regrettable for the future of Greece”. Ministers are to hold emergency talks on Tuesday. Earlier, Greece’s outspoken finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, resigned. He said that eurozone ...
Read More »Three generations of the Mullan family from Dungiven graduate in Irish
Three generations of one family from Dungiven, County Londonderry, have graduated at the same time with a diploma in Irish. Odhrán Mullan, his aunt, Maria, and 82-year-old grandfather, John, were in the same class at the Ulster University at Magee. John Mullan was the oldest student in the class. Odhrán said he began studying the Irish language after being inspired ...
Read More »UN tribunal to begin South China Sea deliberation
A United Nations tribunal is to begin deliberations on whether it can hear a legal challenge over territorial claims in the South China Sea. In 2013, the Philippines asked the Permanent Court of Arbitration to declare invalid most of China’s maritime claims in the disputed area. China claims almost the whole of the South China Sea angering several Asian neighbours. ...
Read More »World’s oldest man Sakari Momoi dies at 112 in Japan
The world’s oldest man, Japanese supercentenarian Sakari Momoi, has died in Tokyo at the age of 112. The former high school principal and father of five children died of kidney failure in a care facility on Sunday. He had been named the oldest man by Guinness World Records in August. In April the world’s oldest person and oldest woman, Misao ...
Read More »Turkish Airlines plane grounded in Delhi after bomb threat
Police have searched an airliner at India’s Delhi airport after a bomb threat, officials say. Reports say the Turkish Airlines flight, flying from Bangkok to Istanbul, made an emergency landing after crew spotted a message on a toilet mirror written in lipstick. The message reportedly warned that there was a bomb in the cargo hold. The plane landed safely at ...
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