Indian truck driver gets 22- year jail

Wednesday 21st April 2021 06:56 EDT
 

A 48-year-old Indian-origin truck driver was jailed for 22 years for ramming his vehicle into Australian police officers and killing four of them last year on Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway. Mohinder Singh pleaded guilty to four counts of culpable driving causing death, three charges of trafficking a drug of dependence, and one charge of possession of a drug of dependence at the trial at Victoria’s Supreme Court. Singh was fatigued and drug affected. He stopped on his route to do a drug deal, before veering into the emergency lane of the freeway in Kew and ploughing his 19-tonne prime mover into officers and their stationary vehicles last April, Australia’s The Age newspaper reported.

2 Ever Given crew to return to India

Two crew members on board the cargo vessel that blocked global shipping in the Suez Canal last month will be allowed to return to India owing to urgent personal circumstances, the Suez Canal Authority said. The Ever Given has been anchored in a lake between two sections of the canal since being dislodged on March 29 and is caught in a legal dispute linked to a $916 compensation claim made by the SCA against the ship’s Japanese owner. The SCA said it was “sparing no effort to ensure the success of the talks” and was cooperating with the shipping agency to make sure the crew’s needs are provided for. The 400-metre vessel was stuck in the canal for six days, holding up passage of more than 400 vessels.

Lanka bans 11 Muslim organisations

Sri Lanka has banned 11 Muslim organisations, including the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, a week ahead of the second anniversary of the Easter Sunday suicide blasts (April 21). Anyone linked to the groups - the other nine of which are local religious and social organisations - faces up to 20 years in jail, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said in a gazette notification. Some of the groups banned had previously been linked to the lead bomber. The move, made under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, was “in furtherance of the efforts of the government made in good faith for the purpose of ensuring the continuance of peace within the country,” Rajapaksa said. The notification specifies that any person who acts in contravention or conspires to act would be sentenced to jail terms between 20 and10 years.

Indonesian cyclone deaths reach 181

The death toll from the tropical cyclone Seroja that recently hit Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province has increased to 181, while 47 people remain missing, according to the latest official data. At a virtual press conference held by the country’s disaster mitigation agency, the province’s deputy governor Josef Nae Soi reported that at least 250 people are still suffering injuries caused by the flash floods and landslides triggered by the cyclone earlier this month, reports Xinhua news agency. The number of evacuees, according to him, was nearly 50,000 people.

Evian flayed for apology to Muslims

Evian has been criticised by French conservatives after its apology to Muslims for an advert posted on social media on the first day of Ramadan. The company, owned by the Danone group, was accused of bowing to American-style “woke” pressure when it withdrew a marketing post that said: “Retweet if you have already drunk a litre of water today.” The post had prompted accusations of Islamophobia on social media and from commentators because Muslims are forbidden to drink or eat anything in the day time during Ramadan. Gilles Verdez, a commentator on the C8 television channel, said: “Evian’s message is commercial Islamophobia.” Within hours, Evian apologised. “Sorry for the clumsiness of this tweet which was not in the least intended as a provocation,” it said.

That triggered a much bigger storm from conservatives.

Exhausted by battling Covid, minister quits

Austrian health minister Rudolf Anschober of the Greens, the junior partner in the conservative- led coalition, said that he is stepping down, exhausted and sick from battling the Covid pandemic. “I ... do not want to break myself,” he said, describing blood-pressure problems that have caused him to take sick leave twice recently. “In the worst health crisis in decades the republic needs a health minister who is100% fit. That is not currently me." Anschober, a 60-year-old former journalist and teacher, is one of the country’s most popular politicians. He has also, however, often been a lone voice in government calling for stricter lockdown measures in the face of high infection numbers. That has meant clashing with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's conservatives.

Canada MP appears naked on parliament Zoom

A Canadian lawmaker left red-cheeked after appearing stark naked on a House of Commons Zoom conference call has apologized to his colleagues. William Amos, a Liberal MP, was caught covering his nether regions with a mobile phone and in a state of nature between the flags of Quebec and Canada when his laptop camera turned on during the virtual session. "I made a really unfortunate mistake today & obviously I'm embarrassed by it," the 46-year-old tweeted after the incident in his office was made public. "My camera was accidentally left on as I changed into work clothes after going for a jog. I sincerely apologize to all my colleagues in the House. It was an honest mistake + it won't happen again."

US cop who shot black man to be charged

The white Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old black man, after appearing to mistake her handgun for Taser will be charged with second-degree manslaughter, a prosecutor said, following three nights of protests over the killing. The charges against the officer, Kimberly Potter, come a day after she and the police chief both resigned from the Brooklyn Center police department. Hundreds of people have faced off with the police since Wright’s death as Americans prepare for a verdict in the trial over the murder of George Floyd by a cop. Wright was shot after being pulled over “expired car registration.” Officers found there was a warrant out for his arrest, and Potter accidentally drew her pistol instead of her Taser.

France outlaws sex with kids under age of 15

The French parliament adopted legislation that characterises sex with a child under the age of 15 as rape and punishable by up to 20 years in jail, bringing its penal code closer in line with many other Western nations. While the age of consent was previously 15, prosecutors used to be required to prove sex was non-consensual to obtain a rape conviction. “This is a historic law for our children and our society,” justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said. The vote in favour of the bill was unanimous at its final reading, the assembly said on Twitter. The legislation also considers incestuous sex with a minor under 18 to be rape. In a country that has long cherished its self-image as the land of romance, abuse against children for years went undetected or undeclared. The #MeToo movement that swept around the world proved a turning point.

HK tycoon Jimmy Lai gets 14 months in jail

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 14 months in prison while nine other activists received jail time or suspended sentences for taking part in unauthorised assemblies during pro- democracy protests in 2019. Barrister Martin Lee, who helped launch the city’s largest opposition Democratic Party in the 1990s and is often called the former British colony's “father of democracy,” was given an 11-month suspended sentence. It was the first time that Lai, one of Hong Kong’s top democratic activists, who has been in jail since December after being denied bail in a separate national security trial, received a prison sentence. District Court Judge Amanda Woodcock said even though the August 18 assembly was peaceful there was a “latent risk of possible violence” and that a deterrent sentence and “immediate imprisonment” was appropriate.

Angola jails former minister over corruption

Former Angolan minister Manuel Rabelais was sentenced to 14 years in prison on corruption charges, becoming the second ex-minister put behind bars since Joao Lourenço took power in 2017.

The Angolan president succeeded Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who had held onto power for 38 years. Shortly after his election, Lourenço launched a massive anti-corruption campaign against those close to his predecessor, including his children. President Dos Santos had appointed close friends and family members to key positions during his corruption-ridden reign. Manuel Rabelais, a former communications minister under the previous regime, was arrested in October 2020 and convicted by the Luanda Supreme Court of money laundering and misappropriation of public funds. He was found guilty of embezzling 98 million euros between 2016 and 2017.

Zoom fatigue real, worse for women, finds new research

Video calls have emerged as such a widespread pain point in this era of remote work that the term “Zoom fatigue” has entered our lexicon - a catchall phrase referring to the tiredness related to video calls. Now, research from Stanford University found that women experience significantly more Zoom fatigue than men. The research suggests that video calls amplify longstanding gender dynamics in group settings and exacerbate an already wide gender stress gap, with women consistently reporting more stress than men. Researchers created a scale to measure five types of fatigue with video calls: general (overall tiredness), social (wanting to be alone), emotional (being overwhelmed and “used up”), visual (symptoms of stress on one’s eyes) and motivational (lacking the drive to start new activities). In their most recent survey of over 10,000 participants, the researchers found that women of all ages scored higher on all five.

EU to borrow 800 bn euros to fund recovery

The European Commission announced that it would borrow 800 billion euros from the capital market in current prices until 2026 to fund the European Union’s (EU) massive plan to bail out its Covid-stricken economy. A diversified funding strategy was created to ensure that the member states of the bloc would receive loans under the package known as the NextGenerationEU at an advantageous rate, reports Xinhua news agency. The EU has set December 2058 as a deadline for itself to fulfil all the repayment, and plans to generate own resources to strengthen the repayment capability. European Commissioner for Budget and Administration Johannes Hahn also urged EU member states which have not ratified the Own Resources Decision to do so as soon as possible.

Pro-president govt unveiled in DR Congo

After an almost two-month wait, a new government was unveiled in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The "sacred union of the nation" as this new government is being referred to is reportedly made of pro-President Félix Tshisekedi personalities and sees both a reduction in numbers to 57 members and a fresh dose of diversity i.e. 27% female representation, a younger average age of 47 years and with 80% new figures. The previous team, led by Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba, had 43 pro-Kabila and 23 pro-Tshisekedi ministers. The portfolios were split 83% male and 17% female. The new government comes four months after the breakup of the coalition of President Tshisekedi with his predecessor Joseph Kabila and close allies of his former political opponents.

Iran, West resume N-deal talks amid strains

Iran and global powers resumed talks to rescue the 2015 nuclear deal following Tehran’s decision to ramp up uranium enrichment and what it called Israeli sabotage at a nuclear site. Tehran’s refusal to hold direct talks with the US forced European intermediaries to shuttle between separate hotels in Vienna last week when Iran and the other signatories held what they described as a first round of “constructive” negotiations. Diplomats, excluding the US, met to set the tone in what diplomats anticipated would be a tougher round of talks to salvage the pact. Two expert-level groups, seeking to marry lists of curbs the US could lift with nuclear obligations Iran should meet, have now resumed talks.


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