Australian Labor MP Linda Burney. Photo / AAP file
Australian Labor MP Linda Burney. Photo / AAP file
Australia: Federal Labor MP Linda Burney is taking leave from Parliament following the sudden death of her son. Binni Kirkbright-Burney, 33, was found dead at the Burney family home in Sydney. "I returned to Sydney last night to be with him this one last time," Burney said, describing her son as a caring and loving man who struggled with mental health and with addiction. "He tried so hard to conquer his demons as I and my family have tried so hard to support him in every way we could. " Burney said police had told her there appeared to be no suspicious circumstances, but the cause of her son's death was yet to be determined.
Mexico: Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto acknowledged in a letter published today that he met several times with officials of a Brazilian construction firm that has admitted paying bribes throughout Latin America. But Pena Nieto's office denied a report citing Brazilian case files that suggested his 2012 election campaign might have received money from the Odebrecht company.
Brazil: Two military police officers have been arrested in connection with the shooting death of a Spanish tourist who was on a guided tour of one of Brazil's largest slums. Police said Maria Esperanza Jimenez Ruiz was shot in the neck yesterday when the vehicle she was travelling in failed to stop at a police checkpoint in Rio de Janeiro's Rocinha neighbourhood. Lieutenant Davi dos Santos Ribeiro fired the fatal shot and was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. Another officer, who has not been named, shot into the air and was also arrested.
Ireland: A former leading Irish sports journalist has been jailed for two-and-a-half years for child sex offences. Former Irish Times reporter Tom Humphries, 54, had admitted abusing a girl under the age of 17. Judge Karen O'Connor passed sentence on counts of exploitation and defilement in a packed courtroom at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. His abuse was uncovered by chance, when a family member found incriminating images on an old mobile phone. His family confronted him and called in the Garda. The girl, whom he knew through sporting circles, was 14 when he first contacted her in December 2008. When the girl was 16, Humphries took her to his Dublin apartment, where they engaged in sexual activity. He was then 47.
Germany: In a solemn ceremony, the state museum of Hanover has returned the mortal remains of an indigenous Australian woman, who died more than 100 years ago, to her descendants. A German mine leaseholder had taken the deceased woman's body without permission and placed it in a coffin made of bark before returning to Germany. In 1909, the man gave the body to the regional museum.
Polish actress Michalina Olszanska in the role of Matilda Kshesinskaya in a scene from the film Matilda. Photo / AP
Russia: A film about the last Russian tsar's affair with a ballerina had its Moscow premiere despite sparking outrage among some Russians that has been expressed through pickets, arson, and Molotov cocktails hurled at a movie studio. Matilda has drawn fierce criticism from hardline nationalists and some Orthodox believers who consider it blasphemous. The Russian Orthodox Church glorifies Emperor Nicholas II, who was executed with his family by Bolsheviks in 1918, as a saint. The film loosely follows the story of the tsar's infatuation with prima ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya.
Poland: Lech Walesa, the icon of Poland's struggle for democracy, has said his role as a national hero was paid for with his family life. Walesa, the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize winner, spearheaded Poland's Solidarity movement in the 1980s and then served as President under democracy from 1990-95. During the presidency he lived in Warsaw, while his wife, Danuta, and their eight children remained home, in Gdansk. "When I was leaving for Warsaw there was Danka and plenty of children, when I returned I saw her sitting alone in an empty house. I was not prepared for this. I am afraid I've become a stranger to them. Nothing's for free. I paid with my family."
Malta: The head of Italy's anti-Mafia parliamentary commission called for greater cooperation from Malta in the fight against organised crime, which she says has found a "hospitable" home on the Mediterranean island thanks to its shady financial regulations. Rosi Bindi led an Italian parliamentary visit to Malta this week that was planned before the October 16 car bomb slaying of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Italy: Italy's leader says the Government is willing to open talks with representatives of two wealthy regions after voters there overwhelmingly passed referendums seeking greater autonomy from Rome. Premier Paolo Gentiloni said "it's possible, it's probable" that certain services could work better if Lombardy and Veneto acquired greater powers from the central Italian Government. Regional leaders are seeking more autonomy over issues such as education, immigration, security and the environment, as well as retaining more tax revenue.
Australia: A whale and calf that were trapped in shark nets off a Gold Coast beach have been freed. Seaworld experts helped free the mother and baby roughly an hour after reports they were ensnared about 200m off Nobby Beach.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a ceremony in Berlin, Germany, today. Photo / AP
Germany: The new Parliament in Germany elected Wolfgang Schaeuble, the country's longtime Finance Minister, as its Speaker while the nationalist Alternative for Germany party declared that a "new era" had begun as its lawmakers took their seats for the first time. The opening session reflected a more raucous atmosphere under the dome of Berlin's Reichstag building, even though a new government won't be in place for weeks or even months. Other parties rejected Alternative for Germany's nominee as deputy speaker. Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, the pro-business Free Democrats and the traditionally left-leaning Greens are in the early stages of trying to form a governing coalition.
Nigeria: A German shipping company says pirates raided one of its vessels off the coast of Nigeria and took six crew members hostage. Cor Radings, a spokesman for Hamburg-based Peter Doehle Schiffahrts-KG, said that the Liberia-flagged container ship MV Demeter was attacked before entering the port of Onne, Nigeria. Radings says the attackers boarded the ship, seized the hostages and fled with them. He says the remaining crew was able to guide the ship to safer waters. Radings said: "Our top priority now is to try and establish contact with the kidnappers."
A passerby flees on a motorcycle taxi as Kenyan police fire tear gas grenades at supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga in downtown Nairobi today. Photo / AP
Kenya: Nairobi's police chief Japheth Koome says the police driver of the Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu has been shot and seriously wounded, the evening before the Supreme Court is hearing an application to postpone Friday's elections. Joseph Njoroge, who works at a roadside flower stand where Titus Musyoka was shot, said the police officer in uniform had come to buy flowers when he was assaulted by two men who arrived on a motorbike.
Australia: A father-of-four has been murdered in the front yard of his Brisbane home when he went outside to investigate why the power had gone off. The 35-year-old suffered significant wounds after he was attacked with an unknown weapon in the front yard of his home on Saint George Street at Kuraby. Media reports say the man's wife and four children, all aged under 10, were inside the home when he was attacked. The property is near a train line, with police looking at CCTV footage in the hope cameras might have captured images of the attacker. Police don't yet know if the attack was random or not.
Belgium: The Government says there have been attempts to manipulate the investigation into the "Mad Killers" gang that killed 28 people during the 1980s, crimes that remain unsolved to this day. Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens told a parliamentary committee that in the past "some investigative strategies did not produce adequate results and attempts were made to manipulate the investigation." He did not elaborate. Not a single person has been convicted in the killings and the lack of success in the investigation has raised all kinds of conspiracy theories. Geens' comments came after a breakthrough into the possible identity of one gang member. The case came to life over the past week with a family report of a deathbed confession of one possible gang member.
