SYDNEY — Rainfall lashing the New South Wales coast in southeastern Australia is so heavy that it is not just inconvenient but dangerous, with motorists told to take “extreme care,” and flash flooding forecasted across the state. A deluge set to last until next week is battering the coast, with more than 200 millimeters already recorded in some regions. “Catchments are already soaked, and it won’t take much rainfall for flooding to occur,” said Agata Imielska, senior climatologist of the Bureau of Meteorology, on March 18. “It’s the difference between being inconveniently wet to conditions drastically changing to being dangerously wet,” said…
Author: zenger.news
CANBERRA, Australia — Big businesses have urged the Scott Morrison government in Australia not to entirely abandon the rest of its industrial relations reforms after only a sliver ended up being stamped into law. The government of Australia dumped the majority of its reforms on Thursday, March 18, including wage theft provisions. Provisions that criminalize wage theft, changes to enterprise bargaining, award simplification, and extended long-term pay agreements for major projects were also thrown out. An alliance of business groups, including the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Ai Group, wants the rest of it…
SYDNEY — A man from the United States has been found guilty of murder after he claimed in an Australian court that he dumped a body on the side of the road to help a friend but did not kill anyone. Alex Dion, 40, was accused of murdering small-time drug dealer Wachira ‘Mario’ Phetmang after his body was found bound and gagged in Sydney Olympic Park in June 2018. The jury had been deliberating for nearly three days when it returned its verdict at the Supreme Court of New South Wales on Thursday, March 18, after the 40-year-old had been extradited…
SYDNEY — A 31-year-old Sydney man will face a further 152 charges alleging sexual abuse of young children and filming it to share online. The man from Saint Clair in west Sydney was charged with 44 child abuse offenses, including multiple counts of sexual intercourse with children under 10, and is now facing a total of 196 charges relating to child sexual abuse. He was arrested in May 2020 under Operation Arkstone, a large-scale investigation into a global online network of alleged child sex offenders. Operation Arkstone began in February 2020 following a report to the Australian Federal Police-led Australian Centre to Counter…
SINGAPORE — This Singaporean man lost a staggering 126 kilograms (278pounds) of weight by just delivering food on his bike for the past four years. Riz Fox, 37, said his weight dropped from 200 kilograms (441 pounds) to 74 kilograms (163 pounds). He said he recently took up weightlifting to tone his remaining flab into muscle, in the process gaining a few extra lbs, and now weighs 85 kilograms (187 pounds). Fox shared images of his achievement in a Facebook group for couriers on March 10, drawing praise from fellow deliverymen. His job as a deliveryman began when he started cycling around the…
MUNICH — A German hotelier spent a whopping $400,000 on four paintings /in the famous auction, which had articles of the long-lost treasure of the ‘Last Bavarian King’ Ludwig III in Munich. The auction took place at the Neumeister Auction House in the German city, which sold some Bavarian Royal Family’s valuable artwork and artifacts on March 15. A total of 80 objects were auctioned individually, including silver and porcelain pieces and paintings originally in possession of the House of Wittelsbach, the Royal Bavarian dynasty. The long-lost treasure of King Ludwig III was auctioned in the Neumeister Art Auction House in…
GALAȚI, Romania — This loaf baked in 1892 has been recognized as the oldest bread in the world after decades of being lost in a museum vault during Romania’s Communist era. The record has been recognized by the World Record Academy in Miami in the US. The loaf was baked in Italy in summer 1892. It was presented at the Italo-American Exhibition in Genoa that year to mark the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America. The 129-year-old loaf is on display at the Paul Paltanea Museum, a history and archeology museum in the Romanian city of Galati. The loaf was baked in…
WOLLONGONG, Australia — A Wollongong restaurant has been fined over 100,000 Australian dollars (USD 77,134) after the New South Wales Supreme Court found its food safety management lacking. The restaurant had served up a deadly plate of hummus that took the life of a customer. Nathan Anderson visited Samaras Lebanese and Mediterranean Restaurant after a day of golf with friends on Oct. 27, 2017, joking about his allergies. “After hearing our banter, the restaurant front-of-house manager Alyca Nemer promised that Anderson could be served without the allergens he listed, which included peanuts, shellfish, eggs, and sesame seeds,” said one of Anderson’s…
MOUNT ISA, Australia — A former Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a schoolboy at a remote parish almost 50 years ago in Mount Isa, northwest Queensland, and informed police the teenager had the “wrong bloke.” Neville Joseph Creen, 80, denied indecently abusing the teenager, where he served as a priest in the 1970s. He admitted being in the Catholic ministry but denied all the allegations in an interview. “I have never touched the boy,” said Creen in a Brisbane court. “It is a gross injustice that I am being accused of.” As per Katrina Overell, the crown prosecutor, the alleged…
BOTANY, Australia — A leading senior constable has been sacked for sending a series of racist, homophobic, and sexist messages to New South Wales Police Force colleagues in a WhatsApp group. In the chat involving officers in the Botany Bay Local Area Command, Calvin Dunne referred to an Indigenous colleague as a “coon” and used the racist slur to say Indigenous people “don’t date … they steal”. Several messages about two constables included the word “faggot” and discussed their sexual relationships, while Mr. Dunne also told colleagues to “go down on each other.” Mr. Dunne was sacked in November 2019 after…