Foreign secretary had brief video call with person claiming to be Petro Poroshenko, says Foreign Office
The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has been the victim of a hoax video call with someone claiming to be Petro Poroshenko, the former president of Ukraine, it has been revealed.
A number of text messages were exchanged followed by a brief video call between Lord Cameron and someone purporting to be Poroshenko, the Foreign Office said in a statement.
Continue reading...Aid group workers also taken as UN says it is trying to secure access to its personnel and clarify the situation around the detentions
Yemen’s Houthis have detained 11 Yemeni employees of UN agencies under unclear circumstances, authorities say, as the militia group faces increasing financial pressure and airstrikes from a US-led coalition.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said 11 UN staffers had been taken.
Continue reading...Business secretary is due to meet Czech tycoon to discuss a takeover the Guardian has raised questions about
The business secretary, Kemi Badenoch, is being pressed to question the Royal Mail bidder Daniel Křetínský on his business links, after the Guardian raised questions about a series of controversial global property deals connected to the Czech billionaire’s longtime business partners.
Badenoch is scheduled to meet the tycoon next week to discuss his £3.57bn bid for the 500-year-old institution, which will be subjected to a review under the National Security and Investment Act.
Continue reading...Mt Buller had the country’s only ski-on chairlift operating on season’s opening day on Saturday – but snow is forecast for the week ahead
It was a grassy start to Australia’s ski season, with one resort trying to remain upbeat “although we may not have snow on the ground” and a few pockets of human-made alternatives to play on elsewhere.
Mt Buller, in Victoria, was blessed with the only ski-on chairlift in the entire country on the opening day of the winter season on Saturday.
Continue reading...Man, 29, extradited from Victoria on Thursday after police alleged he threatened to release photos of assault
A man alleged to have drugged and kidnapped a woman before photographing himself sexually assaulting her and attempting to extort a $300,000 payment for the images has been extradited from Victoria to New South Wales.
Yanyu Mu, 29, was arrested at Oakleigh East in Melbourne’s south-east on Thursday, before being extradited to Sydney.
Continue reading...Figurine sits in front garden of family that previously claimed to have seen tears of blood from another statue
In the front garden of the Gregori family home on the outskirts of Civitavecchia, a port city close to Rome, is a well-curated grotto containing a tiny, rusting statue of the Virgin Mary surrounded by plants and flowers. The figurine was bought from a souvenir shop at the Catholic pilgrimage site in Medjugorje, Bosnia.
In late April, as a group of pilgrims huddled around the grotto to pray, the statue purportedly exuded a scented oil. It was not the first time it was said to have sweated oil, but the moment, filmed by some of those present and shared on social media, reignited fascination in Italy over claims of the supernatural, pitting believers against naysayers. The story was all the more intriguing because the Gregoris were the protagonists of another mysterious weeping statue case in the mid-1990s.
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