Category Archives: World News

Burner phones and search history led police to Long Island killings suspect

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Charging documents released on Friday show how investigators have tied architect Rex Heuermann to 11 sets of human remains

A New York architect, who allegedly made taunting calls to the relative of a victim police investigators suspected he murdered, is in custody facing accusations that he is the so-called Long Island serial killer.

Rex Heuermann’s arrest and indictment on Friday, on six charges of murder, marks a key moment in a case that has captivated the public and confounded authorities for more than a decade.

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Lisa Marie Presley died from weight-loss surgery complications, autopsy finds

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January death of Elvis Presley’s daughter, 54, ruled as being from natural causes due to effects of small bowel obstruction

Lisa Marie Presley died from complications from bariatric surgery she had several years ago, authorities have said.

The 12 January death at age 54 of the singer, songwriter, daughter and heir of Elvis Presley was ruled as being from natural causes due to effects of a small bowel obstruction.

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Severe US weather: California heat puts firefighters on high alert for wildfires; Canada wildfires cause air quality alerts in US midwest – as it happened

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Extreme dry conditions raising fire risk; air quality alert for Minnesota took effect at 8am on Friday

Vermont governor Phil Scott said his formal request to President Joe Biden for a major disaster declaration has been approved.

The major disaster declaration unlocks federal disaster funds to assist individuals and communities recover from the devastating floods earlier this week.

The disaster declaration provides federal support for recovery. It’s separate from, and in addition to, the federal emergency declaration the president already signed when he was overseas to help with the initial emergency phase.

It’s incredibly important to get flooded homes, businesses and public buildings as dry as possible to prevent other outcomes like mould. We’re working on resources to help with that.

I’m very grateful for the speed of Fema in the White House. It will open up significant federal resources for communities, individuals, businesses [...] In anticipation of these funds, we are working to develop a concrete list of resources to help impacted Vermonters and making sure it’s as easy as possible for Vermonters to access those.

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David Cameron’s appointment to investment fund ‘part engineered by China’

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The hiring of former PM and Treasury chief was to lend credibility to broader Beijing brand, intelligence watchdog told

David Cameron’s appointment as vice-chair of the £1bn China-UK investment fund and Sir Danny Alexander’s appointment as vice-president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank were in part engineered by the Chinese state, parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC) found.

Their appointment was to lend credibility to Chinese investment as well as the broader Chinese brand, according to confidential evidence given to the intelligence watchdog.

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Court grants reprieve to brown bear that killed Italian jogger

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Animal fatally attacked Andrea Papi, 26, who was first person to be killed in Italy by a bear in modern times

An Italian court has suspended a ruling that a brown bear should be put down for mauling to death a jogger in the Alps.

The animal, a 17-year-old female identified as JJ4, was captured after the fatal attack on Andrea Papi, 26, near his village of Caldes on 5 April. He was the first person in Italy to be killed in a bear attack in modern times.

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Boris Johnson criticises ‘mealy-mouthed’ Nato over Ukraine membership

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Former prime minister condemns ‘procrastination’ and says no country is in greater need of accession

Boris Johnson has criticised Nato’s “mealy mouthed procrastination” and called for a timetable to be drawn up for Ukraine to join the alliance, after this week’s difficult summit in Lithuania.

Writing in his weekly column in the Daily Mail, the former prime minister said it was “no wonder” that Volodymyr Zelenskiy “found it hard” to conceal his frustration at the joint declaration released on Tuesday that stopped short of outlining a roadmap to Nato membership.

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Ex-diplomat jailed for 2012 murder of Venezuelan ambassador in Kenya

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Dwight Sagaray was given 20-year sentence after being stripped of diplomatic immunity following the crime

A Kenyan court has sentenced a former Venezuelan diplomat to 20 years in jail over the 2012 murder of the Latin American nation’s acting ambassador at her home in an upmarket Nairobi neighbourhood.

Dwight Sagaray, who was the first secretary at the embassy, was convicted in January, along with three Kenyan nationals, over the murder of the ambassador Olga Fonseca.

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Putin says he tried but failed to oust Prigozhin after Wagner mutiny

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President tells newspaper he met mercenary chief to negotiate terms for fighters’ continued participation in Ukraine war

Vladimir Putin has said that he sought and failed to have Yevgeny Prigozhin replaced as the leader of Wagner’s fighters in Ukraine after the mercenary chief rebuffed his proposal during a meeting at the Kremlin this month.

Putin’s version of events, which appeared in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper, was a surprise admission that the Russian president was still negotiating a takeover of the Wagner mercenary group.

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EU to give Tunisia €1bn to fight trafficking and prop up ailing economy

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Von der Leyen to return with Italian and Dutch PMs despite warnings over ‘breakdown’ of democracy under Saied

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is to return to Tunisia on Sunday with the prime ministers of Italy and the Netherlands to sign off the details of a €1bn deal aimed at combating people smuggling and supporting the country’s collapsing economy.

Sources have confirmed they are expecting to sign off on a memorandum of understanding only days after a group of politicians in the European parliament warned that Tunisia should not be handed a deal on a “silver plate” amid fears of a “breakdown” of democracy in the country.

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European heatwave to lead to 55mph gusts in UK, warns Met Office

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Sweltering temperatures in Europe directing low-pressure systems towards UK and yellow wind warning is in place

Sweltering temperatures in Europe are forecast to lead to 55mph winds and heavy rain in the UK due to low-pressure systems being directed towards the country.

The Met Office has issued a yellow wind warning that is in place across south-west England and Wales until Friday evening, while another covering areas of central and southern England will come in on Saturday morning.

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Deep-sea mining causes huge decreases in sealife across wide region, says study

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Scientists caution against rush to mine the seabed, and say it could be decades before the full impact on marine life is known

Animal populations appear to decrease where the deep sea is being mined, and the impact on marine life of the controversial industry may involve a wider “footprint” than previously expected.

According to analysis of seabed ecology undertaken after drilling tests in 2020 in Japan – the country’s first successful extraction of cobalt crusts from deep-sea mountains – there was a decrease in marine life such as fish and shrimp at the site a year later. The density had dropped even further in areas outside the impact zone, by more than half.

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Hollywood on the Tiber: stars return to Rome studios once home to Heston and Fellini

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Sprawling Cinecittà complex is in demand again thanks to tax breaks and boom in film and TV production

Walk through the 1930s-built, dusty pink gates of Cinecittà, the legendary film studios in Rome, and the magic of its golden era is immediately palpable. This is where Charlton Heston rode to victory in his chariot race in Ben Hur, which went on to win 11 Oscars. It is where the real-life love affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton played out on the set of Cleopatra, and where Federico Fellini produced classics including La Dolce Vita and Amarcord.

The sprawling Cinecittà was opened with great pomp by Benito Mussolini in 1937, in part to make films promoting the dictator’s fascist propaganda. During the second world war it was first occupied by the Nazis and later became a refuge to the thousands made homeless by the allied bombing of the Italian capital.

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Sexual violence is junta’s ‘modus operandi’, Myanmar activist tells UN

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People are united to end military dictatorship but international support is needed, Naw Hser Hser says

The crisis in Myanmar should be referred to the international criminal court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including widespread sexual violence, an open session at the UN security council will be told.

Naw Hser Hser, the first Myanmar human rights defender to brief council members in an open session since the 2021 coup, will also call for greater action to cut crucial supplies of arms and finances to the military junta.

In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for rape and sexual abuse on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Religious groups march in Malawi before court case on LGBTQ+ rights

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Faith leaders say the proceedings, brought by a transgender woman, are an attempt to legitimise ‘sinful acts’

Scores of religious groups and churches took to the streets of several cities in Malawi on Thursday to denounce same-sex marriage before a constitutional court hearing next week.

The court is expected to sit for two days from 17 July to consider a case brought by Jana Gonani, a transgender woman who was charged with “unnatural” behaviour.

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AI resurrection of Brazilian singer for car ad sparks joy and ethical worries

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Beloved musician Elis Regina died aged 36 in 1982 but a new Volkswagen commercial shows her duetting with her daughter

The premature death in 1982 of one of Brazil’s most treasured musicians left her homeland reeling. “Brazil without Elis,” mourned one front page after the legendary singer Elis Regina unexpectedly died at the age of 36.

So when Elis Regina recently re-emerged, performing a soul-stirring duet with her daughter, the Grammy-winning singer Maria Rita, there were similarly charged scenes of catharsis and nostalgia.

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Jacob Zuma in Russia for ‘health reasons’, spokesperson says

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Ex-president of South Africa receives medical treatment day after court rules he should return to prison

The former South African president Jacob Zuma is receiving medical treatment in Russia, his spokesperson has said, a day after the country’s highest court upheld a ruling that he should return to prison.

“Zuma travelled to Russia last week for health reasons,” Mzwanele Manyi said on Friday.

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Indian rocket blasts into space on historic moon mission

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Chandrayaan-3 launches from island in southern India in follow-up to failed effort four years ago

An Indian spacecraft has blazed its way towards the far side of the moon in a follow-up mission to its failed effort nearly four years ago to land a rover softly on the lunar surface, India’s space agency said.

Chandrayaan-3, the word for “moon craft” in Sanskrit, took off from a launch pad in Sriharikota, an island in southern India, with an orbiter, a lander and a rover, in a demonstration of India’s emerging space technology. The spacecraft will embark on a journey lasting slightly over a month before landing on the moon’s surface later in August.

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UK invites Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman to visit

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Saudi heir’s official visit would be first since he was accused of being behind killing of Jamal Khashoggi

The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has been invited to the UK on an official visit in late autumn, the first such visit by the heir to the Saudi throne since he was accused of masterminding the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist and dissident.

Numerous UK ministers have been to Saudi Arabia in the interim, and senior Saudi ministers have also come to the UK, including the foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

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Kyiv accepts counteroffensive not advancing quickly; Moscow plays down grain deal claim – as it happened

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Andriy Yermak says West are not pressuring Ukraine to go faster ; Kremlin denies Turkish claim deal will be renewed. This live blog is closed

Oleg Kiper, governor of Odesa region, reports on Telegram this morning that several settlements within the region are currently without power. However, he states this is due to adverse weather conditions overnight, rather than action by Russian Federation forces, who struck the port city earlier this week with drones causing a fire in a grain facility.

In Russia the Interfax news agency reports that three Ukrainian drones (UAVs) were intercepted in the Voronezh region.

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Army shelling of market kills dozens as Sudan violence escalates

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Witnesses say some victims’ bodies still lay uncovered two days after incident in Omdurman

At least 30 people died when the Sudanese army shelled a market in Omdurman during what residents of the country’s most populous city described as the worst week for civilian casualties since the outbreak of war in April.

Most of the victims in the incident at the Shaabi souk on Tuesday were children and women, according to witnesses. Medical sources said the shells were fired from the Karri military base, which the army controls, during fierce fighting with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

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