The Greensborough man has been charged with one count of murder and will appear at the Melbourne magistrates’ court
The Victorian police have charged a 20-year-old man with the murder of Palestinian student Aiia Maasarwe.
Maasarwe, a 21-year-old an Israeli national from the predominantly Arab city of Baqa al-Gharbiyye had been in Melbourne for six months, and was attacked just after midnight on Tuesday, Victorian police believe.
Continue reading...Late monsoon and lack of strong cold fronts cited as main reasons behind back-to-back spells of abnormally hot weather
This week’s record-smashing heatwave is over for now in Australia’s south-east, but the reprieve will be short-lived as temperatures build up again in the coming days.
A perfect storm, or rather the lack of one, is partly to blame for the extreme temperatures, with neither the northern monsoons nor the southern cool fronts making their usual appearances.
Continue reading...The 21-year-old student at Melbourne’s LaTrobe University is believed to have been returning home from a comedy show
A young woman who was killed outside a Bundoora shopping centre was an Israeli student who was on a video call to her younger sister when she was attacked.
Aiia Maasarwe, 21, had been in Australia for about six months on a study abroad program at LaTrobe University.
Continue reading...Police ramped up breath testing target from 3.2m to 4.5m but had a ‘perverse’ incentive to limit the number of drunk drivers netted
An independent investigation has branded Victoria police’s widespread practice of falsifying breath tests as an “ethical failure”.
The former police chief commissioner Neil Comrie’s inquiry was unable to determine exactly how many times police had manipulated breath test devices to falsely inflate the number of tests conducted.
Continue reading...Diplomatic headquarters in Canberra also targeted as firefighters remove bags labelled ‘Danger asbestos’
The United States, Pakistani, Swiss, Indian, South Korean and New Zealand consulates in Melbourne are among a number of foreign diplomatic headquarters across the city and in Canberra targeted with suspicious packages.
The deliveries on Wednesday sparked an emergency “hazardous material” response and, in some cases, evacuation.
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.
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