WITH the latest season of The X Factor in full swing, the Seven network is pulling out all stops with an eclectic mix of international guest judges to join the show.
THE moment I stepped into St Tropez's legendary beach club, Le Club 55, I wanted, what is probably the coolest mound of earth in the entire universe, to swallow me up. I got the dress code wrong.
THOUSANDS of people have marched to protest alleged police inaction after a 6-year-old girl was raped at a school in Bangalore, India's technology hub.
MORE than 4000 parents and relatives of children who attend the school shouted slogans against the school's administration on Saturday and demanded police arrest those involved in the July 2 incident, which was only reported this week.
The rape has raised questions about the safety of India's schoolchildren and sparked nationwide outrage over rampant sexual violence against girls and women. The school has refused to take responsibility for the crime.The protesters squatted outside a police station and refused to move until the city's police chief assured them suspects would be arrested.Police said eight members of the school's staff had been detained for questioning.SEVEN people have been killed in an armed assault on a bus in southern Kenya.
THE attack happened on Friday night at Corner Mbaya, 5 kilometres from the coastal town of Witu, Kenya Red Cross says.
Two of those killed were security officials and five were civilians, the humanitarian group said on Saturday.Authorities believe many of the passengers in the 52-seater bus fled into a nearby forest.Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militants from Somalia have claimed responsibility.THE bodies of 20 soldiers who died during the Battle of Fromelles in World War I have been formally laid to rest on the 98th anniversary of the bloody operation.
IN a touching rededication in northern France on Saturday morning, the 20 soldiers - who were buried in a mass grave of 250 Australian and British troops on the outskirts of Fromelles village in 1916 - were given their own headstones after DNA identification was completed on the eve of Anzac Day.
The horrific death toll from the Battle of Fromelles, in which 5500 Australians were killed or wounded, is described as the worst 24-hour period in Australian military history.Relatives of the diggers wept as the Last Post echoed across the French countryside, then placed wooden poppy crosses at the graves of their great-grandfathers and great-uncles."In the cemetery lie men once lost, now found, but never forgotten," Veterans' Affairs Minister Michael Ronaldson said.Senator Ronaldson recalled the story of Private Edgar Parham, a 37-year-old baker from South Australia who was mortally wounded at Fromelles.In his final moments, Pte Parham handed his compact Bible, which had been lovingly inscribed by his mother, to a German soldier.Twenty years on, the German soldier enlisted his brother to return the book to the fallen Australian's family.His mother, aged 87, had retrieved her lost son's last possession."And today, Edgar had been given the final resting place his mother had dreamt of," Senator Ronaldson said.Relatives of all 20 diggers attended on Saturday. Some were draped in Australian flags; most who had flown from Australia solely to say their goodbyes.Michael White, who had travelled with his family from Perth to honour his great-uncle Private Adolf Thompson Knable, said the ceremony brought a sense of closure to their sorrow.The gravestone of Pte Knable reads: "He rests at peace neath foreign skies. We are at peace with where he lies.""When we got there and saw what was on the headstone, it was very moving," Mr White said.The Chief of the Australian Army, Lieutenant-General David Morrison, joined other local government representatives in laying wreaths at the conclusion of the ceremony."Today we pay tribute to those soldiers who came from across the channel and from the other side of the world," said the Northern Department's Prefect for Equal Opportunity, Kleber Arhoul."Through their sacrifices they demonstrated to the world their values that bring us together once again: courage, a sense of duty and the obligation to defend freedom."Ninety-eight years later, we must remember their sacrifice at Fromelles."Senator Ronaldson said the large turnout for the event was a reminder that the cost of war continued to resonate across the generations."That we live free today has come at a great cost," he said."Our freedom was paid for in the blood of the men who lie here."AT least nine people were killed and 43 hurt on Saturday when a coach carrying Polish holidaymakers collided with another Polish minibus near the eastern German city of Dresden.
THE crash happened in the early hours of Saturday morning on the A4 motorway that links Poland and Germany.
All seven people in the smaller minibus died, along with two people in the double-decker coach, according to the Bild daily.German authorities say the accident also caused several serious injuries.Police have identified six of the nine dead as Polish nationals. The 43 injured were rushed to nearby hospitals.According to early indications, the Polish coach crashed into a Ukrainian coach in front of it, skidding across the motorway and before colliding with the Polish minibus, which was travelling in the other direction.Police temporarily blocked the motorway in both directions and authorities warned that traffic could be even more dense than usual because the accident coincided with the start of summer school holidays in the region.According to Polish travel company Sindbad, which operates the coach, there were 65 passengers on board and three crew. The majority were Polish.AT least 22 people have been killed and 74 wounded in five car bombings that hit several parts of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
THE apparently synchronised attacks occurred in southern and northern Baghdad, targeting neighbourhoods mostly inhabited by Shi'ites.
The deadliest bombing took place in the northern district of Khadimiya, leaving seven people dead and 19 injured, an unnamed security official told independent news site Almada Press on Saturday.Iraq has suffered increasing violence during the last year, much of it blamed on the radical Sunni group, Islamic State, and aimed at security forces and Shi'ite civilians.Last month, the splinter al-Qaeda group, which controls areas in eastern Syria, also seized large chunks of territory in Iraq's Sunni heartland in the north and west, raising international fears about the emergence of a regional militant enclave.According to the UN, 5600 civilians have been killed in Iraq this year.Last Updated: July 19, 2014
A MASSACHUSETTS man has been sentenced to probation after being found guilty of trespassing at singer Taylor Swift's seaside mansion in Rhode Island.
A WESTERN Sydney teenager has become Australia's second suicide bomber, blowing himself up in a brutal terrorist attack which killed at least five people in a Baghdad market.
EVERYONE wants more money right? But we might be going about it the wrong way. Here are the mistakes to avoid when negotiating your pay.
IF Michael Maguire is ever crowned a mastercoach, he can point to the 66th minute of Friday's match as the moment those exalted stripes were earned.
ROBERT Townley gets 100 matches a day on Tinder. But this 25-year-old isn't using the dating app to get laid. He's using it for an awesome social experiment.
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The Duke of Cambridge has spoken about the special place Australia holds for him. Source: AAP
PRINCE William has sung Australia's praises, dubbing it "young, innovative, caring and cool" as he unveiled a statue of the man who literally put the country on the map.
THE life-size bronze figure of British explorer Matthew Flinders, the first man to circumnavigate the country and pen the name Australia, was unveiled by the Duke of Cambridge in a ceremony at Australia House in London on Friday morning.
After uncloaking the statue, which will take pride of place at London's Euston Railway Station, William spoke about his recent visit Down Under with wife Catherine and son George."Australia is a very dear country to me and Catherine, and so I am particularly honoured to have been invited today to celebrate a man who did far more than anyone to place Australia - quite literally - on the map," he told guests at the ceremony.Flinders is particularly important in South Australia where the Flinders Ranges, Flinders Chase National Park, Flinders Street in Adelaide, and Flinders University are named after him, and it was South Australian government officials in the UK that led the two-year project to have the explorer immortalised.William spoke specifically of his trip to South Australia, and his visit to the Northern Sound System organisation."There, we met young people - some from very difficult backgrounds - who were turning their lives around through the power of music," he said."The place was Australia at its very best: young, innovative, caring, cool ... it was a truly uplifting place."South Australia's Agent General to London, Bill Muirhead, said Flinders, who was 27 when he completed the map of Australia, was an example of what one could achieve when they held fast to an idea."I hope that from today his story becomes much more widely appreciated in his home country," he said.The statue, which shows the British navigator at work over a stylised map of Australia, accompanied by his cat Trim, will be installed at Euston on Saturday morning.It was also announced at Friday's ceremony that money left over from the project will be used for a Matthew Flinders Memorial Statue Scholarship, which will fund British students to study at Flinders University, and students of Flinders University looking to study in the UK.A Malaysian airliner carrying 295 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur has crashed in the Ukraine. Source: AAP
GLOBAL demands are mounting to find those responsible for apparently shooting down a Malaysian airliner over rebel-held eastern Ukraine as relatives around the world mourn the deaths of the almost 300 people aboard.
LOCAL emergency crews are picking through terrible carnage at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, placing dozens of sticks with white rags in the ground to mark where bodies lay.
The Boeing 777 was carrying 28 Australians together with Dutch, Malay, Indonesian and other nationals when it came down in cornfields in the separatist-held region on Thursday, spraying debris and body parts for kilometres around, with the United States claiming it was shot down in a missile attack.Kiev accused pro-Russian separatists battling Ukrainian forces of committing a "terrorist act" as stunned world leaders urged a full investigation into the disaster, which could further fan the flames of the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War.The United States demanded an "unimpeded" international inquiry into the tragedy and rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin's charge that Ukraine's crackdown on separatist rebels stoked tensions that led to the crash."While we do not yet have all the facts, we do know that this incident occurred in the context of a crisis in Ukraine that is fuelled by Russian support for the separatists, including through arms, material, and training," the White House said in a statement.News of the crash sent world stock markets tumbling. Shares in Malaysia Airlines, still afflicted by the trauma and global stigma of flight MH370's disappearance four months ago, plummeted almost 18 per cent on Friday morning.In the Netherlands, tears welled up in the eyes of Sander Essers, who lost several relatives in the crash, as he said he had spoken to his brother just 20 minutes before he boarded.Malaysia Airlines said 283 passengers and 15 crew were aboard the plane - including at least 173 Dutch nationals, 43 Malaysians, 28 Australians and 12 Indonesians - many on board delegates heading to Australia for a global AIDS conference.Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the crash was "not an accident, but a crime" and blasted Russia's response to the downing of the jet as "deeply unsatisfactory".Local rescue workers at the scene said at least one of the plane's black boxes had been found and mediators said rebels had committed to allowing international investigators "safe access" to the site, as US President Barack Obama has warned against tampering with evidence among scattered debris.Interpol offered its "full assistance" to help identify and repatriate corpses.The UN Security Council called an emergency session on Friday to discuss the disaster and British Prime Minister David Cameron called a crisis meeting of top officials.Comments attributed to a pro-Russian rebel chief suggested his men may have downed the plane by mistake, believing it to be a Ukrainian army transport aircraft.Ukraine released recordings of what they said was an intercepted call between an insurgent commander and a Russian intelligence officer as they realised they had shot down a passenger liner.However, the rebels accused the Ukrainian military of shooting down the plane and Russia's defence ministry said Friday it had data indicating that a Ukrainian missile system was operating in the area.Putin has said Ukraine bears responsibility for the crash and said it underscored the need for a "peaceful settlement" to the Ukraine crisis in talks with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.The disaster comes just months after Malaysia Airline's Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 with 239 on board.That plane diverted from its Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight path and its fate remains a mystery despite a massive multinational aerial and underwater search."This is a tragic day, in what has already been a tragic year, for Malaysia," Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak told reporters early on Friday after announcing an "immediate investigation".Najib added that a team of disaster response specialists had been dispatched to Kiev and that authorities in Ukraine had agreed to try to establish "a humanitarian corridor to the crash site".German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged an immediate ceasefire to allow what Obama demanded should be a "prompt, full, credible and unimpeded international investigation."Top separatist leader Alexander Borodai agreed to allow investigators access to the crash site but said there was "no question of a ceasefire."Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk alleged that the rebel's Russian backers had gone "too far" and called for those behind the tragedy to be tried in The Hague.Delegates to attend a Melbourne AIDS conference were aboard a plane that crashed in the Ukraine. Source: AAP
THE tragic loss of delegates killed on the way to an AIDS conference in Melbourne should be used to push the life-saving agenda of the meeting, the UN AIDS chief says.
THE 20th International AIDS Conference was nearly cancelled after it emerged many of the 298 who died when Flight MH17 crashed in Ukraine were delegates and their family members.
The former president of the International AIDS Society (IAS) and "giant" of HIV research, Joep Lange, was on board.Organisers still don't know how many of the 12,000 researchers coming to Melbourne for the five-day conference were aboard MH17.Media reports put the number at 108, but a spokesman for the International Aids Society said there had been no confirmation of that figure.UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe said the tragedy should be used to bring the dreams of the delegates into reality."We should use this day, which is a very difficult day for us, to transform it," Mr Sidibe said in Melbourne on Friday."We should use this moment of sadness as a moment for us to push our agenda; our agenda for saving lives of millions of people."His sentiments were echoed by International AIDS Society president Francoise Barre-Sinoussi."The decision to go on, we were thinking about them because we know it's really what they would have liked us to do," Prof Barre-Sinoussi said.She said the number of delegates on the flight remains unknown."We don't have the confirmation (of numbers)," she said."We don't know how many were on that flight."US-based IAS president-elect Chris Beyrer told reporters in Melbourne it was not yet known how many "friends and colleagues" had been lost, but the death of Prof Lange meant "the HIV/AIDS movement has truly lost a giant".Delegates held a candle-lit vigil on Melbourne's Yarra Bridge on Friday evening.HIV worker Andrew Lesa, a delegate from New Zealand, said many of those who died were "giants in the industry"."Their loss will be a big loss to the movement," Mr Lesa told AAP.He said continuing with the conference was the best way to honour those who died."I don't think they would want it to be cancelled."The conference is the major scientific event for HIV, and speakers include former US president Bill Clinton and Sir Bob Geldof via video link, and UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe.The City of Melbourne cancelled a fireworks display that was to mark the opening of the conference.A spokesman for the World Health Organisation (WHO) was also among those killed.Glenn Thomas was headed to Melbourne for the AIDS conference on Flight MH17, WHO communications official Gregory Hartl has told reporters in Geneva."It is with deep sadness that WHO lost one of our colleagues in the Malaysia crash," Mr Hartl said.No other UN staff were on board the doomed flight, Mr Hartl said.KIA is recalling nearly 52,000 Soul small SUVs to fix a problem that can cause steering failure.
THE recall covers vehicles from the 2014 model year built from July 21, 2013, through January 17, 2014.
The Korean carmaker says a plug that secures a pinion gear to the steering assembly can loosen and cause the gear to separate.That can cause a driver to lose steering and increase the risk of a crash.Kia says in documents filed with US safety regulators that it has three warranty claims and no reports of crashes or injuries due to the problem.Dealers will replace the plug and apply thread-locking adhesive at no cost to owners. The recall is expected to start this month.THE 108 Australia-bound AIDS researchers, activists and health workers killed when the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet was shot down over the Ukraine are "martyrs" in the fight against the disease, former US president Bill Clinton says.
CLINTON, who will deliver an address to the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne on Wednesday, said he personally knew some of the victims aboard the plane.
"It's awful," Clinton told CNN."Those people are really in a way martyrs to the cause that we are going to Australia to talk about."Clinton has been one of the global leaders in the fight against AIDS and he described the deaths of so many AIDS experts as "sickening"."They were doing so much good," Clinton said."This gathering, we do this on a regular basis, have these international AIDS conferences and I try to go to all of them because I'm always so inspired by what other people are doing and what we can learn from them."Thinking about those people being knocked out of the sky is pretty tough."The AIDS conference, the largest of its kind in the world with 14,000 attendees, is scheduled to begin on Sunday.There were 298 passengers and crew on MH17, which took off from Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur.The passengers attending the AIDS conference were scheduled to catch connecting flights from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne.
