SYDNEY — An upper-class former solicitor who misappropriated over $6 million destined for charities and medical bodies to buy a home in Bondi, a suburb of eastern Sydney in New South Wales, Australia, and make his retirement more comfortable, was on March 16 jailed for 10 years. In addition to $4.4 million bound for charities and hospitals, Mark Leo O’Brien, 64, also diverted a $1.7 million aged-care refundable deposit and smaller amounts — taking the total taken beyond $6.2 million. O’Brien stole millions bequeathed by two clients from his Edgecliff-based firm Harrington, Maguire and O’Brien between 2015 and 2018, including $2.74…
Author: zenger.news
MAUN, Botswana — Coexistence with wildlife is the norm for many communities in northern Botswana. But with increasing numbers of human deaths from animals attacks — particularly by elephants — few solutions are in sight. Though projects have been carried out under government auspices in the past decade in an attempt to deal with the problem, there is still no policy in northern Botswana that addresses human-wildlife conflict. Local communities rely on subsistence farming for their livelihood, resulting in agricultural encroachment on wildlife habitat. Also, the economy benefits from tourism in areas of the north, including Maun, Chobe and Okavango Delta.…
SYDNEY — The NSW Greens will introduce a bill to strengthen the state’s sexual consent laws, following Victoria and Tasmania’s footsteps. Greens spokeswoman for women’s rights, Jenny Leong, formally notified the NSW parliament on Tuesday she will introduce the Crimes Amendment (Enthusiastic Consent) Bill as a private member’s bill. The bill will reform definitions of consent, non-consent, and knowledge of consent to make it easier for victims to get justice. Ms. Leong said there were “huge problems” with current sexual assault laws, with definitions of consent heavily favoring perpetrators. “These laws need urgent reform so that victim-survivors can get justice,” she…
CANBERRA, Australia — Australian stars have traded the bright lights of Hollywood for Canberra’s corridors of power in a bid to get more local shows on Netflix. Actors Simon Baker, Bryan Brown, Marta Dusseldorp, and Justine Clarke joined producers and senior screen industry representatives at Parliament House on Tuesday. The group wants the government to stamp a 20 percent local content guarantee into law for streaming sites like Netflix and Stan. This would mean that 20 percent of a streaming service’s Australian revenue would go towards local content. US film productions have descended on Australia during the coronavirus pandemic due to its…
CANBERRA, Australia — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison urged coalition troops to remain united as his government faces battles on multiple fronts, including the treatment of women in workplaces and the parliament and the coronavirus vaccines’ roll-out. “We’ve been on narrow paths before colleagues, and we’ve walked them together,” Morrison told the Liberal and Nationals members of the parliament on March 16. “Sometimes the path is wide, and the walk is gentler. But, the path is now narrow, so we must watch out for each other and must support each other.” The prime minister compared the government’s situation with being on a narrow…
CANBERRA, Australia — Thousands of Australians have rallied across the country, calling on political leaders to make greater strides towards equality and ending violence towards women. Crowds were out on the streets of Australia chanting, “enough is enough.” They gathered in front of the front lawns of Parliament House in Canberra, within a few hundred meters of where political leaders can make the changes protesters seek. Thousands joined rallies in Australia’s major cities, i.e., Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Hobart, on Monday, March 15. On March 4, justice organizer Janine Hendry called for equality. “We also need a systematic change from our…
CANBERRA, Australia — Women with a disability were more than twice as likely to report sexual violence in the past year compared to women without disability, states a report. The report, “ Nature and extent of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation against people with disability in Australia,” was commissioned by the Disability Royal Commission and compiled by the Centre of Research Excellence in Disability and Health. The increased risk of sexual violence faced by young women generally can be compounded by barriers faced by people living with a disability, said Georgina Sutherland, one of the study’s authors. “They’re pretty horrific, the statistics, but it’s not…
SYDNEY — Attorney-General Christian Porter has launched defamation action against the American Broadcasting Company, seeking aggravated damages over an article about a historical rape allegation. Mr. Porter has lodged a statement of claim in Sydney’s Federal Court regarding an article published on February 26. “Scott Morrison, senators and AFP told of a historical rape allegation against Cabinet Minister,” said the headline of the article. It was republished via Twitter and Facebook by reporter Louise Milligan and set off a swathe of social media and internet postings over subsequent days. Mr. Porter’s lawyers allege the story – which did not name him…
MUMBAI, India — After a gap of five years, India put up a fourth-generation (4G) telecom spectrum worth 2,308.8 megahertz for auction with a price tag of INR 3.92 trillion ($54 billion). Though only about 855.6 megahertz was sold for INR 77,814 crore ($10.7 billion), the government said the amount was “much higher than what was anticipated”. “Our estimate was INR 45,000 crore to INR 50,000 crore ($6.2 billion to $6.8 billion),” Anshu Prakash, secretary of India’s Department of Telecommunications, said after the conclusion of the auctions earlier this month. In these five years, the telecom landscape in India has undergone…
Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly says the vaccine chosen as the country’s mainstay is safe and effective, despite some European countries temporarily suspending its use over blood clot concerns. Most Australians will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine for Covid-19, the first doses of which have been imported, but most will be made by the biotechnology company CSL in Melbourne. The Netherlands has stopped using the coronavirus vaccine for at least two weeks, while Ireland has halted its rollout over concerns about side effects. Denmark, Norway and Iceland have already halted use of the vaccine, while authorities investigate whether it is…