Around the world
Comedian mother of Ben Stiller dies
North America A US Capitol Police spokeswoman says a bomb squad has safely destroyed a pressure cooker found in a “suspicious” vehicle left unattended near the Capitol building that houses Congress and that the vehicle’s owner has been arrested. Officers on patrol spotted the parked, unoccupied vehicle on a street on the National Mall west of the Capitol and an odour of fuel was also detected. Asia/Oceania A man who kept a Dutch backpacker captive in a Melbourne hotel room, where he subjected her to savage rapes and beatings, has been jailed for 17 years. Alfio Anthony Granata, 47, carved a cross into the forehead of his victim, then 21, with a knife and told her she was marked for death during the 2012 ordeal. In the Victorian County Court on Monday, Judge Frank Gucciardo said Granata’s behaviour was vile and repulsive and had dehumanised his victim. “The victim was in constant pain,” Judge Gucciardo said, jailing Granata for a a minimum of 13 years.
Malaysian authorities say they have discovered 139 suspected graves in a series of abandoned camps used by human traffickers on the border with Thailand where Rohingya Muslims fleeing Burma have been held. Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said that at least 28 camps were discovered along a 50km stretch of the Malaysian-Thai border. He said forensics teams were exhuming the suspected graves to search for bodies. The finding follows a similar discovery earlier this month by police in Thailand.
Australia has moved to increase cooperation between its security agencies against the threat of Isis (Islamic State) militants by appointing two new counterterrorism coordinators. Greg Moriarty, a former ambassador to Indonesia and Iran, yesterday became Commonwealth Counterterrorism Coordinator, heading an office within Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s department. Moriarty will be responsible for coordinating security agencies within the Attorney-General’s, Defence and Foreign Departments. Justice Minister Michael Keenan has taken on the new portfolio of Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Counterterrorism, focusing on coordinating efforts against homegrown terrorism.
It’s the bird-watching equivalent of winning the lottery — and it has ornithologists all aflutter in Melbourne’s west. An albino sparrow has been photographed in Sanctuary Lakes, the first such sighting in Australia and the seventh confirmed sighting globally this century. Sanctuary Lakes resident Tom Parkinson, who helped to take the photo, said: “The albino sparrow has survived the predators and is now a Anne Meara, the loopy, lovable comedian who launched a standup career with husband Jerry Stiller in the 1950s and found success as an actress in films, on TV and the stage, has died. Jerry Stiller and son Ben Stiller say Meara died on Sunday. No other details were provided.
The Stiller family released a statement describing Jerry Stiller as Meara’s “husband and partner in life”. plump fluffy sparrow, albeit a bright shining white one.” Europe Spain’s “Indignado” protest movement has given its ruling conservative rivals a battering in local elections, topping the vote for mayor in Barcelona and shattering the ruling party’s majority in Madrid. An upstart group backed by the anti-austerity protest party Podemos could govern the capital, a longtime conservative stronghold, the official count showed. The new political groups, Barcelona En Comu and Ahora Madrid, were formally launched just a few months ago but have already started to break the grip of the two big parties that have run Spain for nearly four decades.
Western governments and human-rights groups have reacted with fury after Vladimir Putin signed “The two were married for 61 years and worked together almost as long,” the statement said. Born in Brooklyn on September 20, 1929, she was a redhaired, Irish-Catholic girl who struck a vivid contrast to Stiller, a Jewish guy a new law allowing Russian prosecutors to declare foreign and international organisations “undesirable” and close them down. Critics say it fails to distinguish between businesses and nongovernmental organisations, and is open to abuse. “There is every reason to expect that this law will be adopted and applied to clamp down on international civil society and undermine the independence and freedom of action of national humanrights groups carrying out critical work in Russia,” said Sergei Nikitin, Amnesty International’s Moscow director.
Conservative opposition challenger Andrzej Duda has won Poland’s presidential run-off, trumping incumbent centrist Bronislaw Komorowski on promises of generous social spending. An MEP and lawyer with a populist streak, from Manhattan’s Lower East Side who was two years older and 10cm shorter.
They logged 36 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and were a successful team in Las Vegas, major nightclubs, on records and in commercials. Meara later appeared in dozens of films, such as Fame, Awakenings and, directed by her son, Reality Bites, and television shows. Duda scored 53 per cent support ahead of Komorowski, who mustered 47 per cent, exit polls showed, giving a key indicator of the national mood ahead of an autumn parliamentary election. Middle East A ship laden with Emirati humanitarian aid has docked in Yemen’s port city of Aden, as a Saudiled coalition bombards Shia rebels across the country. The 460-tonne shipment, including medical and food supplies, is the second from the UAE following the delivery of 1200 tonnes of aid last week, said local aid co-ordinator Ali al-Bikri. Africa The cash-strapped Zimbabwean Government is to fight a potentially embarrassing legal case in Hong Kong over a $8.5 million luxury villa said guard rail, according to police. Nash was awarded the Nobel prize for economics in 1994 for his work on game theory, the mathematical study of decision-making. His work influenced many other fields, including computing and biology. A Beautiful Mind, which was released in 2001 and won four Oscars, including best picture, was loosely based on his long struggle with schizophrenia. His wife had helped care for him and they were advocates for mental health treatment. Their son John was also diagnosed with the condition.
The couple, who lived in New Jersey, had been married for nearly 60 years. to be one of the favourite properties of the first lady, Grace Mugabe. The house has already proved controversial, after Bona Mugabe, the daughter of Zimbabwe’s President, Robert Mugabe, and his wife was found to be living there while studying in Hong Kong. Asked how they could afford the expensive property in the New Territories, the Mugabes claimed it belonged to the Zimbabwean Government and their daughter had been “borrowing it”. Mugabe has subsequently claimed the original purchase of the flat was part of a “secret government project”. Taiwanese-born South African citizen Hsieh Ping Sung claims the house belongs to him and he leased it to the Zimbabwean Government. Lawyers from Hong Kong and South Africa have been hired for the dispute, which is due to go to mediation this week.