Police say there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the 46-year-old’s death
The model, actor, TV presenter and jewellery creator Annalise Braakensiek has been found dead in her Sydney unit.
Police said a woman’s body was found at a Potts Point unit on Sunday afternoon after concerns were raised for her welfare.
Continue reading...An invasion of bluebottles on Queensland’s Gold and Sunshine coasts led to thousands being treated
More than 5,000 people were stung by bluebottles on Queensland’s Gold and Sunshine coasts over the weekend as weather drove a wall of jellyfish onto the shore.
Conditions eased on Monday but remnants of the bluebottle armada (the correct term for a bunch of bluebottles) still dot the beaches and more than 200 people were treated for stings, mostly at the Sunshine Coast.
Continue reading...Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun says she will be killed if forced to return to abusive family
An 18-year-old Saudi woman being detained in Bangkok having fled from her family after renouncing Islam fears she will be killed if she is repatriated, according to a close friend who said the threats to her life are real.
Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun has barricaded herself in her hotel room for fear that Thai immigration officials, who have gathered outside her door, would force her on to a plane to leave the country. Thai immigration officials have confirmed she has been denied entry to the country.
Continue reading...Dr Hossam Ibrahim mourned by friends after being electrocuted by 11,000-volt power line in Punchbowl
A Sydney man electrocuted when he stepped on a fallen power line outside his home has been remembered as a “great humanitarian” by the charity he chaired.
Dr Hossam Ibrahim died after coming into contact with the 11,000-volt power line in his driveway in Punchbowl about 10.30pm on Saturday.
Continue reading...Residents of cracked apartment block say they returned to find homes ‘absolutely trashed’
Owners claim their units have been gutted and their locks changed during works to stabilise the cracked Opal Tower in Sydney.
Some residents are still in temporary accommodation nearly two weeks after cracks were found in the Sydney Olympic Park building on Christmas Eve.
Continue reading...A rally against immigration at St Kilda beach prompts counter-protests but police keep rivals groups apart
Tensions reached boiling point at St Kilda beach in Melbourne as hundreds of far-right wing extremists and anti-racism campaigners faced off in a screaming match and minor scuffles broke out.
Scores of police including some with riot shields and on horseback were on hand to keep the groups apart. A police boat kept watch from the water and two helicopters circled overhead.
Continue reading...Fire in world heritage area threatens six towns as Victoria experiences dramatic temperature swings
An out of control bushfire burning in the Tasmanian world heritage area has threatened six towns and sent thick smoke across Hobart and Port Arthur, as Victoria experienced a day of wild temperature changes that brought a dangerous bushfire close to east Gippsland towns.
The sky over Hobart turned a dramatic red on Friday morning as the smoke plume stretched for hundreds of kilometres across the state.
Continue reading...Deputy Labor leader says Liberals cannot use ‘merit’ argument, considering some of its ‘unimpressive blokes’
The Liberal party cannot fall back on the argument it preselects candidates on merit, given “some of the blokes” it counts among its parliamentary ranks, Tanya Plibersek has said.
Responding to frontbencher Sussan Ley’s push for the Liberal party to work towards a “sensible number” to improve its female representation and break ranks from the majority who remained opposed to quotas, Plibersek said it was beyond time this happened.
Continue reading...Richard Pithouse referred to Judicial Commission of Victoria after reportedly saying woman put herself into position of allegedly being assaulted
The Victorian attorney general, Jill Hennessy, has asked the state’s judicial watchdog to investigate a Melbourne magistrate after he reportedly suggested that an alleged rape victim had suffered “buyer’s remorse”.
The magistrate, Richard Pithouse, allegedly made the comments while presiding over a preliminary hearing for a compensation claim in November, and they were reported in the Herald Sun.
Continue reading...Yacht spotted near Kangaroo Island off South Australian coast after being abandoned by 16-year-old sailor Abby Sunderland in 2010
Eight and a half years after it was abandoned in the middle of the Indian Ocean when 16-year-old solo sailor Abby Sunderland had to be rescued in rough seas, a yellow yacht named Wild Eyes has been found floating upside down off the coast of South Australia.
The 40-foot yacht was encrusted with barnacles, the signature eyes on the hull scratched and faded. Its mast snapped off in the wild weather that forced Sunderland’s rescue midway through her world record attempt to be the youngest solo sailor to circumnavigate the globe in 2010.
Continue reading...Human reactions to shark attacks have fascinated Fiona Adolph for more than a decade. Here she examines a global hotspot, Western Australia
On a whisper-still January dawn, the most terrifying day of Allan Oppert’s life began unremarkably and with a feeling of deep calm.
Like most Sundays, he woke to a knock on the door from his friends Dan and Dave. At Allan’s neat house in the small seaside town of Binningup, in the south-west corner of Western Australia, the three men drank strong coffee before towing Allan’s boat to a nearby ramp where three friends were launching another vessel. The two groups were heading out on the ocean together, a familiar arrangement aimed at ensuring safety.
Continue reading...Western Australian government makes act of grace payment over catastrophic brain injury from shock on public housing property
The family of a girl who suffered a catastrophic brain injury after a severe electric shock at a public housing property has been offered a $1m act of grace payment from the West Australian government.
Denishar Woods, then aged 11, was shocked with up to 230 volts when she touched a garden tap at a Beldon property in March.
Continue reading...Multiple officers arrive at home to find Perth man with ‘serious fear’ of arachnids ‘trying to kill a spider’
Police in Western Australia have confirmed they sent multiple officers to an emergency call that turned out to be a screaming man with a “serious fear” of spiders.
A concerned passerby was walking outside a house in suburban Perth when they heard a toddler screaming and a man repeatedly shouting “Why don’t you die?”
Continue reading...The refusal of FOI requests is at its highest level since records began and a Guardian Australia investigation has found systemic problems
The Australian government is refusing access to documents at record rates, aided by a flawed freedom of information regime beset by delays, understaffing and unnecessary obfuscation.
A month-long investigation into the operation of freedom of information (FOI) laws has identified systemic problems causing vast volumes of government information to be kept secret. Guardian Australia has found:
Continue reading...Photos from London, New York, Paris, Moscow, Sydney and elsewhere as major cities ring in 2019
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